Age-related disease
Yulia Borta, AiF-Health: Alexander Yuryevich, what joint problems do older people most often encounter?
Alexander Shishonin: After 50 years, almost everyone’s joints weaken. In some cases, this is due to accumulated injuries. The knee joints are most often injured because they bear the heaviest load. But most diseases of large joints - hip, knee, ankle, shoulder - are associated with changes in metabolism. With age, metabolism slows down, and the nutrition of the cartilage that makes up the joints deteriorates. Cartilage wears out and wears out faster. As a result, pain appears when moving. A person tries to protect the sore leg from stress, to move less, as a result the muscles weaken, and the pain, on the contrary, intensifies. Therefore, physical therapy is one of the most effective means that really improves well-being.
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– Many people complain of stiffness in their joints in the morning; it is difficult to straighten an arm or leg. From what?
– This occurs when production decreases and the composition of the joint fluid, which nourishes and lubricates the cartilage, changes. The reason is the same – hormonal imbalance and changes in metabolism.
By the way
A person has 360 joints: 147 in the spine; 24 – in the chest; 43 – in the upper part of the body (shoulders, elbows, forearms, arm bones); 44 – in the lower part (hips, knees, ankles, foot bones); 13 pelvic; 2 gluteals, etc.
Warm up or cool down
– How to help yourself?
– Self-massage of joints helps. Feel the joint, find the pain points and massage them with rotational movements: 9 times clockwise and the same number counterclockwise. You need to press hard enough to feel pain. This massage will increase blood flow in the joint capsule, which means it will improve the formation of a large amount of joint fluid. As a result, the joints will not be so ossified and rigid.
– Are there any other remedies that can be used at home?
– Joint pain can be treated, for example, with cold. Exposure to cold, like massage, reflexively increases blood flow to deep tissues in this area. The body feels that it is freezing and begins to warm up the cooled area from the inside by increasing blood microcirculation. Moreover, this microcirculation reflex, for example, in the knee joint, lasts up to 3 hours. And in the hip, if the thigh is treated with cold on the side, up to a day. The joint is deep, and therefore the microcirculatory reflex is powerful. What do we have to do? Take an ice cube and massage the skin over the joint in a circular motion for half a minute or a minute. Then be sure to dry your skin with a towel to prevent it from getting too cold. This procedure can be performed up to 5 times a day.
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– Could a bathhouse be useful?
– If there is severe pain, swelling, redness, of course, there is no need to experiment with the bath. And if you just have aching joints, aching pain, then a bath with a contrast immersion in ice water after a steam room (no more than 3 times per steam session) will help.
More weight means more pain
– What physical activities are good for joint pain?
– All exercises that make the muscles around the joint work are useful. For example, if this is the knee joint, then you need to include the muscles of the lower leg, the thighs - the front and back. But in such a way that there is no axial load on the joint - that is harmful. Axial load is a kind of compression along the vertical axis that occurs during squats, jumping, climbing stairs, etc. Such exercises are good for prevention. And if pain has already appeared, it is better to do exercises to develop, say, leg joints while lying on your back. Swimming is very useful for joint pain.
– How to eat if your joints hurt?
– Foods high in protein (for example, caviar), bee products (beebread), jellied meats, jellies are good for joints. The latter contain a lot of gelatin, a lot of collagen, and other substances contained in joints. I advise patients to eat jellied meat twice a week.
If you are overweight, you need to reduce the calorie content of your meals. The greater the body weight, the higher the load on the joints.
However, in case of systemic diseases of the joints, such as rheumatism, lupus erythematosus and others, protein foods, on the contrary, should not be abused. Therefore, before self-medicating, I advise you to consult a doctor to find out your diagnosis. If you have ordinary chronic arthrosis (degenerative changes in the joints associated with age), then all the recommendations described above apply.
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Jellied meat for treating joints: truth or myth
“Movement is life,” said one philosopher. We all want to stay active and young for as long as possible. But this does not always work out. The musculoskeletal system wears out with age, and we are accustomed to thinking about our joints and ligaments after they become sore. Also at risk of injury and damage are people with high physical activity, athletes, bodybuilders, track and field athletes and, of course, those losing weight from an impressive weight. By performing physical exercises with large body weight, we put double the load on our joints. All this suggests that we need to take care of our joints and think about their health now. Do not lead to arthritis and arthrosis.
How the joint works
Our joints are movable places where two or more bones connect into a single system. The joint consists of articular surfaces covered with cartilage tissue, the articular cavity and capsule, synovial membrane, and fluid. This is a complex system that provides a person with mobility and stability. There are 340 joints in the human body from small to large: hip, elbow, knee, etc. This entire complex system needs nutrients; chemical metabolic processes continuously occur inside the joint.
According to WHO, every 7 people on the planet at the age of 40-50 years old face joint diseases - that’s 50%, and by the age of 70, about 90% experience problems. The statistics are not reassuring, so the editors of the calorizer website urge you to take care of your joints in advance.
Collagen
Scientists have proven that collagen levels influence the elasticity of ligaments and joint mobility. This protein is produced independently in the human body. But with age, its production decreases and, first of all, all tissues containing this protein suffer. Skin, hair, ligaments and joints. In addition, collagen is involved in many chemical processes in the body, affecting the quality of sleep, the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, and increasing the level of endurance. In order for collagen to be properly absorbed by the body, it needs zinc, copper, sulfur, selenium, vitamins,, and. Collagen synthesis declines significantly at the age of 26, and collagen production is also greatly influenced by a person's bad habits and lifestyle. For example, smoking and drinking alcohol, chronic lack of sleep and poor diet.
Jellied meat for joint health - all the pros and cons
Collagen is considered as the main element for the health of joints and ligaments, and there is an opinion that in order to maintain youth, beauty and mobility for a long time, you need to eat foods that contain large quantities of collagen. For example, jellied meat. To prepare it, they use bones, joints, and cartilage of animals, the collagen from which is boiled and ends up in the broth. At first glance, everything seems logical, but in reality it is not entirely true.
There is really a lot of collagen in jellied meat; when it enters the body, it is broken down into amino acids. In its undigested form, this protein simply cannot be absorbed through the walls of the stomach into the blood. Eating jellied meat increases the content of amino acids in the blood, but the body is a complex, well-coordinated system and amino acids can be used to solve other problems, and this is not necessarily the skin, hair and joints. That is, theoretically, eating jellied meat or collagen in powder form helps improve the functioning of ligaments and joints, but your body may not think so and use amino acids from collagen to cover more pressing problems.
Now let's weigh the pros and cons: jellied meat is a meat and bone broth with pieces of meat, boiled and cooled to a jelly state. On the one hand, it contains a large amount of B vitamins, a large amount of collagen and glycine, and on the other hand, it is contraindicated for people with gastrointestinal diseases, gastritis with high acidity, and a predisposition to kidney stones and gall bladder. And because of its high cholesterol content, nutritionists do not recommend consuming more than 150-200 grams of it per day, once a week, even if you are absolutely healthy!
But jellied meat still has its purpose. This is an appetizer and, as a rule, it is served with strong alcoholic drinks. And this is not without reason. Once in the stomach, the jellied meat turns into liquid again. The viscous broth coats the walls of the stomach and prevents the absorption of alcohol.
Chondroitin and Glucosamine
These two substances are also essential for joint health. Glucosamine is involved in the construction of tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. Chondroitin is a connective tissue polysaccharide that normalizes the structure of articular cartilage. It is important for health that both of these elements are present in the diet. Acute deficiency of these substances is observed in people aged 50-60 years, when the body’s production of these substances is reduced significantly. Vitamins, and, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, selenium, manganese salts, copper and collagen are involved in the synthesis of glucosamine and chondroitin.
What foods to look for glucosamine and chondroitin in? First of all, these are poultry, beef, cheeses without heat treatment, seafood, eggs, mushrooms, nuts and sprouted seeds.
Nutrition for joints
What should be the nutrition for joints? First of all, balanced. The body must receive all micro- and macroelements in sufficient quantities. One cannot be synthesized without the other. Even a sufficient amount of collagen, chondroitin and glucosamine in food does not guarantee joint health during intense physical activity, household injuries and bad habits.
Provide your joints with moderate exercise in the form of walking or yoga, eat a healthy and balanced diet, stop smoking and drinking alcohol, and you will be able to prolong the health of your joints for many years.
Author: Elena Sh. (especially for) Copying this article in whole or in part is prohibited.
Exercises for knee joints
- Lying on your back, bend one leg as much as possible, first at the knee, then at the hip joint and press it to your body with your hands. Hold this position. Then gently lower your foot to the floor and straighten your leg. Repeat with the other leg. 10–15 times.
- Lying on your back, do the “Bicycle” exercise.
- Lying on your back, raise your legs (together or alternately) 20–30 cm from the floor, hold in this position and smoothly lower them down. 10–15 times. Leg raises can also be performed while sitting on a chair.
What is possible
It is very important to eat foods high in protein, which helps restore cartilage tissue. Therefore, if you are interested in the question of what is possible for arthrosis of the joints, you need to add fish, beans, dairy cheeses and cottage cheese to your diet. In this case, it is best to steam food.
Vitamin B, which is found in baked potatoes, bananas, lentils and eggs, is also useful. The following products are also acceptable:
- Edible gelatin
- Bone jellies, broths and jellied meats
- Freshly squeezed vegetable and fruit juices
- Buckwheat