It's possible that you've consumed something that set off an inflammatory reaction, but detoxing is not a thing. Your liver and kidneys detox you in real time; and if they are not working properly, you've got larger problems than your tendons.

Besides that, this is a hard one to tackle without more information. Is it workout related? Food related? Stretching and basic mobility? Is it dehydration? See, a lot of issues come to mind. Are you making sure to eat plenty of off meats with a large collagen content? Are you moving frequently at a slow pace? Are you lifting heavy things? I often fine everything on me is sore if I'm not lifting heavy. Food for thought. But without more context, it's hard to help you brainstorm.

punchgut wrote: »

It's possible that you've consumed something that set off an inflammatory reaction, but detoxing is not a thing. Your liver and kidneys detox you in real time; and if they are not working properly, you've got larger problems than your tendons.

Besides that, this is a hard one to tackle without more information. Is it workout related? Food related? Stretching and basic mobility? Is it dehydration? See, a lot of issues come to mind. Are you making sure to eat plenty of off meats with a large collagen content? Are you moving frequently at a slow pace? Are you lifting heavy things? I often fine everything on me is sore if I'm not lifting heavy. Food for thought. But without more context, it's hard to help you brainstorm.

I think you're talking a couple different kinds of phenomena that use the same name.

Your body does store things that aren't necessarily great for it in various ways. The gut flora will hold on to some heavy metals. The body's various tissue can hold other compounds. It's called bioaccumulation. Lead, mercury, and DDT are the most well-known sources that bioaccumulate, but there are thousands of others (with varying degrees of danger/toxicity).

Hell, this is how supplements like hyaluronic acid and glucosamine are able to work on repairing/rehydrating joints -- the compounds get shuttled to those parts of the body and incorporated into the tissue. It's also why hair drug tests can detect drug use going back months -- the substances in certain drugs end up in the hair.

Now, some of these -- like the hair -- can't be released once it's used in that tissue, but anything in the fat stores or flora can be released back into the body. When you change your diet, you can cause a "die off" of some types of flora, which release what they're holding and make you miserable for a couple of days. When you lose weight, you liberate fatty acids and any compounds the cells were holding. The liver, kidneys, and GI tract will filter that stuff out eventually, but if the release is substantial enough, it can overwhelm them for a short time and cause symptoms in the body, such as inflammation.

You also have withdrawal, which, especially when dealing with drugs (both legal and illegal), is also known as detox, because it's the time when your body has to work through clearing the crap out of your system. The body does some f-ed up things when going through withdrawal of certain substances, let me tell you.

These things are different from the "fad" idea of "detox" -- i.e. those "colon cleanses" and whatnot. Those are different from the above, and I agree, complete garbage. Your body doesn't generally need special help to clean out the system (though things such as activated charcoal are useful in binding to some of the more toxic substances to prevent them from being re-absorbed into the body and causing more damage; yes, activated charcoal is used in conventional medicine as part of certain poisoning protocols, so it's not just some hippy thing).

That said, I agree with your second paragraph. There are simply too many unknowns to know what's causing the issue.

OP -- it might be a good idea to track your food for a week or two, if you aren't already, and include how you feel at various times of the day. This should help you pinpoint a food or exercise source if there is one. That can help you narrow down the cause of the issue.

Also, if you're not already, start making bone broth and drinking that on a regular basis. If you can get chicken feet, make sure to include them in the broth. This will add a bunch of the compounds that are great for soft tissue support, and far cheaper than supplements. No guarantees (at least until you find the source of your pain), but it might help keep your ligament pain at bay.

Hey Homesweeths-

What Dragonwolf is describing is the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, and it's fairly well known and documented. It is less due to bioaccumulates and more due to endotoxin like lipopolysaccharides. Generally, this is associated to the introduction of antibiotics that cause a massive die off of gut bacteria. It is sometimes associated with drastic changes in food, but in your case you seem to have been eating along the same lines for awhile. This would leave me to discount it, but I'm not an MD. The SCD diet blog has a good write up on this. http://scdlifestyle.com/2012/06/5-die-off-myths-everyone-needs-to-know-about/

Now, when it comes to ligament/tendon pain, I think of overuse, not stretching the muscle or stretching into the ligament/tendon. Ligaments and tendons are not meant to stretch. When people stretch they are lengthening their muscles. Stretching into the ligament/tendon actual causes micro-tears. Tendinopathy, et. al. To tight a muscle can also cause this from daily activity. But any of these would cause localized pain/irritation, and though you've not said, you seem to be describing whole body. This would lead me to suspect something along the lines of fibromyalgia. The inflammation causing this could be food related, or something else you ingest. If you are following a primal lifestyle, I would suggest that you start to avoid the big four: eggs, dairy, nuts, and excessive fruit/honey. Another thing, underuse can also case discomfort of muscles, tendons and ligaments. Underuse causes a shortening of the muscles that will put stress on tendons, which can affect the bone to bone connections.

Some reading: http://chriskresser.com/is-fibromyalgia-caused-by-sibo-and-leaky-gut

I would worry less about the gym and heavy lifting right now, and focus more on getting your walking speed up to 3, 3.5 and 4 mph and try and fit in an hour daily. That will do more for getting some weight off and using the body for movement. As you feel better you can try lifting, but body weight exercise is really great especially as we age. Body weight squats, push-ups, pull-up or chin ups (assisted to help), planks, and bridging can all help with your weight loss and building strength while increasing movement. You don't need to do the exercises in a cardio fashion. Time under tension is what will help the muscles. As they get stronger they'll help assist in the weight loss too.

You also want to try and balance out your omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid intake. This makes a huge difference in the inflammatory response.

Best of luck.

Fibro is kind of a catch all. You don't have to have every tick point.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/bone_joint_and_muscle_disorders/muscle_bursa_and_tendon_disorders/fibromyalgia.html

Also, how are your vitamin D levels?

homesweeths wrote: »

tshirtartist wrote: »

I was having some tendon issues which I was thinking might have had to do with 9 years of being vegan which is what lead me to Paleo. It helped but did not cure my trigger thumb and achellis tendon. What seemed to help the most was supplement called wobenzym. Have been taking it for 2weeks now and almost everything is gone. Might be something worth looking in to.

Spendy stuff! Do you have a recommended retailer?

I gotta say, I think many of my issues were from being vegan for 3 years. The more I look into it the more I think that being vegan is not healthy or natural for humans long term. Yes, you can get your Omega 3's, calcium, and other stuff like that from plants but it's not bioavailable for use by the body in the same way it is from animals. I know I keep harping on the iodine thing but I think that being vegan likely made me low there because I was not eating any fish, dairy or eggs which are the best sources other than seaweed which is really the best...but I don't eat a whole lot of seaweed so bam...iodine deficiency...I also wasn't getting any gelatin or collagen...when I think about how misleading vegan literature is it's sort of upsetting. Sorry I didn't mean to turn this into an antivegan rant and I'm not against people doing it for the spirit of loving animal and not wanting to kill them but our biology is what is it is.