ARTHRITIS

Spinal Arthritis Begins Within Two Weeks of Joint Immobility

According to the Arthritis Foundation, arthritis “is the leading cause of disability in America.  More than 50 million adults and 300,000 children have some type of arthritis.”

There are many types of arthritis, the most common form, and the form that we see most often in this office, is osteoarthritis, or OA

In OA, joint cartilage breaks down over time, causing symptoms like joint pain and stiffness.  People usually see this process as an inevitable part of aging, but that is not necessary so.  When patients tell me that they have arthritis in their knee because they are old, I always ask them: “well how old is the other knee that doesn’t have any arthritis in it?”  There is a problem that causes the process of OA to begin.

Interestingly, the Journal of Clinical Biomechanics, issue 2:223-229, showed that joint immobility can lead to permanent damage in as little as two weeks:

“The evidence in this review shows that immobilizing healthy joints in experimental animals can lead inexorably to osteoarthritis. With respect to [human] patients, it can be postulated that immobilization, for whatever cause, will initiate a pathogenic [disease producing] chain of musculo-skeletal degenerative changes.”

As chiropractors, we deal with subluxations of the spine.  A subluxation is a misalignment in your spine causing nerve interference.  When a bone of your spine is out of it’s proper alignment, it does not move the way it should.  According to this study, if this bone stays stuck for over 2 weeks, permanent damage can occur (the process of OA begins).

This is the reason why we recommend regular spinal checks throughout a person’s life.  If we can help the body adjust the bone back to it’s proper alignment, less arthritis may occur.

Letting this issue remain and it will lead to the problem getting worse!