SPINAL DEGENERATION
CAUSE AND EFFECT
The medical community would have you believe that the biggest cause of joint deterioration is birthdays. You know; the whole, "After all Mrs. Smith, you just aren't as young as you used to be" thing. It's too darn easy to blame degeneration on a person's age, and move on to the next patient. This is true whether the patient is 25 or 95. Age is a convenient scapegoat. Let's take a moment and talk about the two main causes of DJD (DEGENERATIVE JOINT DISEASE), otherwise known as Osteoarthritis or Degenerative Arthritis.
- ABNORMAL BIOMECHANICS: When joints or tissues move abnormally (HERE is a video example), the structures that make up said joints degenerate more rapidly than they otherwise would. This is why I see old folks with very little degenerative change in their spine, and likewise, see people in their 30's (or even sometimes their 20's) with degeneration. Abnormal motion causes degeneration, but degeneration causes abnormal joint motion. Ladies and gentlemen; start your engines. A "Vicious Cycle" is about to commence. Understand that this motion must be segmental as well as sectional. In simple English, this means that not only is it critical that you stay active, but that each and every bone / vertebra in your body must be moving freely as well. Degeneration occurs very specifically in the areas that are not moving like they were created and designed to do.
- CRAPPY DIETS: In our age of heavily processed food, this one is tough to get away from. SUGAR does to bones what it does to teeth. JUNK FOOD diets cause your system to acidify. The body uses the best buffer it has available --- calcium it leaches from you blood, bones, or DNA. Thus, poor diets not only lead people into CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DEGENERATIVE DISEASES (including OBESITY), they lead people straight into OSTEOPOROSIS and DEGENERATIVE ARTHRITIS.