ARTHRITIS

An important point to mention:

• Symptoms may not be present, people who will have an x-ray and be diagnosed with osteoarthritis will not have any symptoms. This is why it is important not to solely gain diagnosis from an image like an XRAY or MRI scan.

Factors which enhance osteoarthritis are:

• Excessive exercise – performing a lot of exercise can lead to joint breakdown. Examples have been seen in ex professionals who require surgery
• Obesity – carrying extra weight often leads to joints becoming overloaded. This extra pressure over time causes cartilage to wear down and make joints painful. For every extra kilo of weight you carry, when walking it places 4 x that weight through your knee joint.
• Injury – traumatic injury to a joint and surgery may cause quicker development of OA before the age of 50. ACL and Meniscus injuries can accelerate the development of arthritis.
• Manual Labour – long periods of your life spent doing physical or hands on work with repetitive movement can cause joints to wear faster than people in sedentary jobs.

Arthritis charities and research organisations recommend exercise as the main treatment and prevention for OA. Ensuring you have a varied amount of exercise in order to help keep cartilage and joints healthy and muscles that support those joints strong. Weak muscles do not provide support for the joints – if muscles are weak then this directly transfers extra load on to the joints.

If you are stronger from varied exercise it takes pressure off your joints and helps you to age in a better way.

Improving your joint range of movement, your flexibility, strength and increasing your stamina are all key areas in the fight against arthritis! Working on a simple exercise routine is the best medicine you can give to your body, your exercise needs to be structured carefully and the amount you do will be reflective of what you can manage.

Over everything however, is the need for consistency, as arthritis is a long term problem and the more attention you pay to it with exercise – the better you can control it.

Here are some top exercise tips to keep you moving:

1. Walking – simple, and something everyone can do. Loading your knee cartilage with weight and compression has been shown to help preserve it and help it to repair. If your knees are painful then start with small periods of walking and slowly build. If you have less than 5/10 pain in the knees – walking is recommended.

2.  Strength Training – As we age we naturally lose muscle mass and our joint health deteriorates. These are 2 main factors in the development of OA. Strengthen all of the body – it makes your joints and connective tissue healthier.

3.  Yoga/Pilates – both aim to strengthen the body and promote better joint movement. This is another popular exercise for arthritis as it is easy on the body and can be adapted to suit each person.

4.  Swimming – Pain with arthritis can occur when the joints are placed under weight – swimming places no weight on the joints and can effectively help to work your cardio vascular system, free movement of joints and strengthen your limbs. If you can’t swim then don’t worry, bodyweight exercises or running in a pool is advised.