For our whole lives, we participate in a daily practice to ensure the health of our teeth, as it is obvious that tooth decay is extremely undesirable. Neglecting dental hygiene can lead to issues far beyond affecting that beautiful smile on your face, including infection, as well as compromised gut and heart health. In order to ensure dental health, we brush and floss daily, and visit the dentist two times per year. We have accepted this as the gold standard practice, and dental hygiene becomes almost an unconscious part of our lives.
What about our joints? We have over 200 of them in our body, and without them, we would be unable to move. Each of these joints desperately need movement, compression, and relaxation in order to stay healthy, mobile, and well-lubricated. Unfortunately, we have an epidemic of poor joint health that is on the rise. In fact, around a quarter of US citizens have arthritis (an inflammatory disease of the joints), and the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis has actually doubled since the mid-20th century.1 This is contributing to extreme rises in healthcare costs, risky surgeries, chronic disability, and unnecessary pain and suffering. Poor joint health is also associated with many other health conditions- depression, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and metabolic conditions such as diabetes.2 There are many theories as to why the incidence of this disease is so high- increasing weight, sedentary behavior, as well as the overall aging of our population. However, there is little discussion about how to address the root cause of this disease through education and prevention.
Why is there not more education about how to keep our joints healthy as we go through our lives? My main takeaways from gym class growing up were pretty much as follows: how many sit ups and chin ups can I do in a minute in order to "perform well" on the presidential fitness test, as well as how quickly can I run a mile in order not to embarrass myself around my peers? However, there was absolutely no discussion of joint health in any of my education up until physical therapy school.
What joints need is movement- movement that goes behind repetitive gym exercises, walking, and running. As joints do not have great blood supply, they are completely reliant on us moving our bodies through our given ranges of motion in order to distribute the lubricating synovial fluid around the joint space. As we move and load our joints through their given ranges of motion, we develop an improved mind-body awareness that helps us control the force we put through each joint through our body's posturing and muscle recruitment/relaxation. By regularly moving each joint, we also build up our injury resistance to both chronic and acute injuries. For example, if you never practice moving your ankle inwards, and then you accidentally trip over a root during a hike that forces your ankle into an inward position, you will be far more likely to sprain this joint compared to someone who regularly practices moving and loading their ankle in this position.
One might be thinking…."Are you telling me that in order to have to have healthy joints, I have to move each and every one of them every single day?? This sounds like a lot of work… I already have enough on my plate, especially with how often I am supposed to floss my teeth!"
Luckily, even a brief mindful movement practice such as yoga can help ensure your joint health! A yoga practice has the potential to move every joint and engage every muscle in your body in a relatively short, continuous sequence. And, you will naturally start to use what you learn on the mat in your daily life as well, perhaps without even meaning to! Rather than a chore, a yoga practice can be fun, and make you feel more comfortable and strong in your body. Yoga can be an excellent supplement to whatever else is in your fitness routine that can actually improve your performance in other athletic endeavors as well.
Written by: Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist and Yoga Instructor
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