Joint Pain, Young and Old

Joint complications aren’t a common news topic.  Really.  The publicity-to-occurance ratios are off!  For the massive amount of people who suffer from joint problems, you sure don’t hear about them much.  Part of that is because most people assume that arthritis is just a part of growing old.  You’ll get it when you’re getting older, there isn’t anything you can do to avoid it, and that’s how it is.

Not true.

First off, chronic joint issues don’t just hit people as they age.  I’m young for joint problems, but I have plenty of them.  (Knees, back, hips.)  Athletes face joint wearing early on.  People who work hard manual jobs often have early-onset osteoarthritis.  And the worst part of it is that most people don’t realize this happens, even people that it’s happening to.  People of just about any age group can suffer from joint problems.

In high school, I played the flute.  A lot.  And piccolo.  Suddenly, my hands were slowing down, getting sore.  Come to find out, I had a sort of…temporary arthritis.  I was working my little hands too much.  I took the summer off, and by fall, I was ready to be an enthusiastic, pain-free band geek once more!  (Oddly enough, the hearing came back into mr right ear that summer, too…..apparently piccolo wears on more than just your fingers.)  So, even if my condition was temporary, it proves that younger people can wear their joints down, too.  Unlike real arthritis, though, my cartilage was able to catch and heal up with some down-time.

I’m not even going to touch juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.  It’s sad to see what kids go through for that, and the effects on their bones and joints are only one instance of their suffering.

No one is too young to have joint issues.  This, in turn, means that no one is too young to learn about joint and bone health.  These joints are part of everything you do.  Without bones, we’d all be shapeless something-or-others.  So obviously, it’s important to take good care of both systems.