Arthritis is Not Caused By Old Age

Ray was an old style businessman. In these times of worker smarter, Ray created his business through a lot of extremely demanding work. Like many men, he had not paid much attention to his health but now as he was in his late 50s many aches and pains just weren´t going away. A visit to his local doctor resulted in a referral to an orthopaedic specialist.

The news was not good. “You have severe osteoarthritis in your right hip. You will need to go on some anti-inflammatory medication and you will probably need to have a hip replacement by the years end.”

It all came as a huge shock to Ray. He was stammering a bit,trying to make sense of how this could have happened.

“How did I get this?” he asked.

The specialist replied in a rather dismissive way, ” Unfortunately it is just one of those things that happen to us when we get older. It is quite common for your age.”

Ray was not happy. He was not happy with the manner that the specialist spoke to him and he was not at all happy to be labeled as old. He was determined to give the doctor a piece of his mind when a thought came to him.

“Hey,” he said. “Do I have any arthritis in my left hip? “he asked.

“The scans show that you left hip is clear of any arthritis,” replied the specialist.

“If arthritis is caused by old age, how come I have no arthritis in my left hip. It´s the same age?”

You may be wondering what actually causes arthritis?

Arthritis is the degeneration of joints as a result of three common scenarios:

Arthritis Cause No.1: After they have been damaged by injury or trauma

Particularly severe injury that physically damages a joint beyond its capacity to repair itself will inevitably result in some arthritic changes. It is very difficult if not impossible to prevent arthritic change in this instance. However the amount of arthritic change can be limited by addressing the following two areas.

Arthritis Cause No.2:

Excessive load being placed on them due to poor alignment or poor posture

Car tires can wear out unevenly and prematurely due to poor alignment and so can the joints in your body. When you have an upright and balanced posture your body weight is evenly distributed throughout your body. However, poor posture and alignment causes the weight to be unevenly distributed with some areas getting off lightly and other areas getting worn out by the excessive load.

Arthritis Cause No.3:Lack of flexibility resulting from a lack of use

If you only use joints in a limited manner in which you do not routinely exercise your joints to their full range of motion, the lack of movement will limit the amount of nutrition to the joints. This effectively begins to starve the joint surfaces of the necessary ingredients required to be able to maintain a healthy joint. It backs up the old adage, “If you don´t use it, you lose it.”