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by: Min Kang, D.C.
Osteoarthritis is one of the most common forms of arthritis and is a chronic condition characterized by the breakdown of the joint. While osteoarthritis can damage any joint in your body, the disorder most commonly affects the joints in your neck, lower back, shoulders, knees, hips, and hands.
Why does the joint start to break down? Because the joint is not strong enough to withstand the stress put on, by your daily activities. If your joint is weak, walking or even sitting could damage your joints and eventually cause inflammation. If you do not take care of the joint, the joint will fuse together, meaning you will lose that particular joint.
It is very important to understand why the joint develops inflammation. The main reason arthritis causes pain is that the joint is inflamed. When our joints are inflamed, we try to get rid of the inflammation without addressing the real cause of why we have the symptom. Inflammation is actually a biological response of trying to heal the damaged body parts. I want you to understand that inflammation is not an infection, even though an infection also causes inflammation. Infection is caused by a bacterium, virus or fungus, while inflammation is the body’s response to it. Inflammation occurs when blood rushes into the damaged area. When the blood accumulates, you will notice pain, heat, swelling, redness, or immobility. The blood will bring nutrients and oxygen to the damaged cells and the cells will receive energy to heal itself.
When there is inflammation in your body, you will most likely notice the pain. So what is the first thing you want to do? It is to get rid of the pain/inflammation. That is why most of you will take an anti-inflammatory medication such as Advil or Tylenol. If the medication does not give you the relief, some of you will get shots such as cortisone. After the pain goes away, along with inflammation, you will think that you are healed so you will go back to your daily routine.
The problem is, because of the cortisone shot, your pain has been masked and you don’t feel the pain. What you don’t realize is that you are in essence, still damaging your joints. Once the effects of the shot wear off, you will feel the pain again. Then, what do you do? You either take an anti-inflammatory while you wait for your next doctor’s appointment, or you just wait for your next cortisone shot. Eventually, too much damage has been done because again, the cortisone shot only masked the joint pain and you continue to damage your joints. Medication and cortisone shots can only do so much. Eventually, the shots and/or the medication will no longer aide in masking the pain and therefore, the only option that you have now, is surgery.
As a Gonstead chiropractor, when I see patients with arthritis, I focus on why they have this condition and how to fix the problem. We will examine your joint(s) to check if there is misalignment or if your muscle is weak due to the lack of exercise or aging. If the joints receive stress, the muscles around the joint will tighten to protect it, but if the joint receives continuous stress, the muscles will start to break down and eventually the joint will go out of alignment. If the joint is misaligned, the joint will lose the normal range of motion, eventually causing wear and tear. Misalignment occurs more on the spine, pelvis and shoulders, rather than the knees and hips. After the joint is examined, we will adjust the misaligned joint to restore the normal range of motion. We will also teach you and show you certain exercises to increase joint strength.
If you have symptoms of arthritis, it will get worse with your age. It is important that you learn and understand how to manage arthritis under a chiropractic doctor’s advice.
Min Kang is a Gonstead chiropracter at NoVA Gonstad Chiropractic. You can find more information about his practice at www.novagonstead.com
