How Excercise can Hurt your body.
Written by Kathryn Savage
An active life is a vital life. We’re taught from the age of pee-wee soccer that physical fitness walks hand in hand with emotional well-being, strength and personal satisfaction.
In a world where physical activity is the status quo, and treadmills come in as many brands, shapes and sizes as bottled water, sadly, joint health is increasingly declining. We’re wearing out the tread.
Many of the 70 million baby boomer's are being forced to reckon with their active lifestyle. Osteoarthritis is just one possible consequence of a long, active life according to a recent report. Osteoarthritis currently affects about 46 million Americans. Stanford University's Longevity Center reports that this number will hit 67 million by 2030.
Hips are like tires, once you “wear out the tread,” the cartilage, you’ve got to replace the hip. Sadly, new hips (knees, wrists) wear out too. Overtime, it is not unlikely for multiple replacement surgeries to be deemed necessary to keep you moving.
What to do?
When you exercise, focus on low or no impact activities like yoga, bike riding, hiking, swimming and pilates instead of jogging. At the end of the day, we’re all fighting the cartilage-clock. Overtime, cartilage that pads the joints wears down and wears out, and once you get bone on bone contact, that’s when the pain starts. The best solution is to focus your workouts on activities that don’t put large amounts of pressure or pounding on joint cartilage.
It’s not all about stress...
Stress on joints is commonly believed to be the main cause of cartilage wear and tear. New research suggests that repetition alone, that three mile jog you’ve been taking since the 1970’s, is not the only, or the main, reason for cartilage to go kaput. Other factors like obesity and previous injury may play a bigger role than popular science suggests.
Glucosamine and Chondroitin?
Many people, including a personal trainer I know very well, pop a vitamin that is a mix of glucosamine and chondroitin daily. This combo is believed to reduce pain and pressure on knees. Can a magic pill cure cartilage breakdown? Not yet, anyway. While an assortment of vitamins may make lofty advertising claims, medical professionals still lack the ability to generate new cartilage. Everything from aspirin, vitamin supplements, to cortisone shots is a quick pain fix, not a solution. Joints perform a mechanical function, and joint replacement is the only way we know to fix this function.
Want to know more about healthy joints? Read Stanford Universities take on how to keep aging joints healthy.
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written by Chip Gay, August 26, 2008
Your article makes it appear that jogging is bad. Our bodies need correct doses of stress and rest. Running or jogging 5-7 days a week may apply too much stress, but jogging 2-4 days a week might be very beneficial. I treat running /jogging like weight training, stress then rest usually 48 hours without high impact activity.
Chip Gay, Exercise Physiologist E.S. & C.S.C.S.
Chip Gay, Exercise Physiologist E.S. & C.S.C.S.
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written by Dr. Reuven Rosenberg, August 26, 2008
100% of the human population is polluted with toxins such as heavy metals cadmium, mercury, lead, etc.), volatile chemicals (benzene, toulene), industrial emissions, etc. All of this is in the air, water, and soil and therefore in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Even colas which contain benzoic acid or benzoate and vitamin C as a preservative converts to the very dangerous benzene.
When the body encounters such a huge toxic load it tries to expel what it can through elimination and sweat. If there is simply too much garbage to throw out or if there are no metabolic pathways to break the stuff down it will direct the excess into the fat and joints of the body. This sets up a very acid environment for the cells of the surrounding tissues leading to chronic inflammation and eventually breakdown and destruction of the joints.
The body was meant to move and to be used. We also have to rest it. Low impact excercises can be wonderful for certain populations, but it's always important to give the heart a workout. Something like a Nordic Track is wonderful because of the low impact gliding action, CV workout, and it also tones muscles.
The most important health benefit we can look into today is detoxifying the body. From there many problems can be eliminated.
www.DrRosenberg.net
When the body encounters such a huge toxic load it tries to expel what it can through elimination and sweat. If there is simply too much garbage to throw out or if there are no metabolic pathways to break the stuff down it will direct the excess into the fat and joints of the body. This sets up a very acid environment for the cells of the surrounding tissues leading to chronic inflammation and eventually breakdown and destruction of the joints.
The body was meant to move and to be used. We also have to rest it. Low impact excercises can be wonderful for certain populations, but it's always important to give the heart a workout. Something like a Nordic Track is wonderful because of the low impact gliding action, CV workout, and it also tones muscles.
The most important health benefit we can look into today is detoxifying the body. From there many problems can be eliminated.
www.DrRosenberg.net
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What is 'Move'?
Moving naturally the idea of making low-intensity, daily physical activity an unavoidable part of your environment. Read more...
You mention in your last comment about detoxifying the body. I have heard of many methods for doing this but have never tried any before since I am afraid of potentially doing more damage than good. I am interested in doing a detoxification but don't really know where to start. Could you point me towards something that I can research that would be effective but still safe for my body?
Thank you