Healthy Cartilage Healthy Knees
Healthy Cartilage anywhere in the body may be directly related to vitamin D and vitamin C. If you take an ascorbic acid vitamin C supplement you may be depleting the Bioflavonoids in your cartridge as well as any place in the body where there is cartilage. Synthetic vitamins have been shown to cause deficiencies in the missing part of the vitamin. Ascorbic acid is the wrapping around the package of vitamin C and Bioflavonoids are the meaningful active part. Supplement with rose hips or acerols cherries for complete vitamin C. You can also eat dark green leafy vegetables and of course fresh citrus fruit.
Vitamin D is getting a lot of attention around the world too. Take a look at the article from Australia below.
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Scientists say a daily walk in the sunshine could be all that is needed to delay a knee replacement.
They have found people who do not get enough vitamin D quickly lose cartilage in their knees.
Sunlight is one of the best sources of vitamin D but the researchers warn there is a national trend of people avoiding the sun.
They say in Tasmania, half the population is vitamin D deficient, and even people living in brighter parts of Australia, such as Queensland, are at risk of developing osteoarthritis in their knees.
The head of the Musculoskeletal Unit at the Menzies Research Institute in Hobart, Professor Graeme Jones, has discovered that vitamin D keeps knee cartilage healthy.
“Cartilage has vitamin D receptors and we don’t know exactly what vitamin D does in cartilage, but these results suggest that vitamin D helps cartilage metabolism, so it suggests cartilage is under hormonal control.
“And you need ideal levels of a number of different hormones, of which vitamin D is one.”
Professor Jones has spent the past seven years doing MRI scans on the knees of almost 900 Tasmanians.
The men and women he has studied are aged between 50 and 80 years old, and they are getting to an age where their knees are starting to wear out.
But Professor Jones found that patients with healthy vitamin D levels maintained their cartilage for longer than those with a deficiency.
“In Tasmania, roughly half of the adult population is vitamin D deficient. If we were to make everyone vitamin D sufficient in Tasmania, we estimate that we’d delay the time the knee replacement by an average of 14 years, which is obviously a major effect if that’s found to be true,” he said.
“This work was observational, which means we were looking at people’s usual habits; we now need to go on and do a large, randomised control trial to confirm these findings before changing public health policy.”
Professor Jones is now going to test his findings by giving a group of 400 vitamin D deficient patients either a dose of vitamin D or a placebo.
He says the Hobart-based study has ramifications for the entire country.
“We’re seeing in Australia that mild levels of deficiency are becoming very common because people are strongly following sun protection, so even in Queensland there’s now significant rates of vitamin D deficiency,” he said.
“Basically if the UV index is three or below, no sun protection is regarded as necessary above those levels.
“People do need to look at sun protection, and if you want to steer totally clear of the adverse events of sun, then you can take vitamin D supplements.”
Sunshine and exercise could just be a very cheap prevention to an expensive health problem.
Professor Jones says more than two million Australians have osteoarthritis and treating them costs $9 billion a year.
Jay
Osteoarthritis patients need to take even more care of their joints. Proper care with ample rest and following the doctors advise will do wonders in the recovery process. The important thing is to carry on with your light day to day activities and focus on the other health benefits that we have.