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?

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
    64·
    2 days ago

    A vegan diet or one at least heavily plant-based (and diets like the Mediterranean one) are consistently linked to lower inflammation in meta-analysis after meta-analysis.

    Edit: I have no clue why this is getting downvoted. Examples below:

    • “The present systematic review provides evidence that vegan and vegetarian diets are associated with lower CRP levels, a major marker of inflammation and a mediator of inflammatory processes.” —Scientific Reports (2020)
    • “This umbrella review offers valuable insights on the estimated reduction of risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases and cancer, and the CVDs-associated mortality, offered by the adoption of plant-based diets through pleiotropic mechanisms. Through the improvement of glycolipid profile, reduction of body weight/BMI, blood pressure, and systemic inflammation, A/AFPDs significantly reduce the risk of ischemic heart disease, gastrointestinal and prostate cancer, as well as related mortality.” —PLoS One (2024)
    • “Evidence strongly suggests that plant-based dietary patterns that are abundant in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains with less emphasis on animal foods and processed foods are a useful and a practical approach to preventing chronic diseases. Such dietary patterns, from plant-exclusive diets to plant-centered diets, are associated with improved long-term health outcomes and a lower risk of all-cause mortality. Given that neurodegenerative disorders share many pathophysiological mechanisms with CVD, including oxidative stress, inflammation, and vascular damage, it is reasonable to deduce that plant-based diets can ameliorate cognitive decline as well.” —Advances in Nutrition (2019)

    A vegan diet is just generally lower in inflammatory foods than an omnivorous one.

    • UnPassive@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      16 hours ago

      Thanks for the info!

      I actually know a bit about low-inflammation diets (mostly low meat and being selective on carbs) from when I was running track. I always saw it as a high-performance thing, but some habits have stuck around. And for a long time I’ve done Meatless-Mondays since it’s an easy and mostly thought-less thing to do.

    • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      People shouldn’t down vote you, the research is true.

      However, the modern western diet is so bad (sugar, diabetes, cvd, etc) that anything compared to it will show a improvement. People might be reacting to the prescriptive tone of your statement.

      • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        I know you mean well, but please explain the difference in tone between my comment (just the original, which the downvotes came from) and this one with 20 upvotes and 0 downvotes. Functionally there is no difference in tone or (as you noted) factual accuracy. If anything, the linked comment is more prescriptive in that it directly tells the reader what to do (“keep your teeth clean”). That I compared an omnivorous diet negatively against a predominantly or wholly plant-based one in any way is the obvious reason why this has as many downvotes as upvotes: people are conditioned to see any mention of a vegan diet’s health benefits as preachy and dogmatic.

        • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          People get really emotional about the goodness of their chosen (or more likely accidental) diet.

          The other comment you linked to mentioned Omega-3, Vitamin D, moderate alcohol, and brushing teeth - it did not mention a specific dietary intervention (or suggest one).