Health Articles

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a nearly universal degenerative condition, affecting both men and women as they age. Despite its prevalence and the fact that it worsens with age, OA is not the inevitable consequence of aging.

In OA, the cartilage cushion in the joints breaks down, which eventually can cause the bones to rub together. Pain, stiffness, and sometimes the formation of bone growths, called spurs, result. OA can affect any joint, but it is most common in the hands, feet, spine, and in large, weight bearing joints such as the hips and knees.

Currently, the pathogenesis of OA is explained by various contributing factors that adversely affect cartilage cells. In simple terms, the chondrocytes (cells that produce cartilage) become stressed, overworked, injured, and eventually die. This destruction of the chondrocytes makes it impossible for your body to keep up with the production of high-quality collagen needed for normal wear and tear. As the cartilage erodes, the joint becomes inflamed, and lytic (caustic) enzymes can further degrade the cartilage matrix. As cartilage wears away on the ends of the bones and cushioning is lost, the intensity of pain may increase. Pain may become quite severe if the cartilage has completely deteriorated.

Surprisingly, physical inactivity can be more harmful to the joints than overuse. Joint activity signals for the delivery of nutrients to the joints. A lack of exercise or varied movement can weaken the muscles that support the joints, and an underused joint may become stiff, painful, dysfunctional, and prone to injury and osteoarthritis.

Joints, because of their somewhat unusual blood supply, are extremely sensitive to negative nutritional influences compared with other parts of the body. When we abuse our body with poor nutrition, we also damage our joints. Instead of direct oxygenation and nourishment from being bathed in blood (such as with muscles and organs), cartilage is nourished from the fluid in the joint capsule. Oxygen comes from tiny capillaries that surround the joint capsule and diffuses across the joint capsule membrane and into the joint fluid. With normal microcirculation and good nutrition, plenty of oxygen and nutrients bathe the cartilaginous surface of the joints.

When you eat a piece of high-fat food—such as cheese pizza, bacon, or steak—the saturated fats thicken the blood and make the red blood cells sticky. This clumping together of red blood cells makes them too large to enter the small capillaries that surround and nourish the joint capsules. Atherosclerotic deposits thicken the walls and narrow the vascular bed, further impeding delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the joint area where most cartilage and bone remodeling takes place. Defective remodeling then occurs, with gradual destruction of the joint.

The good news is that if osteoarthritis is caught early—before much loss of cartilage and death of chondrocytes—and nutritional excellence is initiated, most of the damage still can be reversible.