How to Manage Osteoarthritis
Chances are you either have osteoarthritis or know somebody with osteoarthritis. If neither one applies to you, you’ll at least get to sound smart around other people.
I should emphasize though that what I write in this newsletter doesn’t replace qualified medical advice. Nonetheless, our trainers have lots of experience working with people who have osteoarthritis, so we’ve gotten to be pretty good at helping these people.
As you know, we favour an integrated approach. What we mean is that when you combine proper exercise, with proper nutrition and proper supplementation (and other therapies when necessary), you get effects better than the sum of their parts.
Training
Often, osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear. This is when bones rub back and forth, eventually wearing out the cartilage between bones.
Why does this happen? Because there are muscle imbalances around the joints. Let’s use an example. Think about your knee. There are muscles on the front of the thigh that attach to the knee, and muscles on the back of the thigh that attack to the knee. If the muscles on the front of the thigh are much stronger and tighter than the muscles on the back of the thigh, the joint will wear out. And in almost everyone who has osteoarthritis, this is certainly the case. Very serious muscle imbalances are present.
How would you balance this out?
Stop doing any strength exercises for the front of the thigh (temporarily), and start stretching out these muscles. In addition to that, it might not be a bad idea to get some soft tissue work done there. This would include things like foam rolling and deep tissue massage (the kind that doesn’t feel good). Furthermore, you would perform strength exercises for the muscles on the back of the thigh.
Here, we used the example around the knee, but the same applies to every single other joint.
Yes, this is a bit simplistic, but the principle comes across.
Nutrition
Eat more veggies. Yep. What’s good for general health is good for arthritis as well. But let me give you the reason why. What veggies do is they help reduce inflammation. And if you have arthritis, you have inflammation. Reducing inflammation helps reduce the pain of arthritis.
But you’re smart (and funny, and attractive, etc. 😉 You already knew veggies were good for you. So let me tell you something you didn’t know.
The Russians have a favorite food called “holodets.” Don’t bother trying to pronounce it. You’ll break your tongue. When I looked up the translation for it, in English, it translates to “jellied meat.” Yeah, I know. Somebody needs to work with a marketing expert to re-brand that name. Although there are many different recipes, the key ingredients are basically parts of a pig, like bone, skin and cartilage. This is good for joints because it gives the body the raw material necessary to make its own cartilage.
Here is a video that shows you how to make your own:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZbpwN755A4
Another food that’s very good for the joints is bone broth. The way to make it is to allow bones, egg shells and crustacean shells simmer for a few hours in water (and if you like, a splash of vinegar). This pulls the minerals out of the bones and shells, again, giving the body the raw materials it needs to make your own.
Supplementation
If you already have osteoarthritis, you may already be familiar with glucosamine and chondroitin (and maybe MSM, too). They are certainly effective supplements (especially when combined in one capsule), but something that holds a lot of promise is collagen capsules. They seem to work even better than glucosamine and chondroitin (for the geeks who want to check out the research go here: http://www.medsci.org/v06p0312.htm).
But as I always mention, remember, supplements aren’t replacements. They are to be used in conjunction with proper nutrition and exercise.
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Quick Summary
- Managing osteoarthritis should involve the integration of:
- Smart exercise
- Balance out any muscle imbalances around any joints.
- Smart nutrition
- Eat lots of veggies
- Try the Russian recipe of Holodets
- Smart supplementation
- Glucosamine
- Chondroitin
- MSM
- Collagen
- Possibly, other therapies as well
- Smart exercise