I’m a 28 year old guy, no signs of arthritis yet. But both my parents have quite debilitating and different forms of arthritis.
My dad (54 years old) thought he tore something in his knee getting out of his car on some ice recently. It wasn’t healing. MRI revealed that he just has terrible arthritis. He’s about 200lbs and 6 feet tall and fairly active still. But for years his knees have made it hard for him to hike or mountain bike. He still goes, but complains constantly. He can not do a squat, can’t sit cross-leg, and has trouble getting down onto the ground or back up (for like 10 years straight).
My mom used to cut hair, now she has really bad arthritis in her fingers, and some in her back. She’s far more mobile than my dad. Also a healthy weight. I’m a software engineer so my fingers are quite important to me.
Neither of them smoke or drink alcohol - at all.
I’m super active. I ran track in college. I mountain bike, freedive, backpack, pretty much anything outdoors. Exercise fairly regularly (2 times a week). My hope is that staying healthy and active is enough. But seeing them struggle to keep up has me worried. They haven’t aged much, but it’s like they feel pain moving.
My maternal grandpa was backpacking and biking into his early 70s pain-free. I’d see that as an absolute win compared to my parents. The research I did this morning had some basic suggestions, but also a lot of “we don’t really know.”
I’ve had a few sports injuries, but nothing that has bothered me after it healed. Some were serious enough to required physical therapy. Mostly ankle and wrist sprains, plus regular stress fractures in my feet from indoor track.
Correct me if I’m wrong: but right now one of the things I want to incorporate more of is mobility work. I like yoga so that’s probably what I’ll try to add more of. Once a week was what I was planning on. I do a lot of active things that I don’t consider exercise, like biking to work, walking the dog, etc.
Also, I don’t run a ton anymore, but it’s never bothered me and I love going on a run every now and again. The research here seems to be super conflicting. My interpretation is that you can run unless you have arthritis and it bothers you. But running doesn’t seem to cause arthritis or knee pain (even though a lot of personal anecdotal stories blame running on knee issues). In general, the lower impact the activity though, the better it is for people with arthritis.
So if anyone has resources to link to, or long-term lifestyle suggestions, I’m all ears. My ultimate goal would be to just feel as healthy as I do right now, for as long as possible.
And so; what lifestyle practices combat/prevent arthritis?
High Omega-3 Diets are linked to lower rates of RA, same with Vitamin D.
Moderate alcohol intake (1-3 drinks per week) is also associated with lower autoimmune risk, but they don’t know why yet.
Dental disease is linked to RA, so keep your teeth clean.
Last but not least, decent sleep.
There’s a Know How or How To (I don’t remember the name of the YouTube channel; EDIT: @[email protected] found it. The video is linked in their comment) that explains why we used to believe moderate alcohol consumption is healthy.
Turns out, those surveys only ask “How many drinks do you have a week?” Notice they tacitly ask about the present, how many drinks now and not in the past. If you were a very heavy drinker in the past and got sick from it, you likely stopped drinking altogether.
Not only that, but people with chronic illness many times choose to not drink at all.
These two populations (sick ex-drinkers and chronically sick non-drinkers) make it seem as if not drinking is not that healthy. But remove those groups from the data analysis or control for past alcohol usage and pre-existing conditions and you end up with a clear pattern: drinking alcohol in any quantity is unhealthy. The more, the worse.
Sorry for the lack of sources; I’m on mobile. I think there’s a WHO report titled “There’s no safe amount of alcohol” or something like that.
Drinking poison that causes inflammation and cell damage is bad? Who knew?
Possibly this video by Howtown.
That’s it!
That’s a fantastic watch. Many thanks.
Damn. I don’t get enough fish in my diet, and have to take Vitamin D supplements to get enough of that too. I drink too much as well (made a resolution to quit, though; it’s been a week without a drink), and have to vape weed every day in order to get tired enough to sleep.
No wonder why I developed arthritis in my early 20s. I just thought it was genetic.
You need to talk to a medic or psychiatrist about this, I’ve had the same issue since I was born and averaged a couple of all-nighters a month just staring at the ceiling.
Now I take meds ( 25mg Seroquel, but dont blindly trust me and ask a professional for one more suited to you), and go to sleep regularly every night, and even better, I get sleepy in the evening, which is something I could have never dreamt of back when I needed to roll in my sheets to tire myself out.
If anything I said resonates with you, please try it, even if you have legal weed where you live it’s not worth the side effects and the sleep from it is barely decent
I think OP may be asking about Osteoarthritis not Rheumatoid Arthritis. Osteoarthritis being the most common type cause by simple wear and tear and age.
They may have similar symptoms but have very different causes. Your advice has more to do with regulation of your immune system which is more helpful for RA than OA.