Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a joint disease and at the same time an unavoidable part of life. Virtually everyone over the age of 50 will have signs of osteoarthritis in the back and neck as well as other weight-bearing joints. How the symptoms appear can be very different from person to person. It is also impossible to predict how much our daily life is affected by osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis starts with the joint cartilage becoming thinner and uneven and eventually disappearing completely. The joint capsule thickens, and more synovial fluid is produced, thereby enlarging the joint.

In the early stages of osteoarthritis, you don't have to have symptoms at all. Some have mild pain, crunch in the joint and temporary stiffness. As the wear and tear changes increase, the symptoms will often increase as well. The symptoms are usually worst when you are about to start, and then get better once you have started moving. Later, the pain increases again when the joint and the muscles around the joint have been strained (triad pain).

Hereditary factors play a major role in the development of osteoarthritis. Bad or simply not optimally functioning joints can lead to osteoarthritis, regardless of whether it is due to excess weight, previous fractures in or around the joint, damage to ligaments or muscles due to sprains or overload due to unilateral movements. Poorly functioning joints as a result of joint locking and accompanying excessively mobile (hypermobile) and too little mobile (hypermobile) joints can also result in osteoarthritis in the joints.

The most important preventive measure against osteoarthritis is exercise, movement and training. It is not decisive how you train - the most important thing is that you are moving - so let it be something you find fun. At the clinic, we regularly run various exercise and training classes where, under the guidance of a chiropractor or physiotherapist, you can safely start prevention.

By optimizing the mobility of the joints, it is possible to prevent osteoarthritis with chiropractic treatment. The wear and tear that has already occurred cannot be removed. The pain and tension caused by osteoarthritis is alleviated by chiropractic treatment, but how much relief you can achieve naturally depends on how much the joint has been damaged.

Traditionally, various pain-relieving medications are used for rheumatic pain. Chiropractic is not necessarily a substitute for this but must be seen as a complementary and significantly gentler treatment. If the osteoarthritis is very advanced and the pain is persistent and debilitating, surgery can often be the solution.