HERBAL CONNECTION HEALTH NEWS
APRIL, 2004
Preventing Osteoarthritis
Stop the pain pills and find natural solutions to ease arthritis.
There are many different forms of arthritis, but the most common are rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. By far, the most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis. In fact, after the age of 50, approximately 80 percent of Americans will be affected with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is simply that wear and tear degeneration of the cartilage. Osteoarthritis usually affects the main weight-bearing joints, such as the hips and knees, and, also, it can affect the back. This condition has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.
But there are ways to prevent osteoarthritis. One simple way you can do it is, first of all, lose some weight. The less weight on the joint, the better the joint will become. If you put 300 pounds on a joint that's only supposed to carry 120 pounds, you're going to eventually wear that joint out. Also, if you do repetitive motions for long periods of time, you'll eventually wear the joints out.
The joint is actually made up of cartilage. Cartilage is a smooth, glistening material, like what we see at the end of a chicken bone. Everyone has peeled a chicken bone off, and they've seen that smooth, glistening cartilage that's actually eight times slicker than ice.
In order to hydrate that cartilage, you've got to have water. Cartilage is made up of about 80 percent water, so we have to have adequate water. You need three quarts of water a day to keep it hydrated, because cartilage doesn't have blood vessels; it depends on the synovial fluid and adequate water intake to keep it nourished.
Have you ever left a leather baseball mitt outside? A friend of mine used to have an old mitt that he left out. He left it out there for a month and forgot about it. When he finally saw it, instead of the leather being nice and smooth, it was all cracked from being left outside. That's the same thing that happens to your cartilage when it doesn't have enough water year after year.
To nourish that cartilage, you also need supplements. The most important supplement by far is Glucosamine sulfate. Glucosamine sulfate nourishes the proteoglycans that make up the cartilage matrix, and you want to nourish that cartilage to keep it strong.
