Arthrosis

Arthrosis is the most common rheumatic disease that starts aflicting men and women on their early 40’s. It attacks mainly the joints on the knees, back, hip, hands and fingers. Arthrosis can be distinguished by a progressive deterioration of the cartilage in the joints, and by an alteration of the bone, known as “beak-shaped osteophyte”. These phenomena causes a little inflammation in the area, and are associated to restriction of movements. The tendency of the joints is to become stiff, that is, the movement between the bone structures on the joints becomes more restricted with time. In the specific case of the backbone, this movement restriction causes a reduction of the space between vertebrae. The canal through which the nerve roots passes in the spinal cord also have their size reduced, and this causes pain, which may go down the arms or legs as a tingling, burning, prickling or stinging feeling leading to loss of sensation and strength.

Causes:
- Traumas, accidents;
- Genetic predisposition;
- Overweight;
- Advanced age;
- Inflammation and infection;
- Postural vices.

Signals and symptoms:
- Pain related to movement;
- Movement difficulty;
- Unstable joints;
- Morning stiffness;
- Muscle contractions;
- Joints vibrations.

Treatment:
The body is made of movement. That way, the less you move your body, the more it rusts. That´s it. You grow “rusty”. We all have a natural “oil” in our joints that’s called the sinovial fluid, which is produced as we move. This oil is the key to prevent and to treat arthrosis. With our everyday bad moves, postural vices, traumas, wrong sleeping positions, and wrong sitting positions at work, we usually work our muscles unevenly, and this causes unbalance. Your body eventually gets used to it, but at some point it starts “complaining”. This unbalance causes some vertebrae to become stiff,  motionless. Because it makes no movement, it doesn´t produce  sinovial fluid which means that a degenerative process is about to begin. One of the treatments recommended, which does not make use of medicine, and has already being used in the United States for 110 years now, is Chiropractic. Through specific precise hand movements, this treatment returns the movement to the stiff vertebrae. As they start moving again, the production of sinovial fluid (“oil”) increases thus causing the pain to decrease, the space between vertebrae to enlarge, as well as decompression of the discs, nerve interferences to be removed, and the degenerative process to be under control.