Which of these things have almost cured my knee pain?

My wife had some relief to knee pains from turmeric.

Check your shoes, too. The only time I’ve had knee pains was from running shoes that have special orthotic features (anti-pronating) that I didn’t need – they threw my legs out of alignment and hurt my knees. Getting rid of the shoes was the right way to fix that.

Turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties.

All of the items you mention reduce inflammation. Organic milk does because it has fewer inflammatory agents through pesticides and herbicides. Conventionally raised dairy cows produce milk higher in disease causing fats which also contributes to inflammation: http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/non-organic-milk-contains-more-inflammatory-fats

D3 is anti inflammatory and antioxidant (one of many links available-scroll down for D3): http://www.livestrong.com/article/302010-vitamins-for-anti-inflammatory/

Turmeric has used as an anti-inflammatory since ancient times. Here are a few health benefits. http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/20-health-benefits-of-turmeric.html

Perhaps you are in less pain because it is no longer winter.

The anti-inflammatory agent in turmeric is Curcumin. Quite a lot of companies now offer Curcumin, but as with everything, you get what you pay for. An inferior product, one that contains toxins from pesticides or from processing will hurt you rather than help. Here are two products that claim to have been manufactured with more care than the usual:

http://www.curamin.com/
Curamin worked wonders for me. As with any supplement, if you have a medical condition or are on medication, check with your doctor first.

This product came out after Curamin did. I haven’t tried this one, but it looks promising. http://www.healthysource.net/biomor_curcumin.html

If I was in your position I would continue with the whole regime, it’s been successful, why stop anything now? Doesn’t quite answer your question but if something is working or some things, you don’t need to know exactly why or what, just continue as you have been, it all sounds good to me.

Incremental gains? They all work a little and the overall effect has been cumulative?

Also, you might get some insight from an anti-inflammatory diet. It helps some people but not everyone. That’s because many medical conditions, medications, perfumes, food additives, chemicals, heavy metals, etc. you have absorbed also cause inflammation. It is impossible to live in this world without absorbing these things, and sometimes it takes a while to get your body to calm down.

There are many anti-inflammatory diet recipes and cook books available, but in general, you will want to avoid sugar and simple carbohydrates, gluten, processed foods, and eat lots of veggies of various kinds. Eat whole foods, healthy fats, and limit your intake of meat to small portions. If it comes in a package, don’t buy it. All this means that you will be eating at home a lot. Here is a link to Monica Reinegal’s Anti-inflammatory rating system. http://inflammationfactor.com/ She also wrote the Inflammation Free Diet Plan, which you can buy through the link on her website or at your local bookstore. They also offer an ap for your iPhone, and somewhere I’ve even seen a pocket size booklet of IF ratings you can carry with you while shopping.

Also in her book it mentions that organic foods and grass fed meats have a higher anti-inflammatory rating than conventionally raised meats.

You will also want to print off this list or download the ap for your cell phone: EWG’s 2014 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list.php The farther down the list you go, the less pesticide residue in the produce.

There’s more, but this is a good start. I’m afraid I might have already overwhelmed you.

As others have said, the Tumeric has anti-inflammatory properties. (Try anti-inflammatory drugs like Naproxin or Ketoprophin) but there is also the time factor. Pain is natures way of telling you to quit doing that because it hurts and when you pay attention and change your way of doing things to allow the affected area to heal then it gets better.