Tips For Preventing Osteoarthritis Part 1

Ideally, the best medical strategy is to prevent disease. In this post and the next I will discuss preventive strategies for osteoarthritis. These are very effective, but obviously cannot protect against arthritis completely. One can only do so much in following this advice. Remember that injuries are never completely preventable, lifestyle is seldom perfect even for the most determined and, to some degree, osteoarthritis development is influenced by genetics. Nevertheless, following this advice will make a very substantial difference in your health in the future.

As we discussed last time, osteoarthritis is a disease for which we are still awaiting disease-modifying treatments. That does not mean there is nothing you can do to help avoid developing it. You could start by listening to your mother. It turns out that she was right, as mothers usually are. The advice sounds like the same-old same-old, but it happens to be right on. More and more, people are realizing that despite all our wonderful technology, there is still a lot to be appreciated in the simple basic ideas that have never failed us.

Make Your Weight Healthy
Most important for OA is to maintain a healthy weight! The more excess weight you carry, the more likely you are to develop arthritis of the hips and knees and even the ankles and feet. The Framingham Study, which has been in progress since 1948 and covers many different diseases, looked at risk factors for osteoarthritis of the knee. The most important was weight. Women in the highest weight category more than doubled their risk. The good news was that reducing weight by at least ten pounds or more halved the risk of continuing to develop osteoarthritis. Of course, keeping trim is vitally important to the health of your entire body, to how you feel every day and to whether you will develop cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other serious disorders. (In regard to OA, total weight is what counts. For all the other diseases, it is mainly the visceral fat that counts. That is the fat hidden inside your belly, liver and heart and can be in excess even with a normal BMI.)

A guideline to a healthy weight is to keep your BMI around 22-24. The BMI is a crude measure that is calculated from height and weight. Muscle differences are not calculated in the BMI and having more muscle is good for you. Thus very muscled people will have higher BMI's but could still be in a healthy condition if they have no excess fat. Still, for the average person, BMI is a handy guide. You can find a BMI calculator on HealthCentral's Diet & Exercise site.

Get Enough Vitamin D and Calcium
There have been three studies of Vitamin D and osteoarthritis using The Framingham Study. There seems to be an association of low vitamin D and symptoms of OA, but not with loss of cartilage. Evidence for the importance of Vitamin D for bone health is well established and it is becoming apparent that Vitamin D is probably vital for general health and for helping prevent heart disease and cancer. Thus it seems worthwhile to maintain adequate levels of vitamin D.