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At the end of the 2019 season, celebrated senior amateur Randy Haag was hurting. The problem was his left ankle, and doctors determined he needed surgery. The operation took place on Dec. 11.
Several months before going under the knife, Haag had reached out to a friend, Dr. Rish Patel, a respected pain management specialist in New York City as well as a scratch golfer. He recommended that Haag take a supplement called Optimend – which contains turmeric and boswellia, a pair of plants native to the Indian subcontinent – to reduce pain and inflammation.
“I did what Rish suggested,” Haag said of the physician, who is on the advisory board for Activz Global, the company that developed and produces the product. “And when my doctors took my cast off on Dec. 27, they were shocked to see how little swelling I had and how good my foot looked.”
They also wanted to know what Haag had been taking. So, he told them all about Optimend.
“Initially, the post-operation plan was for me to be in a walking boot for four to six weeks from that point,” he adds. “But my foot felt so good that I only wore the boot for one day. I played my first round of golf on Jan. 8 and by mid-February felt good enough to compete in the San Francisco City Championship.”
Haag qualified for match play in that event. Then, in mid-March, about the time doctors had expected him just to be getting out of his walking boot, he won the Florida Azalea Senior Amateur Championship.
The anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric and boswellia are well known. Problem is, their molecular structures are such that they are not easily absorbed or utilized by the body. But scientists at Activz Global say they have solved that problem, and by doing so made the supplement that much more effective.