How to Keep Your Joints Healthy

The most common diagnosis in North America – more common than the common cold – is arthritis. This condition begins when old cartilage cells are cleared away faster than they are replaced with new ones. This deficit of new cells can be likened to spending just a little more money than you deposit each month. Sooner or later, your account will be empty. With arthritis, old cells are taken from a joint faster than new cells are added. Sooner or later, the joint becomes dry.

Healthy joints
Joint spaces are filled mostly with water. There are small, magnetic proteins embedded in collagen that constantly push each other apart. This suction creates a vacuum that is soon filled with water and nutrients. Every time you move the joint, some of this water is squeezed out along with waste from the joint cells. Between movements – when the joint is at rest – it once again draws in water and nutrients.

Sick joints
Many different things can interfere with the balance of cell life and death: trauma to the joints, toxins from infections and our environment, nutrient imbalances that create a deficit in the structure of joint cells, and stress that suppresses new joint cell formation. All of these influences can slow the production of new cartilage cells and hasten the death of existing cells.

When a person lacks sufficient nutrients to make complete, healthy cells, immature and imbalanced cells will be produced instead. These may function for a time; however, sooner or later they will shatter and splinter into fractions of protein in your joint capsule. These act like slivers of broken glass. As they slice through certain “guardian” cells (called mast cells) large amounts of histamine are released and inflammation sets in. You can often hear the grinding in your joints when they become inflamed.


Nutrient rescue
To make sure our joints remain healthy we all need the right nutrients in the right amounts and at the right times. These nutrients include joint-specific proteins such as glucosamine, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid, minerals including magnesium and potassium, and special fats that reside specifically in your joints. But there is another essential element to joint health: movement.

Movement is key
Remember, joints are made of living cells. Each cell must get nutrients in and waste out. But the cells have no blood supply. They have to get their nutrients by the gentle action of movement. Think of a sponge in a pail of water: If you want circulation in the sponge, you must squeeze and release it. If you want healthy joints you must move them to squeeze out the waste and draw in the nutrients. For good joint health you must move.
Your body was made to move. By moving more you’ll enjoy greater flexibility and less pain. So, keep moving every day for healthy joints.

Take Control of Your Health

* Stretch before exercise – make sure your joints are ready
* Use both “warm up” and “cool down” exercises to preserve joint health
* Exercise for at least 30 minutes most days of the week
* Drink pure water to moisten your joints
* Use sulfur-bearing nutrients for joint hydration: Glucosamine sulfate, Chondroitin sulfate, and MSM
* Use Essential fatty acids to stabilize the joint cells
* Use enzymes and plant substances to reduce inflammation

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.