What about your knees?

If you exercise, run, go to the gym, play sports inevitably someone you just met will ask “but what about your knees?” As if being active is a direct path to achy joints. We know that exercise is good for us and we know it is good for our joints too. You don’t get osteoarthritis from being active. It was once thought to be a result of wear and tear, overuse, aging. It can be a side effect of injuries, but not because you are active.

It can be prevented.

There is more research that shows that exercise is chondroprotective,  people who are more active have healthier joints. Exercise is important for maintaining the health of your cartilage and as a treatment for osteoarthritis.

Researchers have just discovered that osteoarthritis can be prevented with diet and exercise. What you eat has a direct effect on the health of your joints. Being sedentary and eating badly cause changes to the genetic programming in the cells.

How?

Sedentary living and a bad diet change your cells ability to produce energy. Your cells then have to look for alternate fuel sources and this increases the stress on your cells. Under stress, your cells start to produce too much glucose which is then turned into lactic acid. The high levels of lactic acid cause an increase in inflammation in the joint’s cartilage reducing movement and increasing pain.

Osteoarthritis is a disease of excess. An excess of sitting and eating. Not exercise. 

Do your knees a favour and keep moving.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla