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In this second video I provide proof of my argument that athritis is not caused by aging, per se. If all of your joints are the same age, why do some joints develop arthritis and others do not, or at least do not to the same extent? It comes down to mechanical wear and tear (from traumas, poor posture, muscular imbalance, etc.) and/or lack of adequate nutrients for joint regeneration and repair. Getting older simply means you’ve had more opportunity to be exposed to these two actual causes of arthritis.
Mechanical wear and tear can be minimized through muscle and joint functional correction with chiropractic/osteopathy, massage, and movement therapies such as Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais.
Nutritional supplementation with antioxidants (especially vitamin C), and organic sulfur sources (such as glucosamine and chondroitin) are particularly important for providing the necessary building blocks for joint repair.
For specific recommendations, feel free to Contact Me.
Glucosamine has been shown repeatedly to not only help reduce the pain of degenerative arthritis as well as many popular arthritis medications but also to slow or sometimes reverse the degenerative process.Â
For example, a study published in the Archives Of Internal Medicine done over a three year period demonstrated that glucosamine supplementation prevented cartilage thinning and joint space narrowing that was seen in the placebo group. Similar findings were reported in another study published in the highly regarded medical journal Lancet.
But many times I see people who tell me that they have tried glucosamine and it didn’t help at all. There are of course people who are not helped by glucosamine for one reason or another. My experience has been that most of the people who tell me glucosamine didn’t help, upon further questioning, did one of two things: either they bought the absolute cheapest stuff they could find (usually a huge bottle at a discount warehouse store) or they didn’t take it regularly and/or for very long.
 The first issue is quality. Unfortunately, dietary supplements are not well regulated with regards to whether the purity and potency shown on the label is actually what’s in the bottle. A high-quality grade of glucosamine costs a little bit to make. If you find a product that is much cheaper than products that supposedly have the same amount and quality of product, there’s probably a reason - namely that the cheap stuff either has much less glucosamine than the label says, or it’s been so sloppily produced that there’s a good chance it’s contaminated. Ultra-cheap supplements may seem like a good deal, but if they don’t provide any benefits, you might as well not buy anything at all.Â
The second issue is how the supplements were taken and for how long. Glucosamine is not a pain-killer per se. It does have some anti-inflammatory effects, but much of the pain-relief glucosamine offers to arthritis sufferers is through it’s effects on rebuilding joint cartilage. This process takes some time - usually several weeks. So the impatient person who takes glucosamine for a few days and then gives up because they don’t notice any difference might do quite a bit better if they’ll give it a chance to work. The second aspect of that is that the supplement needs to be taken on a regular basis. Taking it twice one day, none the next day, once the day after that, and then none for 3 days after that tends to not get very good results. Basically, you need to take it every day, preferably dividing your daily itake into two or more doses (for maximum absorption and utilization by the body), and stick with it for several weeks.
By using a good quality glucosamine supplement consistently for several weeks (and then continuing on a maintenance dose thereafter), most people will get good results from using glucosamine. For recommendations regarding quality glucosamine products, feel free to contact me.
Many people assume that arthritis is a condition of older people and that it is inevitable as a part of aging. Neither assumption is true.
While arthritis often first becomes symptomatic later in life, the degenerative changes that cause arthritic symptoms actually begin in most cases in the 20 to 30 age range and often even before that. Traumas, poor posture, poor ergonomics, lack of exercise, and poor nutrition all play a part in joint degeneration. Since arthritis actually starts in young adulthood in most cases, it is a good idea at any age to take the appropriate steps to minimize the development and progression of arthritis.
Although not all of the causes of arthritis can always be avoided, it is possible for many people to prevent arthritis and avoid significant joint degeneration throughout even very long lifetimes. I have seen several particularly healthy “older” patients over the years and have had the chance to view X-rays on some of them. In such cases, their X-rays and other imaging studies show no signs of arthritis despite the fact that some of these people have been in their 80’s and 90’s!
 If you already have arthritis, I’ll be discussing in future posts the things you can do to slow or even reverse the progression. For now though, simply be aware that arthritis is not simply a fact of life as you get older.Â
