Joint Pain

Joint Pain

article by Jill Firth - PGDip AM(Dist)

Are you one of the many thousands of people who get up in the morning and feel stiff? Do you feel a bit “creaky” when bending over or going up or downstairs? Joint pain?

It is a sad fact of life that as our body’s age things start to wear out. One of the first tissues in the body to age and wear out is articular cartilage and this causes joint pain.

Articular cartilage is the super slippery material which protects the bony surfaces of the joints and, along with synovial fluid (joint oil) allows pain free, freedom of movement. Wherever two or more bones meet a joint is formed and every moveable joint in the body has articular cartilage as one of its main components. Unfortunately not only does articular cartilage age relatively quickly it also has very poor powers of regeneration and is just not able to repair itself as efficiently as say a broken bone or torn muscle.

The reason is that articular cartilage relies on chondrocyte cells to repair it and through trauma, age or excessive wear and tear the chondrocytes cannot keep pace with repairing damaged cartilage. Chondrocyte cells rely heavily on glucosamine to provide enough building blocks for them to repair damaged cartilage and glucosamine is synthesised in the body through a biochemical reaction.

In a normal young healthy person (or animal for that matter) the body is able to synthesise enough glucosamine to keep cartilage healthy but with age and wear and tear there just isn’t enough building blocks to keep up to the ever increasing amount of repair needed... resulting in joint pain.

Most people over 40 years of age suffer from some form of degeneration to some joints in the body whether or not they have any symptoms or "joint pain". For people who have engaged in competitive sports such as football, rugby, cycling, gymnastics etc this can come even earlier!

Joint Pain - what can you do?

Dietary supplements provide the answer for many people and, in particular, research has shown that nutraceuticals have had a real benefit to many people (and animals) suffering from joint pain, stiffness, general restricted mobility and common arthritic conditions.

Nutraceuticals are specifically designed to nutritionally support certain illnesses, improve metabolic processes, or correct biochemical imbalances. They are naturally occurring substances and have little or no side effects.

Nutraceuticals containing Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulphate are specially designed to provide more building blocks to aid the chondrocyte cells in their repair of articular cartilage.

There are many joint supplements on the market but research suggests that the products which have glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate combined, such as Cortaflex, are more effective than glucosamine alone. This is because chondroitin sulphate helps to neutralise the destructive enzymes that are present in the joint when it starts to degenerate and cause pain.

Although these Nutraceuticals are more expensive they are generally more effective and the old adage applies…You only get what you pay for!