If arthritis doesn't heal, then how can I get better?

When it comes to healing not all parts of the body are equal. There are some tissues that heal fairly quickly like bones and skin and others very slowly or not at all, like nerves and cartilage. There are even some of the same tissues that have very different healing times. The medial collateral ligament (MCL) of the knee heals well on its own, while the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of the knee doesn’t heal at all. The key factor in the body’s ability to regenerate damaged tissues is that tissue’s blood supply. The unfortunate reality is that cartilage has poor or no blood supply (depending on the location) and therefore does not heal when damaged. The majority of arthritic conditions involve some breakdown in the cartilage and wearing of the joint surfaces and those changes will not heal spontaneously. Fortunately, the condition of the tissue is only one of many factors that contribute to how much pain a person has. Most arthritic pain intensity varies from day to day, and if you can have even one good day, you know it’s possible to feel good despite your tissue damage because your joints were just as arthritic on the good day as they were the bad. To learn more about good days and bad days check out my previous blog post by clicking here.

If arthritic changes don’t heal how does someone with arthritis find lasting relief?

People don’t often move in the most biomechanically efficient way possible. They often adopt patterns of movement that may be particularly strenuous to specific areas of the body. In some cases, those patterns have been in place for years or even decades and were a contributing factor in accelerating joint breakdown. If you are able to identify patterns that create strain in the joints and change them, you may be able to change a painful arthritic joint into a comfortable arthritic joint. Far more important than what activities you do is how you do those activities. There is a painful way and comfortable way to climb stairs, and walk, and lift, etc. In fact, I often move my patients in directions that make an activity more painful just to show them what patterns are contributing to their pain. Once they understand how to make things worse, it becomes clearer how to do the opposite and make things better. It also drives home the idea that a small change in movement technique can make a big difference in pain level. No one moves with perfect efficiency, and that’s a good thing because it means everyone has the capacity to improve. While not everyone I work with resolves their pain completely, everyone has the potential to improve if they can figure out how to move differently.

Our bodies are good at making changes on their own to self-correct harmful movement patterns and that’s why most aches and pains resolve by themselves, without needing medical intervention. Sometimes, however, you may get stuck in a pattern you are unable to change and in most cases are completely unaware of. This is when pain becomes persistent and assistance from a skilled practitioner is necessary. Over the next month, I will be posting specifically about understanding movement patterns, why we have them, how they help us, how they harm us, how to identify them, and how to make lasting changes. Stay with me as we take a look into our brains and bodies and how they work together. I hope you find it as fascinating as I do. I love hearing from you, so if you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected] or through our Facebook Group.