What Causes Osteoarthritis?

Causes of OA include sports injuries, some types of work, genetic predisposition and unhealthy posture. When the joints are misaligned, the cartilage at the end of your bones can get worn down, so that eventually you may have bone rubbing on bone. This cartilage, when healthy, allows the bones to glide easily in the joints, cushioning your movement.

According to dictionary.com, cartilage is “a firm, elastic, flexible type of connective tissue of a translucent whitish or yellowish color.” You have cartilage in many parts of your body, including the intervertebral discs in your spine. You also have cartilage at the ends of bones, where they meet other bones to form joints (such as your knee joint).

Stress can also aggravate OA. Stress can lead to tight muscles, which then pull on the joints in an unhealthy manner. This can lead to loss of range-of-motion, and then you may begin to limit your movement more and more, so that it becomes a vicious circle.

How Yoga Can Help

Yoga can be beneficial for OA sufferers. It helps to reduce stress, increase body awareness, increase flexibility and improve range-of-motion.

Movement is essential for joint health. Synovial fluid is secreted into the joints to reduce friction. As there is no direct blood supply to cartilage, movement is required to get nutrients in and old fluid out. Healthy synovial fluid aids in ease of movement of the bones in the joint, preventing the wear and tear of bone on bone. Practicing yoga brings increased range-of-motion and circulation to the joints, which can help your cartilage stay healthy.

Timothy McCall, MD, in Yoga as Medicine, states, “Most people who aren’t actively working to maintain flexibility in their muscles and other tissues, and range of motion in their joints, become more restricted in their movements as they age.”

Of course, it’s essential to practice yoga with healthy alignment. Otherwise you could make matters worse by stressing joints or causing flare-ups. If your joints are painful and stiff, start slowly with short, gentle movements, working up to bigger movements or longer held postures.

Marian Garfinkel did a study on yoga for arthritis that was published in the Journal of Rheumatology in 1994. She found that with 25 patients, “a program of adapted Iyengar yoga and relaxation resulted in significant reductions in pain and an increase in range of motion.”

Other Components of Healing

Acupuncture can be helpful for pain relief from OA. Aerobic exercise is recommended, though you may need to start slowly if you haven’t been active recently. Yogajournal.com suggests massaging your wrists with sesame oil. Drinking enough water is important for optimum health of your joints as well.

Diet is another important component of healing OA, particularly eating foods that reduce inflammation. Click here to read nutritionist Julie Halpin’s dietary recommendations for optimum health of your muscles, joints and bones.

The Importance of Healthy Posture

One of the main things I focus on as a teacher of the Balance Method is healthy joint alignment. In my yoga classes I carefully check knee alignment in poses to ensure that students aren’t stressing their joints. In my posture classes I teach healthy joint alignment in sitting, standing, bending and other daily movements. How you hold and move your body during the course of your day has a huge impact on the health of your joints.

The Balance Method is based on studying populations of people with natural, healthy posture, like the posture of young children. In American culture, our joints are so misaligned that we have an epidemic of joint replacement. While you may not be able to completely erase the damage of decades of misalignment (I had it too!), changing your posture to align your bones with gravity can make a huge difference in your comfort and long term health.

An Exercise to Help Painful Wrists

If you have painful wrists, start with some simple movements such as wrist circles. When I was a Flamenco dancer, I learned how to do these “flores” movements with my wrists.

• To do this, relax your arms down by your sides with your palms facing your legs.
• Now bend your wrists, bringing your fingers towards your inner wrists.
• Now turn your fingers to face behind you, then out to the sides.
• When they’ve gone as far as they can in that direction, bend your wrists the opposite way, so that your inner wrists are stretched.
• Continue by bringing your fingers to point forward.
• Now you can start the cycle again, moving slowly at first, and then gradually making smooth and continuous circles with your wrists. Your left hand is moving clockwise and your right hand is moving counter-clockwise.

Try a couple first, see how you feel afterwards, and then if you feel good, you can build up to doing 5-10 circles in each direction (each wrist goes clockwise and counter-clockwise).

If you’d like some guidance in healthy joint alignment, come to my “Yoga for a Healthy Back” class or to one of my introductory Balance Method workshops. For the schedule, visit www.sonomabodybalance.com. Taking good care of your joints will really pay off as you get older, and can help you stay active and comfortable for many years to come.

© Dana K. Davis, 2011.

Sources:

McCall, Timothy, M.D., Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing, Bantam Books, New York, 2007.

Monro, Robin, M.D., Dr. R. Nagarathna, Dr. H.R. Nagendra, Yoga for Common Ailments, Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1990.

www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/2694

Causes of Leg Cramps

No one knows exactly the cause of leg cramps. Dr. Andrew Weil says they may be caused by “inadequate stretching and muscle fatigue” (http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA307009). Other potential causes are muscle atrophy due to aging & inactivity, dehydration, circulation problems, low iron levels, smoking, low levels of minerals (such as potassium, magnesium and calcium), pregnancy, hypothyroidism and other medical conditions. According to the Mayo Clinic, these cramps are usually harmless, but in some cases could indicate diabetes or peripheral artery disease. For information about when you should see a doctor, you can go to http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/night-leg-cramps/MY00410.

Prevention

So what can you do to prevent or relieve leg cramps? Both Dr. Weil and the Mayo Clinic suggest stretching. I’ll give you a couple stretches that could help below. You might want to stretch briefly before going to bed if you’re worried about leg cramps waking you up. It’s important to stay hydrated, so make sure you’re drinking enough water during the day (most nutritionists recommend 8 glasses per day). Remember that beverages containing caffeine and alcohol act as a diuretic, causing you to excrete more water, so don’t include these in your 8 glasses a day.

Some other suggestions from Dr. Weil include taking warm baths, massage, acupuncture, exercise, and quitting smoking. Once you’ve got a cramp, you can try flexing your toes toward your face or massaging your foot with your hands or some ice. Walking may also bring relief. Make sure you don’t tuck your sheets in too tight at the foot of your bed.

How important is diet?

Dr. Weil suggests taking a calcium/magnesium supplement, as does Julie Halpin, a Certified Nutrition Consultant (www.thefoodworks.com). She recommends one supplement to clients that also includes the herbs valerian and passion flower for their calming effect.
Julie suggests eating foods high in minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium. Some of these foods include:

dark leafy greens like kale and spinach
nuts and seeds, especially almonds and sesame seeds
whole grains
potatoes
bananas

Rather than relying on dairy for calcium, sesame seeds and leafy greens may be a better choice, as some people have allergies to dairy.

Foot Alignment Matters

The Mayo Clinic also states that flat feet may be a cause of leg cramps, and suggests wearing shoes with support. Posture is very important in keeping your feet healthy. The typical American posture with pelvis thrust forward puts too much weight toward the front of the foot, which causes the arches to collapse. In my Balance Your Body Foundations program, I teach students to stand “in Balance”, so that the weight goes mainly into the heels, which keeps your arches healthy. I also teach people how to realign the feet to help reduce bunions and other foot problems.

Stretches to Prevent Cramps

Before bed, you can try a calf stretch. Face a wall and bring your right foot to the wall, so your toes are almost touching it. Take your left foot back about 2 feet. Your right foot points straight ahead and your left foot can turn slightly out. Check that your hips are squarely facing the wall. Place your hands on the wall and bend your right knee directly over the middle of your foot (not towards your big toe). Your left calf will get a big stretch. For a deeper stretch, take your left foot farther back. Relax your back and make sure you’re not lifting your chest. Remember to breathe. Hold the pose for 30-60 seconds and then reverse.

For healthy hamstrings, bending in Balance is essential. This means to bend from your hip joints, not your waist. If you make it a habit to bend this way all the time, your hamstrings will stay much more flexible. We see people in less-industrialized countries able to easily bend down to pick up things off the ground with their backs very straight. In this country, many people have trouble putting on their shoes and socks as they get older, due to increasingly tight hamstring muscles. So relax your belly and bend from your hip joints to stay flexible, and this may also help you reduce leg cramps.

To sum up (you’ve heard most of this before), eat a healthy diet, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly, stretch regularly, and learn healthy, aligned posture to prevent leg cramps.

UPDATE:
This is a response from one of the readers of this blog which you might find helpful:

“Re leg cramps: if you’re running into people who are really suffering, I do have an answer. A company called Hylands has an OTC homeopathic product called “Leg Cramps with Quinine.” I was desperate and this did the trick. I get cramps so bad I end up in tears and one pill works immediately. I only take them when I have a cramp so I don’t overuse them. They have saved me from excruciating pain.”

© 2011 Dana K. Davis

But after studying with Jean for a while, I realized that I was getting more and more comfortable sitting at my computer working. I hadn’t realized that the nagging, achy feeling I had at the end of my workday was actually back pain! That is, until it went away! I had been “putting up with” the discomfort because I assumed it was normal, and that there was nothing I could do about it. Have you ever felt that way?

I also became much more comfortable driving, and noticed that I was also more alert when commuting. Again, I would never have said I had “back pain”, but the discomfort I felt when driving or flying on a plane was taking a toll on my energy and well-being. There was also the pain I felt when washing dishes or chopping vegetables.

A lot of discomfort or pain is believed to be “just part of getting older”. Do you really want to accept that? Or can you envision growing old with grace and ease, feeling comfortable in your body and staying active? This is possible!

So, do you have back pain? Here are some questions to consider:

1. Do you squirm with discomfort when sitting at the computer or at lectures or classes?
2. Does driving for long distances or flying on a plane leave you feeling strained and exhausted?
3. Have you eliminated things you love to do because of pain or discomfort (traveling, sports, socializing)?
4. Can you sit in a chair as long as you want, or do you have to get up several times an hour to avoid pain?
5. Can you walk several miles without paying for it afterwards?

Now, some of you KNOW you have back pain. Sometimes there’s no question about it. But I find there are a lot of people who just put up with a low level of pain or discomfort on a daily basis – because they don’t believe they can do anything about it.

The Balance Method can help you with this! How would you like to learn simple postural guidelines that you can practice anywhere, anytime to reduce or eliminate your pain? What would your life be like if you knew what to do to prevent or relieve your pain, wherever you are? We see people in many countries throughout the world that have elegant posture and pain-free bodies. They stay straight and active into their old age.

This is possible for all of us. We all were In Balance as children (up until age 3), and then most of us in the U.S. lost our natural posture. Come to a 2-Hour Balance workshop to learn more about this, see some fabulous slides of Balanced people, and learn how to sit pain-free!

© 2011 Dana K. Davis

Dr. Andrew Weil says that optimism is a key to healthy aging. A healthy diet is another important component in long-term health. Of course, exercise also makes a big difference in keeping your body, and mind, healthy.

One factor that is often overlooked is how posture contributes to long-term health and well-being. Kathleen Porter, in her book Ageless Spine, Lasting Health, has a wonderful chapter called “Amazing Grace” showing the difference between people with healthy posture and those with unhealthy posture. Those with healthy posture (“Balanced”) are from less industrialized parts of the world. (You can find her book at http://agelessspine.com).

She mentions that the common motto of “use it or lose it” is not the full story. Rather, it’s HOW you use your body that makes all the difference. Even athletes who use their bodies all the time get lots of injuries in the US. While it is important to exercise and move your body regularly – walking is a simple and easy way to start – how you move makes a difference in your comfort, energy level and health.

Kathleen has some incredible photos in her book of people in their 70′s, 80′s and 90′s who still look straight and strong, with a sense of grace. While we all had that healthy posture up until age 3 (in every country), in the US we’ve lost this natural alignment. The good news is – you can relearn this!

When your body is aligned with gravity, with the vertical axis, you can rest on your bones and allow your muscles to relax more. Your spine can begin to lengthen, and you may even regain lost height. Your skeletal structure will be better able to support your inner organs. You can reduce back and joint pain and have more energy.

To get started, come to one of my free, introductory workshops on the Balance Method. I’ll show you some fabulous slides and teach you the easiest way to start changing your posture – by changing how you sit (visit www.sonomabodybalance.com for details). If you can’t wait that long, check out my blog post on healthy sitting at http://www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2009/12/10-tips-for-pain-free-sitting/.

So to stay healthy throughout your life, use your body, and pay attention to HOW you use it. You just might make it to 100 and still be going strong!