Is arthritis the cause of your pains?

CLIFTON PARK (Feb. 17) — We all see the commercials on television that tell you to take this medication or use that pain-relieving cream for joint or muscle pain caused by arthritis. But is your pain due to arthritis?

Many people believe that arthritis causes pain. This is not necessarily true! To better understand this you have to understand what arthritis is.

First of all, there are many types of arthritis. We will be speaking about osteoarthritis (OA) or DJD (degenerative joint disease). OA is not in and of itself an inflammatory condition (-itis means inflammation). Arthritis is your body trying to stabilize itself when joints become unstable.

You should ask yourself:

  1. How does a joint become unstable?

    Joints become unstable for many reasons. One cause is trauma to the joint or surrounding muscles, repetitive stresses like poor posture, too much sitting/standing, sports injuries and the like. This trauma can cause the muscles to tighten up and the joints to stiffen or lock up. The tight muscle is a source of pain, and so is the locked-up joint itself.

  2. How does the body try and stabilize this?

    If your joints are still not moving normally and you still have muscle imbalance, over time your body will try and stabilize the area by further decreasing normal movement/function. (Your body says, “I better not move this area any more because it is unstable, and if I do I can further injure myself.”)

    Your body starts to add bone to the area (abnormal bone growth); this is what we refer to as “bone spurs.” (It can also be called tendonitis when it occurs in muscles). The lack of motion is what chiropractors refer to as a “subluxation.” The lack of normal motion causes a cascade of events we call “subluxation degeneration.” This lack of normal movement in an area of the body causes:

    • Decreased motion/function
    • Pain
    • Inflammation (the body trying to heal itself)
    • Deterioration of the surrounding soft tissues (ligaments, cartilage, discs, tendons)
    • More muscular imbalance (tightness, weakness, etc.)
    • Formation of more “bone spurs”
    • Decreased blood flow to the area and increased pain sensitivity
    • Altered/abnormal biomechanics
  3. What can you do to fix/prevent this?

    Because the cause of this is a decrease in movement or abnormal movement (which can still be a full range of motion), the fix for this is to restore proper motion to the affected area.

    This is not as easy as it might sound because many times you don’t know or can’t tell if you are moving an area the right way. You must take into consideration muscle timing in conjunction with surrounding muscles, muscle strength, tightness/looseness, joint/muscle relationship and pathology and more.

    Also, a muscle can move in a full range of motion, but if the joint is stuck or not moving properly it can make the problem worse (and cause more arthritis/subluxation degeneration). This is why it is important to get evaluated by a qualified health care professional.

Chiropractors are well trained to find and correct these muscular and joint dysfunctions, which help to restore health and decrease injury/illness.

Think of it this way, you have a pain or ache (low back pain, neck pain, hand/wrist pain, etc.) and you say that it is because you have arthritis or are getting older and accept your fate. But when you start to restore movement and function to the muscles, joints and nervous system by visiting a chiropractor, the symptoms disappear, and the problem gets better.

Has the arthritis gone away? No! (Once bone spurs form they generally do not disappear.) So was the cause of the symptoms arthritis? No again! The cause was the underlying muscle and joint dysfunction/imbalance. The arthritis was just a symptom of this imbalance!

Arthritis does not equal pain.

Arthritis is a slow, degenerative process that takes many years. It often starts in our teenage years and is only found later in life when it starts to affect us more. Pain is just a symptom. It is your body’s way of telling you there is a problem that should be addressed. Our body is very remarkable and can handle stresses with different mechanisms. Pain is generally the last symptom experienced when there is a chronic problem. It is also the first symptom to go away when the problem starts to get better.

Chiropractic care is very safe and effective, and people with “arthritis pain” or these joint and muscle imbalances respond well to chiropractic care.

Antonio Marotta D.C. is a Clifton Park chiropractor.

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