Arthritis prevention measures

Control your weight within a reasonable range, avoid unnecessary wear and tear on joints, and intervene in chronic inflammation in advance. All other "knee protection tips" spread online are essentially an extension of these three points. Hitting the core is far more effective than following the trend and buying health care products.

I have been working in an orthopedic clinic for almost ten years, and I have encountered too many patients who came for consultation because they were in so much pain that they could not walk. When asked about their daily habits, they either had knee pain from dancing for two hours every day, or they squatted with weights every day to train their legs, or they suffered from gout for five or six years. Regardless of letting the uric acid level rise to more than 600, in fact, if you adjust a few small habits early, you don't have to suffer this problem at all.

When it comes to the impact of weight on joints, there is no dispute: For people with a BMI over 28, the pressure on their knee joints is twice their body weight when standing, and even six times when running and jumping. I once met a 180-pound young man who ran five kilometers a day in order to lose weight. After running for half a month, the cartilage became frizzy, and he had to hold on to the handrails when going up and down stairs. However, the circle has been arguing for several years about whether knee injuries should be sustained during sports or with knee pads: the kinesiology community generally believes that jogging with a correct posture for people with a normal BMI can promote the secretion of synovial fluid in the joints and supplement nutrition for the cartilage, which is good for the joints. ； However, most orthopedic surgeons will advise ordinary people to avoid exercises that put a lot of pressure on the knee joints, such as weight-bearing squats and climbing stairs. In fact, both sides are right. The dividing point lies in whether you have enough muscle strength to support it - if it is difficult to squat quietly for 30 seconds, the core cannot be stable, and the knees always buckle when running, then no matter how much you weigh, exercising indiscriminately will cause trouble for the joints. Last year, a fitness novice followed a video to learn weight-bearing squats in order to develop his peach butt. When squatting, his knees always went over his toes. After practicing for a week, the cartilage of his patella joint was worn out. It even hurt when he squatted on the toilet. It took him three months to recover.

There are also many inconspicuous little habits that are actually responsible for the wear and tear on joints. For example, many people like to squat on the ground to wipe the floor, or squat on the toilet to brush short videos for more than ten minutes. When they stand up, their knees tremble. At this time, the pressure on the joints is three times that of the standing state. Occasionally, it is fine, but if you do this every day, it will cause problems even if there is no problem. There are also hard-soled Martin boots and high-heeled shoes over 8 cm that girls love to wear. When walking, the force on the ankle is crooked, which will also cause the stress line of the knee to shift. If worn for a long time, the joint wear rate is more than 2 times higher than that of people wearing sports shoes.

Don't think that arthritis is only for middle-aged and elderly people. Nowadays, I meet seven or eight young people who are diagnosed with patellar chondromalacia in their twenties every month. Most people sit in the office every day and keep their knees bent at 90 degrees for seven or eight hours. The synovial fluid in the joints is less secreted and the cartilage is not nourished. Over time, problems are prone to occur. In fact, standing up to get a glass of water and stretching for more than ten seconds can relieve most of the problems.

As for the issue of supplements that everyone is most concerned about, there is a lot of controversy: some people say that glucosamine is a miracle drug for knee protection, while others say that taking it is completely useless. The current consensus of the European and American Orthopedic Association is that only for people who have experienced mild cartilage wear and tear, continuous supplementation of aminoglucose for more than 6 weeks may have a relieving effect. Healthy people taking aminoglucose in advance cannot prevent arthritis. It is purely an IQ tax. More practical intervention for inflammation is actually a trivial matter: when the season changes to cool down, don’t bare your ankles and knees, wear a thin kneepad to keep warm, which is much more effective than eating a 300-yuan bottle of aminoglucose. ； If you have underlying diseases such as gout or rheumatoid, keep your uric acid and erythrocyte sedimentation rate within normal ranges, and don’t regret it after the tophi grows into the joint cavity. Not long ago, I met a 32-year-old young man who had been suffering from gout for 6 years.

To put it bluntly, joints are the same as your mobile phone battery. The total capacity is only so much. Just turn on the high power consumption mode when there is nothing to do. Use it sparingly at ordinary times and do a little maintenance occasionally, and it will naturally accompany you for decades more.