Arthritis care before you get the actual arthritic symptoms may help avoid a lifetime of issues.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree that arthritis is something that most people end up getting. It is very logical that each person has more or less propensity for the condition.
For example, Person A and Person B may both have highly physical jobs, but they may not end up with equal arthritis conditions after a lifetime of work.
It is more likely that one of those two will be more susceptible to the impact of the physical work. That person could be reasonably expected to have more severe symptoms.
Arthritis Pre Care for Lifelong Health
Palm Springs, California is a hub for knee and hip replacements. This is mainly because it is also a highly desirable area for retirees to end up.
As a result of this seemingly unrelated fact, the local doctors and chiropractors have a lot of experience with arthritis. This gives them a unique perspective on the condition of Arthritis.
Real Life Arthritis Example
Let’s take a real-life case study for an early retiree whom we will call Man A: Man A is not yet 60, but he has had advanced arthritis in both knees for many years. He has recently had both knees surgically replaced.
He also has arthritis in both hips which typically causes him pain while walking. The pain is not bad enough to lower his quality of life, however he does take Tylenol Arthritis semi-regularly.
Man A also has a decades-long history of going to a Chiropractor 4 to 6 times per year. His visits are all for the same issue. His left hip sacroiliac joint causes shooting pain on a fairly regular basis.
Curiously, it turns out that his left knee was far more arthritic than his right. Recent tests show that his left hip also has more advanced arthritis.
Impact of Leg Length Differences
Any chiropractor will tell you that the longer of two legs will be the one that has the worse arthritis. It is also the one that will need more chiropractic adjustments.
Man A added a 6mm or ¼ inch homemade orthotic lift (layers of cardboard in truth) to his right shoe to test his chiropractor’s assertion that all his issues are linked to the one short leg.
After a week we interviewed Man A to see what changes he has noticed, if any.
Unsurprisingly, he has noticed some small aches as his hip and back muscles adjusted to this new and slightly different stance.
His hips no longer bother him at all. Additionally, while he was not previously aware of this being an issue, he no longer wakes each morning with back pain.
Arthritis Care Conclusion
He even claims to feel 20 years younger than his age.
So perhaps arthritis was not the root cause of his issues after all. Perhaps it was something as simple as the slight imbalance caused by his ¼” shorter leg over a lifetime of walking, running, and sports.
Maybe this, coupled with the changed angles in his knees and hips, has in fact simply worn out the joint cushions far more rapidly than normal, regardless of his propensity for arthritis.
Perhaps we need to consider pre-care before we consider healthcare for arthritis. Perhaps measuring our leg lengths should be standard practice once we reach our twenties.
That way, everyone who needed it could be prescribed orthotic shims. Correcting the imbalance before it has a chance to wear out their knees and hips prematurely may be a key factor in preventing arthritis.
Arthritis Care Benefits
Think of the money that could be saved in healthcare if we could prevent the ravages of arthritis! And that is even before we consider the enormous improvement in quality of life for all the potentially hundreds of thousands of men and women who suffer from the condition.
So when you think about arthritis in the knees and hips, the first thing you should consider is what factors may be causing the condition.
During knee and hip replacement the current goal is always to replace as exactly as possible the joint that is being removed. That means that if you have one shorter leg that is causing or adding to the arthritis, then you will not have actually corrected the cause of the arthritis.
This will leave you still dealing with other symptoms such as sore back and perhaps other joints that will have accelerated arthritis.
Arthritis Care Plan
So what to do?
You can get your leg length measured at many clinics and it is highly recommended that you do so. If you find that you have one leg significantly different from the other, you may want to try orthotics to see if they help.
Remember that you have to be the primary person in charge of and taking control of your own health care.
