Alex Rodriguez, just like you and me, has some chronic aches and pains. His right knee, for instance, has been bugging him intermittently since he had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in July. Alex Rodriguez, unlike you and me, can take the following course of action to deal with his chronic pain:

1. Call Kobe Bryant, the NBA superstar, for advice.

2. On Bryant's advice, fly to Germany, the country in Europe, for experimental therapy.

That's how Alex Rodriguez deals with his sore knee. Good luck with your Icy Hot Sleeve, though. So, what do these Germans have to offer that warrants such a trip?

Here's an explanation of the therapy — "Orthokine" — from the Post:

Orthokine involves taking blood from the patient’s arm and spinning it in a centrifuge, a machine used in laboratories to spin objects around a fixed axis. The serum is then injected into the affected area — in this case, Rodriguez’s knee.

So, they take your arm blood out, jiggle it around, and then put some of it in with your leg blood. That's it, eh? The website for the folks that do this stuff boasts that Orthokine utilizes the body's own proteins "without the use of any foreign substances," which is presumably what MLB officials were looking for before they approved this kind of treatment. Cool.

Anyway, hope the therapy worked for you, A-Rod. And if it didn't, you can always see Peyton Manning's guy in Laos or something.