Let's make a joint effort!

A lot of patients come to me and say, “Oh, Dr. Selassie my bones are aching!  My bones feel horrible. What can I do for my bones?” But after a few investigative questions, I realize what they're actually talking about is the space in between their bones.  

Anywhere along the skeleton that bends — elbows, wrists, knees, hips, shoulders — are the joints.  

You have two main types of joints: one type is the ball-and-socket joint, like the joints of your hips and shoulders that makes it so you can rotate your arms and legs in all directions; the other type is the hinge joint, like your elbows and knees that bend back and forth like hinges on a door.  Your spine is made up of a stack of small bones called vertebrae which allow you to bend back and forth, and side to side.

Let’s take a closer look at the knee joint, for example.  There are rubbery end caps, called cartilage, that sit on the bottom of the thigh bone and the top of the lower leg bone.  In between the cartilage is a thin layer of liquid called synovial fluid that has the consistency of raw egg whites. This synovial fluid provides lubrication and shock absorbency.  Wrapped around the joint is a bunch of ligaments attaching bone to bone, and tendons attaching muscle to bone; these encapsulate and stabilize the knee joint.

After years and years of  using our joints, the cartilage gets naturally worn down.  It begins to lose its integrity, developing splits and micro-tears.  The synovial fluid leaks into the tears and the joint space gets narrower.  Little by little, the cartilage wears down until eventually, the joint space disappears, and then you have bone rubbing on bone.  This bone rubbing, as you might imagine, can be very painful.

So what we want to do is actually heal and rebuild that joint space.  You see, most over-the-counter drugs will take away the pain, but they won’t actually heal the joint.  In fact, long-term use of these over-the-counter drugs for joint pain can cause bleeding ulcers and even kidney damage.

There are many beneficial lifestyle changes that you can incorporate into your daily life in order to help you heal, However, I would like to encourage you to concentrate on your food.

Food can often make a profound difference in your health.   If you eat anti-inflammatory foods, you stop the inflammation and give space for your body to heal. Some really wonderful anti-inflammatory foods are mustard greens, collard greens, mushrooms, and root vegetables like beets and turnips.  On the other hand, you want to avoid foods like sugar and refined carbohydrates that cause inflammation. When you have too much inflammation, it’s going to create more pain between the joints.

Another important lifestyle choice to incorporate into your life is movement.  There are a lot of joint sufferers who guard their joints by keeping them still.  However, this is the wrong way to approach joint healing. Since there is no actual blood supply into the joint.  It is important to pump nutrition into the joint through movement.   If we keep our joints still, the synovial fluid gets stiff and circulation becomes stagnant.  

A lot of people, especially as we get older,  find it really difficult to exercise. Of course, if you lift weights or can walk on the treadmill, then do that.  However, remember that movement is the key. If you just hold your hands up and shake them at your wrists for a minute and then stop, you can actually feel the blood rushing into your fingertips.  Please imagine that nutrients are being shuttled into all of the joint spaces in your hands. If shaking seems too much, try simple rotations of the joint.  Make circles at the levels of each of your joints, fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles.  Rotate your joints clockwise in one direction ten times and then counterclockwise for another ten rotations.  

Be encouraged and never underestimate the power of simple movement.  

Remember, movement is a powerful way to keep your joints healthy.

A third lifestyle step is incorporating supplements into your daily life.  With supplements for joint health, you want to take two avenues of approach. One approach is reducing inflammation; the other is helping your body preserve and actually rebuild cartilage.

One of the best anti-inflammatory supplements is Turmeric and its constituent named Curcumin.  Turmeric is a root that looks sort of like ginger.  It is really easy to cook with powdered turmeric; just put a tablespoon into your vegetable stir fry or into your pot of rice. Turmeric’s active constituent is called Curcumin.   Curcumin can be difficult to absorb and reach your joints, so if you are having joint pain, it is good to take it as a supplement.  I recommend Curcumin Extreme, which is a patented form of Curcumin.  This supplement is super-bioavailable and it lasts for longer in the body.

Soothing joint pain is a huge relief, however, we also have to supply nutrients that rebuild or reconstruct the joint.  One of my favorite supplements to rebuild the joint is called Joint Support Formula by nutraMetrix.  Joint Support Formula contains Hyaluronic acid and Glucosamine.  Hyaluronic Acid nourishes the synovial fluid between the cartilage. In that fluid are chondrocytes. Chondrocytes actually mature into adult cartilage cells, with the potential to repair your knee.  Glucosamine has been consistently demonstrated in the research to regenerate cartilage.

There are many combination joint formulas out there, so I would like to make two important points.  One is that some joint formulas are good quality, containing all the right levels of clean nutrients, and some are poor quality.   In poor-quality supplements, the levels of nutrients may not even carry the therapeutic amounts necessary to regenerate joint tissue, and the ingredients may not be pure and clean. Some of the best quality formulas are the two I mentioned, Curcumin Extreme and Joint Support Formula.

The second point to note is very important if you have an autoimmune type of arthritis.  If you have an autoimmune type of arthritis, it’s important for you to use only anti-inflammatory supplements such as the Curcumin Extreme, and avoid joint builders like Hyaluronic Acid or Glucosamine.  

So, for healthy joints, eat anti-inflammatory vegetables, move your joints to pump in nutrition, and use supplements! These three steps will keep inflammation down, nourish your synovial fluid so it acts like the lubricant and shock absorber it is meant to be, and help rebuild your joints!