Reducing the O6 sources does more than switching meats

Avoid all vegetable oil except coconut/olive

don't heat any food beyond smoke point(you'll have to look up various smoke points)

most seeds and grains are high omega 6

an inadequate balance of 3 to 6 can cause inflammation

other allergies including seaweed, fish, shellfish, casein, nightshades, gluten, eggwhite, legumes, grains etc can cause inflammation

spicy food has been shown to be anti -inflammatory

slankers meats has a good chart with anti-inflammatory foods and the omega 3 to 6 ratio check out their site for a good if biased reference point and then research from there.

Increase your saturated fat intake...alot butter(if lacto-paleo/primal), coconut oil, animal fat

edited to supply more detail

What I think Thor means is while \ switching to grass-fed meats helps, it just HALTS the ever increasing O6:03 ratio we have from the SAD, it doesn't IMPROVE it.

So, if you were to cut out ALL of the vegetable bean oils, nuts, and so on you will bring that 06:03 ratios back down to a good 2:1, 1:1 ideally.

Remember, Omega 6s aren't the problem, they are vital, it is the imbalance that exists between the Omega 3s and Omega 6s that is the problem.

To answer you original question, I honestly didn't see improvement in joint inflammation until probably the 3rd or 4th month of eating Primal. And this included moderate sized daily fish oil supplementation as well.

hey, this may sound kinda out of left field but what about dietary salt and/or nightshades? Im 30 years old, too. I have been paleo for 5-6 years, in good shape, blah blah. However, i had very similar inflammation for a while. stuffy head in the morning, gradually diminishing through the day, puffy face and especially puffy knee joints and ankles - lower legs pretty much. Dude, i thought i was effin diabetic for a while, with those puffy legs. Anyhoo, it was SALT! dont get me wrong, i believe that good quality sea salt, etc is indeed healthy all the way. and i was only even eating the good stuff. but its just i was eating too damn much. And in retrospect i have grown to think that, while i believe the paleoprimalgrok way of eating is entirely THE best way of life, our way of eating can lend itself to oversalting. salt and meat and salt and fat just taste damn good yknow?

the other thing i mentioned is the nightshades. I avoid them in general. Not cuz i have arthritis or general pain or anything (which is what you normally hear nightshades mentioned in reference to) but only because when i was salt-puffy my leg joints did indeed bother me and it was so damn uncomfortable that i want to do anything i can to avoid any similar kinda pain.

Seriously take the down the salt levels and see how the general inflammation goes.

-ben

Chronic or systemic inflammation is a very real, but very broad and multifarious, problem. There is blood work you can have done that would give you a clearer picture of what's going on. Many standard tests now check levels of C-reactive Protein--which is a strong marker of chronic inflammation. It might help to have this done.

I'm a big advocate of a diet where all fat comes from coconut, seafood, and grassfed meat...and I've seen great improvements doing this paleo 2.0 diet. But that said, you might want to think about your sleeping situation. There are some great threads on paleohacks about "paleo" sleeping positions and whatnot that might help. My morning sniffles got waaaaaaay better on paleo, but they are totally gone when I sleep in a hammock.

My GI issues are much better when I eat grass-fed ruminant as much as possible. General health and happiness seems to be better too. Cheap pork makes me feel like crap as well, more noticeably than cheap beef. "Pastured" pork (such as from Slanker's) is certainly better but still doesn't seem to be quite as magical as ruminant flesh.

The cheap pork made me think of how some people report to reacting to soy-fed meats. I realize you are eating grass fed meat, but is it grass-fed and grass-finished?

How do you do with non-farmed fish?

I realize you are not eating gluten, but are you eating/living "gluten free?"

You could try ghee instead of butter. Do this for at least 2 weeks.

It really could be the rice. It takes awhile for the "inflammation cascade" to calm down. It could be the rice itself or the rice could be cross contaminated with gluten (in the package - there's a new study out on the cross contamination of gluten free grains.) or as prepared in your girl friend's kitchen.

What you ate years ago can still be part of the problem because it takes awhile to balance the omega 3's and 6's. I think the half life is 2 years or so. That said, it is still worth checking out the gluten/dairy/rice angles.

I think that you should try to get off the ibuprofen as soon as you can, nsaids can cause intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut). An overview of leaky gut is here: http://www.crohns.net/Miva/education/leakygut.shtml

Glutamine is supposed to help the intestines recover from permeability issues.

Hey, I see you have a lot of answers here and I wanted to share my personal experience. I am married to a farmer and we decided to raise grass fed and finished beef. I have a whole entire freezer of the stuff! (I will give you my previous life, after my comment) I suffered from joint pain for most of my 30's and into early 40's. Recently, I have just noticed that my joint pain is completely gone. I have tried all the other 'cures' for this. My biggest problem was the pain in my shoulders while laying on my side in bed. They would crack and creek and I was in a lot of pain sleeping & in the morning. My neighbor even offered to sell me some very expensive joint pain supplements which I bought one time.

I went through my 1/4 of a grass fed beef in 4 months! I also gave a lot of it to people who I wanted to sample it before purchase. So, needless to say, we had a lot of hamburger and roasts! I learned of "grass fed" from the book Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. A book that has changed my life far more than anything else! I would like to mention that I won't completely point to grass fed beef as my answer for the pain-free joints, of which I have consumed a lot of. I ALSO took out all grains. I don't eat breakfast cereal, bread, rice or pasta & crackers; all of which were in my diet before. After taking away breakfast cereal and exclusively ate eggs for breakfast with fresh veggie or fruit. (we also raise chickens for eggs)

I grew up eating grains and in my 20 & 30's believed that they were good for me. I wasn't necessarily healthier for doing so. I had my joint pain and about 10 pounds over weight. Now, I am very very healthy, happy, with a strong immunity. Traveling is the hardest for me to stay on my good diet. My childhood diet also contained beef from a farmer (a side of beef), eggs, & pickled veggies and fresh from our garden during the summer. We were poor, so I didn't have a lot of processed foods back then, it was cheaper for us to grow our own. So happy about that now! But I remember being kind of jealous of the kids eating twinkies. I also had while living in the country, fresh whole milk unpasteurized. I remember drinking lots and lots of milk and never ever had soda pop.

So, as part of my primal living, I get a lot of sunshine, eat my berries, eggs, and cut out all grains. I have recently started taking a good source of Omega 3 Fish Oil capsules. I have started using more coconut oil after reading, "Eat Fat Lose Fat", I am not trying to lose weight! but I wanted more information regarding FATS. Great source of information which got me into reading more about the Weston A Price studies on nutrition. I believe in REAL food and eat mostly local grown now. NO PROCESSED and NO HFCS!

I am wondering if you have resolved the joint pain issue through the ideas presented above? I have isolated the fact that when I eat beef I experience joint pain in my knees and general discomfort all night long.I just tried grass fed & finished beef and the same thing has happened. I will next try grass fed/finished without any seasonings. I stopped alchohol to see if it was the culprit. And drink water and fresh lemon juice instead. What I notice is that I am better aware of the effects of food on my body without the alcohol. (I remember my dreams better, too, so will continue this.) I want to pass on the comment made to me that early 2009 a Chech study identified Ibuphrophen long term use as making the hypothalmus more sensitive to pain. Instead dopamine uptake inhibitors and Aleve (whatever the base drug is within this brand) are recommended. (Via Univ WA MS/Headache Clinic, Dr. Natalya Muranova.) Thanks for a response. janiceH