You may be surprised that my answer to this question is osteoarthritis. It causes pain and immobility in the vast majority of people over 50 years of age. In fact, about 80% of people over 50 are thought to have osteoarthritis. The pain and loss of movement in knees, hips and other joints gets worse the more you use them. It doesn’t make the headlines like cancer and heart disease, but being in pain every time you take a step significantly reduces quality of life. Think about that: 80% of people over 50 have reduced quality of life because of osteoarthritis. That is a lot of suffering. But it does not need to be that way.
I cannot imagine my world without being able to jog on the beach with my dogs. Perhaps for you it is working in your garden that you enjoy. Or even being able to get down to pat the cat. No matter what your hobbies are, being active is vital to enjoying your life. Being active also helps to keep you mentally sane. So finding the optimal treatment is important.
Optimal Treatments:
It may surprise you that the optimal treatments for osteoarthritis are not available on prescription.
Most conventional medicines focus on relieving pain, while the disease keeps getting worse. But
there are proven treatments. Several nutrients have been proven to relieve pain AND reverse the disease process by adding back the cartilage (the spongy cushions) in your joints. These are nutrients that your body makes in abundance when you are young, but makes less of as you get older. The good news is that you can take supplemental doses of these key nutrients. So you can stay mobile and pain-free.
If you have sore knees or hips, don’t keep masking the problem with pain killers. Come in and talk to the Nutrition Medicine team about the integrative medicine solution to support your joints and your quality of life. Better still, if you are in your 40s, come and talk to us about how you can prevent osteoarthritis from ruining your life.