Healthy Joints For Life by Richard Diana, M.D

As a former Airborne Infantryman, Army Sniper, and a martial artist for over 30 years now, sore joints have been a problem. Especially with the different surgeries I’ve had. So I’m always looking at ways to stay healthy, live longer (so I can keep training and teaching), and do so with the least amount of pain and without going under the surgeon’s knife again. This book, Healthy Joints For Life by Richard Diana, M.D., is a good addition to anyone’s health and fitness bookshelf. It is filled with practical advice, backed by science, to help reduce inflammation that causes joint pain. Following the advice will also help you be more healthy and possibly live longer. Live longer with less pain?  Sounds good to me.

Here is the review I’ll post on amazon and goodreads:

First, I want to look at the author of Healthy Joints For Life: An Orthopedic Surgeon’s Proven Plan to Reduce Pain and Inflammation, Avoid Surgery and Get Moving Again, Richard Diana, M.D. He’s a graduate of Yale, an orthopedic surgeon, a consultant to the Boston Red Sox, a clinical instructor at Yale School of Medicine, attending surgeon at Yale-New Haven Hospital as well as a former NFL player with the Miami Dolphins. The combination, orthopedic surgeon AND former NFL player, makes for an interesting and well informed read. He knows first hand the wear and tear of hard training can do to joints, and he has the medical background to look for the causes, preventions and cures. (He admits that he is at heart a molecular scientist and provides a lot of the science behind his joint health program.) With all of his credentials, Diana is someone I’ll pay attention to when it comes to medicine and joint health.

Now to the chapters in “Healthy Joints For Life.” After an introduction, Part One: Understanding Joint Pain contains five chapters. The topics of these chapters include: Inflammation: The Cornerstone of Disease; Joints: How They Work and What Can Go Wrong; Eat: Foods That Reduce Joint Pain; Support: Supplements; and Move: How Exercise Helps You Move Better and Feel Better.

In these chapters, Diana explains how inflammation is the enemy of our joints and leads to many types of pain. He then goes on to show how the foods we eat, supplements we take, and exercise we perform help reduce inflammation and thus, reduce joint pain. Continuing on the program will not only make one more healthy, but prevent or reduce joint pain that many suffer from. The exercise program consists of aerobic exercise (Interval training recommended), resistance training, and flexibility training.

And while it is backed by science, Diana explains it clearly and uses example from his patients as to how and why this attack against inflammation works. He also throws in some old football war stories that I found entertaining and fun to read.

The second part of the book provides an eight week program to slowly incorporate the plan into your lifestyle. It is written for the person who has not been eating as healthy as Diana recommends and hasn’t been exercising. (Due to joint pain or any other reason) It takes a slow approach and works you into eating more healthy, taking supplements, and exercising.

The book also includes an appendix that explains the cell science behind it all for those that want more of the technical science stuff, and a second appendix that explains how the Healthy Joints For Life lifestyle works to battle heart disease and decrease cancer risk.

I found this to be a very good book for general health and especially beneficial for all of us concerned with joint pain as we age. I plan on incorporating more of Diana’s suggestions to help keep my joints healthy for life, and I recommend you do too.

Check out Healthy Joints For Life from amazon: