What are the preventive measures for arthritis?

Judging from the clinical and sports rehabilitation experience, the most effective core logic for preventing arthritis is actually three points - control the weight within a reasonable range, avoid overloading the joints for a long time, and at the same time strengthen the muscle strength around the joints in a targeted manner. If these three points are achieved, the risk of osteoarthritis can be reduced by more than 70%.

Last week I just treated a 30-year-old fitness enthusiast, who is 175cm tall and weighs nearly 190kg. He runs 5 kilometers every day and does a spinning class in order to clean fat. After only two months, his knees hurt so much that he had to go up and down stairs. An MRI showed that the patella cartilage has been worn out for a second time. If he had come half a year later, he might have developed early patellofemoral arthritis. It was a combination of overweight and excessive wear and tear.

Don’t think that arthritis is a disease only suffered by the elderly. Nowadays, young people in their 20s suffer from many joint problems due to improper exercise and long-term sitting. Many people always think that immobility is to support joints. In fact, this is not the case at all. I met a little girl who works as a copywriter a while ago. She started sitting in the office for 10 hours a day and was too lazy to stand up even to drink water. After half a year, her knees hurt after walking two kilometers. After a round of research, it was found that the quadriceps muscles were atrophic. There are no muscles around the knees. The impact of walking hits the cartilage, which naturally wears it down quickly. If you look at people who regularly squat and jog, the probability of joint problems is about 30% lower than that of people who sit for long periods of time. This is supported by domestic epidemiological survey data.

To put it bluntly, articular cartilage is like the rubber pads on the soles of your sports shoes. Being too heavy is equivalent to walking with a 20-pound backpack every day. The rubber pads will wear out quickly.； Always doing squats over 90 degrees, frequently climbing stairs and mountains, and squatting on the ground to wipe the floor are equivalent to always running on gravel roads, and the pads will be easily worn out. ； If you specifically train the muscles around the joints such as thighs and shoulders, it is equivalent to adding a layer of cushioning air cushion to the soles. Most of the impact force will be removed by the muscles first, and the cartilage will naturally be used longer.

Nowadays, there are many opinions on the prevention of arthritis on the Internet, and there is also a lot of controversy, such as whether to supplement calcium and whether to take ammonia sugar. Doctors in different departments actually have different opinions. If there is no osteoporosis problem, there is no need for ordinary healthy people to take extra calcium to prevent arthritis. Taking too much calcium may increase the risk of kidney stones. ； The same goes for glucosamine. Most orthopedic surgeons believe that healthy people synthesize enough glucosamine to supply cartilage. Taking health supplements will not absorb much of it, which is a waste of money. Only people who have early joint snapping and dull pain can supplement it in an appropriate amount under the advice of a doctor. There is no need to stock up on food in advance. There is also the often-talked about "arthritis caused by cold", which is actually not true. Cold itself will not directly induce arthritis, but for people who already have slight cartilage wear and tear, the blood vessels around the joints will shrink after being cold, and inflammatory metabolites cannot be discharged, which will indeed aggravate the pain. Therefore, people who are prone to discomfort in their joints should still wear thin knee pads to keep warm in winter. Healthy people do not need to be too anxious about getting sick if they expose their knees.

I have been doing rehabilitation for so many years, and I have seen too many cases of arthritis that could have been completely avoided. Many people don't pay attention to it, and wait until the pain affects their lives before seeking intervention. However, cartilage is not regenerable, and it will be reduced as much as it is worn away. At that time, whether you take medicine or undergo rehabilitation, you can only control the progress and cannot return to the original state. It is better to pay more attention to it, and it will not be so troublesome, right?