As a practicing rehab doctor, I often I have patient's between 40-65 years of age in for an examination complaining of tenderness in their joints, crackling and grinding noises, they have inflammation and swelling, and show a limited motion.
If I take x-rays to evaluate the abc's of their skeleton, many patients are surprised to learn when I tell them that they have sign and symptoms of Osteoarthritis Pain. I have to admit, I do have an inside chuckle to see them have such doubt and dismay. Not that I am laughing AT my patients and their pain, but just their bewilderment of being told they have "OSTEOARTHRITIS". Truth be told, I am actually very concerned for them, and make it my mission to teach them what they can do about it.
Younger to middle-aged patients are commonly unaware to the fact that they do indeed have Osteoarthritis. That is, many times they are shocked to discovery that they have arthritis, and to be quite honest, it is not their fault (I'll explain that a little later).
(Back to my office) One of the most common replies I hear is: "really, you think that I may have arthritis?" Some even try to deny and doubt the diagnosis, saying that they've never been told by anyone else that they have osteoarthritis. Another common question I hear is "aren't I too young to have arthritis?"
Guess What?
You don't have to be old to have osteoarthritis. Although mostly seen in older individuals, it can affect anybody at any age. So before I can talk about remedies for Osteoarthritis, I think its important to discuss the ins and outs of osteoarthritis. Sometimes called degenerative joint disease (DJD) or osteoarthrosis, it's the most common form of arthritis. With osteoarthritis the cartilage in your joints break down over time. More specifically from the daily stressors that we place on our body.
It is true the older you are the more stressors likely you've put on your body, but many younger people have accelerated stressors based on their youth, and employment history.
Osteoarthritis can affect any joint in your body, but it most commonly affects joints in your: Hands, Knees, Hips, Lower Back, and Neck. These are the joints in the body that are used repetitively or the joints that function in "weight-bearing" day in day out. Research and documentation shows that Osteoarthritis gradually worsens over time. It is said that "no cure exists."
However, like anything, PREVENTION is the key, and unfortunately, in our western society, dominated by billion dollar pharmaceutical companies, we become conditioned to look for the next pill to take to "cure" our afflictions.
On a side note, what the heck is up with "Pre" this condition or "Pre" that condition??? My patients mention they are "pre-diabetic" meaning they are at the high range of NORMAL ranges but these are normal ranges people. Or "pre-hypertensive" or "pre-osteoporosis". If you ask me, these are legitimate B.S terms.
What I mean by that is, YES, you do have an increased risk for said condition. You may even be on the outside of the normal limits. But...in case you didn't know, we are allowed to adopt a healthier lifestyle changes before we get prescribed a life sentence of medication involvement.
For all you high normal sugar levels individuals, how about you change the foods you eat, eat more regularly, start exercising, and stop smoking. Same goes for you pre-hypertensives and pre-osteoporosis people. But I digress.
Sorry, but I care enough about your health to keep you off medications and ultimately have you live longer.
Back to Remedies for Osteoarthritis.
I see a powerful tug-of-war developing. On one side, you have the medical community telling you that there's "no cure", and on the other side, you have the sleek snake-oils salesman and pharmaceutical companies, having commercials of running through the fields and having any knowable "cure" for any disease or condition.
So what's the real solution. As a natural health care provider, and rehab guy, I going to say, somewhere in the middle. That is if anything is a cure, then I would say PREVENTION is. I am also a realist, we all have experience injuries, wear and tear, postural stressors that we do day in day out at work, and any congenital conditions that we inherit.
So what is the next best solution to a cure of not getting in the first place? Well, minimizing the effects of Arthritis. Reduce the wear and tear in the joints, increase the lubrication to the joints, minimize the pressure built up in the joints, increase the flexibility of the muscles, and stretching capacity of the ligaments and tendons. In short, have a lifestyle that focuses on all of the above.
Enter stage left.....Resistant Band Training. It's inexpensive and cheap, it doesn't take up a lot of room, you can do it in your own home, and it not only stretches your muscles and joints, but it firms and strengthens de-conditioned muscles that accompany osteoarthritis.
In part 2, I am going to go over the indications (meaning who should be doing it and why) and the contra-indications (who shouldn't be doing it and why).
Until the next time.
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