How To Prevent Arthritis From Getting Worse
Arthritis is a major concern for adults as they age. While there is nothing we can do to reverse the arthritis has already developed, there is A LOT we can do to prevent arthritis from getting worse. In this article we'll show you how to prevent arthritis from getting worse.
Understanding The Causes Arthritis
To prevent arthritis from getting worse it's important to first understand what causes arthritis in the first place. In it's simplest terms, arthritis is caused by the two ‘I’s’. Too much inflammation and too much impact on our joints. Over a long period of time these two things lead to the joint damage we refer to as arthritis.
Which means the best way to prevent arthritis from getting any worse will be to lower inflammation and limit impact on your body. The good news is there is A LOT that we can do to accomplish this without wasting time and money at the doctors office. We outline all the ways below.
Ways To Limit Inflammation To Prevent Arthritis
Chronic inflammation plays a huge role in the development of arthritis. Improving the following lifestyle factors will help limit inflammation and prevent your arthritis from getting any worse.
Limit Sugar Intake
Sugar is one of the most damaging substances for your joints. Not only does sugar worsen symptoms of arthritis, but it causes our body to release pro-inflammatory hormones that make arthritis worse. Which is why limiting sugar intake is easily the most important thing you can do to lower inflammation in your body and protect your joints.
Eat More Anti-Inflammatory Foods
Limiting sugar isn't the only dietary change to lower inflammation in the body. Including more anti-inflammatory foods in our diet is another way to lower inflammation and prevent more advanced arthritis.
Improve Sleeping Patterns
Sleeping patterns are another lifestyle factor that plays a role in inflammation. Similar to sugar in our diet, altered or poor sleeping patterns release pro-inflammatory hormones which contributes to worsening arthritis.
Lower Daily Stress
Stress is another commonly overlooked cause of inflammation. When we're stressed our bodies release a hormone called cortisol which is strongly linked to higher levels of inflammation. Finding ways to limit stress in your day is another very useful way to prevent arthritis from getting worse. How about some meditation?
Ways To Limit Impact That Goes Through Our Joints
The other factor that plays a huge role in the development of arthritis is how much impact goes through our joints on a daily basis. Learning to limit the impact on your body will prevent your arthritis from getting worse.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
While your weight is never the cause of arthritis, it is a very common contributor. Carrying extra pounds as you move through your day leads to more impact on your weight bearing joints. By maintaining a healthy weight you can help protect these joints and slow the development of arthritis.
Switch To Lower Impact Activities
Certain exercises and activities are better for arthritis than others. Avoiding higher impact activities like walking, running, or jumping helps to limit impact on your joints. Switching to lower impact exercises like biking, the elliptical, and swimming will help protect your joints until we've built up adequate strength to return to these higher impact activities.
Improve Movement Quality
Improving how you coordinate movements to perform basic tasks helps take pressure off our joints and limit arthritis. By learning to hinge, lift, and squat you can limit the impact that goes through your joints as you move throughout the day. Moreover, improving our movement quality will help us build strength without stressing our joints (more on this later).
Click here to learn more about the importance of movement patterns in solving chronic joint pain.
Improve Mobility and Flexibility
If your body tends to be on the stiffer side, improving flexibility and mobility can help limit impact on your joints. Stiff joints limit your ability absorb ground reactive forces as well as cause movement compensations that lead to higher impact on joints that weren't meant to take such a load... leading to arthritis.
Build Strength
Getting stronger is easily THE BEST thing you can do to protect your joints and prevent arthritis from getting worse. Strong muscles ensure that the impact of your daily activities gets handled by your muscles rather than falling onto our joints and contributing to more and more arthritis.
Improving movement and building strength can be hard when we don't know where to start. Especially if you're already feeling stiff and achy from arthritis. Don't worry, I've got you covered. Inside you'll receive the EXACT program we've used to help 100's of adults prevent their arthritis from getting worse. Download at the link below.
