Preventing Osteoarthritis

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Preventing Osteoarthritis

By Dr. Don Colbert

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 two 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.

I used to have an old mitt that I left outside. I left it

out there for a month and forgot about it. When I

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 our 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 we want to nourish that cartilage to keep it

strong.