Is it "Old Age" really?

Osteoarthritis while more common as we get older is not the simple unavoidable byproduct of the years ticking by. So often in practice the narrative goes something like this…

Patient: Hey Doc, I’ve come in because my low back hurts. Have had this before but it usually goes away but this time it hasn’t.

Fast forward in the conversation and after a bit more questioning another statement like this often comes out…

Patient: Oh yeh, and by the way I have a sore right knee too! But that’s just old age and because of osteoarthritis so I can’t do anything about that.

Chiro: Ok so you’ve got arthritis in your right knee. How’s your left knee?

Patient: Oh, the left knee is fine.

Chiro: Ok so you are 55 years old, yes? You’ve got arthritis in the right knee, not the left but both knees are 55 years old. So how can it be just old age then if the left knee is OK?

At this point the penny drops! If old age was the cause of the right knee problem, the left knee would be the same. In actual fact so would your knees, hips, ankles, spine and other joints as well.

Whenever there is a disproportionate amount of wear and tear, that is localised to just one area or joint in the body it is not age that is the cause of your problem.

And, this is not to discount the fact is that time has been a factor in the wear and tear of the right knee, but it is not time alone that is the primary culprit. There must be imbalances somewhere placing more stress on the right knee than it could recover from over time leading to the wear and tear. These imbalances may not just be structural either. They could be

-          Metabolic such nutritional deficiencies and poor diet

-          Emotional overwhelm, trauma and chronic lifestyle stress

All of these lead to an increase probability of systemic inflammation placing demands on an already mechanically stressed-out joint in overdrive. Chronic inflammation is like acid on healthy tissues further retarding their capacity for healing and repair.

So, we must always strive to look for the root cause of our problems. While we can’t ever totally avoid “age appropriate levels of wear and tear” osteoarthritic joints that have degenerated to the point that we can no longer engage in a healthy active lifestyle are not a given