Arthritis prevention and relief

It is not a disease exclusive to the elderly. The core of prevention is to reduce additional wear and tear on joints and maintain muscle support. Relief should be dealt with by type and stage. Don’t just supplement calcium, apply hot compresses, or exercise too hard. Only those that suit you will be useful.

Many people still think that "arthritis is caused by cold." In fact, cold itself will not directly induce joint inflammation, but will only worsen the local blood circulation of the already worn joints, amplifying the pain. Not long ago, I met a 28-year-old planning girl in the recovery room where I often go. She wears 8cm high heels for commuting every day. She has to hold on to the wall when climbing up to the company's third-floor conference room. A film was taken that showed early wear and tear on the patellofemoral joint. The doctor said that if she wears high heels for another two years, she might need to consider arthroscopic surgery at the age of thirty. You see, it has nothing to do with whether it's cold or not. It's simply "created" by adding weight to the joints every day.

It's quite interesting to say that I met two doctors who gave completely opposite advice to the same patient with knee pain. One told him to move as little as possible and avoid climbing stairs, and the other told him to practice squats and squats more quietly. After asking later, I found out that one was an orthopedic surgeon. At that time, the patient was in the acute stage of swelling and could not walk. He must first rest to give the joints room to reduce swelling.； The other one is from the Department of Rehabilitation, and he talks about the intervention plan after the swelling is reduced. Both doctors are right, but people often confuse the applicable scenarios. This is also the most controversial point in arthritis care nowadays: Should I care for it or should I practice? The conservative view is that joints are like bearings. If they are worn out, use them sparingly. Move less and consume less. ； The point of view of the rehabilitation school is that the muscles around the joints are "shock-absorbing pads". Only when the muscles are strong can they help the joints share the pressure. The longer you lie down, the more the muscles atrophy, and the more they wear out. In fact, the two are complementary. There is no absolute right or wrong. It all depends on your current joint condition.

We can understand by doing the math: for every 1 kilogram of excess weight, the knees have to bear 3 times more weight when walking, and 5-7 times more pressure when running and jumping. Not to mention old age, many 200-pound young men have knee pain in their early twenties. The essence is that the joints bear too much weight every day and wear out quickly. And now young people like to follow the trend of aerobics and marathon running. They rush up without warming up, wear soft-soled slippers and jump around at home. When they land, the impact hits their joints. There are really many people who develop synovitis within two months. You said that to prevent this, you must first change these "joint-consuming" bad habits: don't wear high heels every day and stand for a long time, don't squat on the ground to wipe the floor (the weight on your knees when squatting is 8 times your body weight), if you are overweight, slowly control your weight, do a 10-minute warm-up before exercise, don't carry the weight with wrong movements, it will be more effective than how many health supplements you take.

Let’s talk about the relief methods that people often ask about, and there is no unified standard: For example, is aminoglucose useful? It is indeed useful for people with early-stage osteoarthritis and can help repair cartilage. However, if the cartilage has been worn away and eating it has no effect, the doctor may recommend sodium hyaluronate lubrication or even arthroscopic cleaning. ； Hot or cold compress? If you have just sprained it and it hurts so much that the area becomes hot and swollen, apply cold compress first to shrink the blood vessels and reduce the swelling. If you are usually afraid of cold and have a dull pain, you can apply hot compress to promote circulation. But when gout attacks, do not apply hot compress, otherwise the redness and swelling will be worse. ； Should I wear knee pads? When you go hiking, running or jumping, or when the pain is severe in the acute stage, wear a supportive knee pad to help share the pressure. Don't wear tight knee pads every day, otherwise the muscles will be "lazy" and will atrophy over time. My neighbor's aunt always heard people say that knee pads can keep you warm. She wore thick knee pads in the summer when the temperature was 30 degrees. As a result, her quadriceps muscles atrophied after three months of wearing them. Later, the doctor asked her to switch to thin warm ones. She did 10 sets of foot hooks and leg raises every day while sitting at home. After two months of practice, she no longer needed to hold on to the railing when going downstairs.

There are also people who take calcium supplements when their joints hurt. In fact, except for people with osteoporosis and joint wear and tear, ordinary calcium supplements for osteoarthritis are not symptomatic at all. If you have gouty arthritis, the core is to control uric acid. Drinking more bone soup and eating more calcium tablets will have no effect. Instead, drinking bone soup to supplement purine will make the pain worse. If your joints often crackle, hurt when you catch a cold, or have trouble squatting up, don't blindly search Baidu to buy health products. Go to the hospital to take a X-ray first to find out what type of inflammation it is and what extent it is, and then make targeted adjustments.

In fact, joints are like your mobile phone battery. The factory capacity is fixed. Use it sparingly and don’t make mistakes. If there is a small problem, adjust it in time. Don’t bear the pain while climbing stairs or running marathons. It will not be a problem at all if you use it for fifty or sixty years. There is really no need to talk about "inflammatory" discoloration, and don't believe in any magic medicine that "cures arthritis". Just take your time and adjust, and you will be comfortable.