Suffering from knee pain? A free pain relief kit may help. Learn More Now!
The alarm rings. You tell yourself, "Five more minutes ... " when suddenly, you realize you've used that same excuse five times already.
You're late! You leap out of bed like a cat with its tail on fire and ouch, you hear an odd snap somewhere between your head and shoulder.
The sudden jerky movement would have triggered a neck sprain that you'd have to live with for the next two days, unable to turn your head right or left and forced to stare straight ahead like some strange being in an invisible neck cast.
This story may be familiar or funny to you. But it happens to many daily and, for those suffering with joint ailments like arthritis, it's no laughing matter. A stiff neck, like most other joint complaints, is usually due to an accumulation of stress in our joints. We may be working at the computer too long and then we retire to bed exhausted. Upon waking up or any sudden movement, our joints may act up.
It's our body's natural way of saying we need to rest, to take care of your joints and perhaps, to pay a visit to the massage parlor! It's always better however to pay attention to your joints earlier. You save money and effort that way.
Our joints carry a heavy responsibility. More so when you're heavy! Obesity, bad posture, or even a previous injury can put a lot of unnecessary stress on joints and encourage joint diseases like osteoarthritis. It is said that most people who live long enough will most likely develop osteoarthritis, a result of the normal wear and tear of our joints.
We may not be able to avoid osteoarthritis but we can prevent it from happening sooner if we take good care of our joints. Joints enable movement. At the joints, bone surface is protected by a layer of cartilage, a shiny, smooth protective coating that buffers the impact of bones grinding against each other when we move.
It works like a lubricant to reduce wear and tear. The cartilage, however, can become damaged or chaffed with age, overuse and misuse. Osteoarthritis is therefore most likely to develop in joints that have taken a lot of punishment and abuse, like the knee or hip joints of an overweight person, joints injured in an accident or sports, joints subjected to stress at work or play, and joints with hidden birth defects.
Such constant scraping or grating of bones against each other will, in turn, lead to inflammation, swelling and pain -- where limbs may end up looking as gnarled as a twisted tree branch.
It's not like we can't do anything about it however. It takes initiative to keep watch of our lifestyle, our posture, even our diet, and adjust them around caring for our joints.
To be able to bend it like Beckham years down the road, you should start inculcating simple joint care practices in your daily grind. It's a joy to be able to keep doing the things you love, be it walking in the park, dancing, getting involved in all sorts of sports and such, with healthy joints to support you.
Exercise and stretch a lot. When we move our joints and stretch them, we strengthen them and protect them against future mishaps. Remember the golden rule of working out, though. Don't make sudden sharp movements which could injure your joints. Always do warm-up stretching and exercises. Only fools rush in, as the love song goes, and this simple principle applies to exercising too.
To keep lithe and limber, consider taking cod liver oil, if not for your joints, for other reasons like overall health and vitality. According to Professor Bruce Caterson of Cardiff's University, the fatty acids found abundantly in the oil switch off enzymes that break down cartilage. Cod liver oil therefore slows and even reverses the destruction of joint cartilage.
Further experiments have revealed that by exposing human osteoarthritic cartilage to cod liver oil for only 24 hours, the action of the degradative enzymes and swelling affecting the joint's tissue would be reversed.
Around the world, fishermen, whose arduous life makes rheumatic complaints highly likely, would take cod liver oil as a preventative measure. In Alaska, the Inuits, who consume great amounts of fish oils, also have the lowest incidence of arthritis. They're all living proof of the wonders of cod liver oil.
So do your joints a favor. Put less stress on them, exercise and take more cod liver oil. Your neck, ankles, knees, elbows, wrists, waist, back ... and virtually every other joint in your body will thank you for it!
Suffering from knee pain? A free pain relief kit may help. Learn More Now!
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