Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/arthritis/preventing-arthritis-through-lifestyle-changes.aspx

Getting older doesn’t mean you need to prepare for a life with joint pain. Instead, start preventing arthritis — and start now.

While both a family history of arthritis and advancing age can increase your risk for developing the condition, there are steps you can take to prevent arthritis. Living a healthy life that emphasizesbeing active and eating a nutritious diet will help, says Geeta Nayyar, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. These lifestyle changes are simple and straightforward, but turning them into daily habits requires effort.

The connection between staying fit and preventing arthritis stems from the link between being out of shape or overweight anddeveloping arthritis. According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people who are obese are 1.9 times more likely to report that they have arthritis symptoms. The CDC’s report, based on health information from 365,112 adults, also showed that as people became more obese, they were increasingly likely to report joint pain, and those who were the most overweight were three times more likely than their normal-weight peers to say they had arthritis symptoms.

“Folks who are overweight are putting a lot of wear and tear on the joints, such as their backs and knees,” explains Dr. Nayyar.

How Diet Helps Prevent Arthritis

Although there is no magic food guaranteed to ward off arthritis, a healthy diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains is good for your overall health and your joint health. To better your bone health and guard against osteoarthritis, focus on getting enough calcium and vitamin D each day, suggests Nayyar. Frequent fractures and breakages attributed to weak bones can contribute to joint pain and the development of arthritis, so it is important to adopt lifestyle changes that support bone health. However, Nayyar cautions against taking dietary supplements as part of preventing arthritis without speaking to your doctor first.

Stay Active, Stay Healthy

Bodies are made to be in motion. In fact, people who are physically inactive are 30 percent more likely to report arthritis. In addition, being physically active can help you stay at or reach a healthy weight and maintain strong bones and long-term joint health.

For those who are overweight and out of shape, Nayyar recommends water aerobics or swimming. Water can help support weight and ease stress on joints. The most important point is to just get started. Nayyar says that no one type of exercise is better for preventing arthritis than another. “If yoga is your thing, that’s excellent. If it’s kickboxing, that’s great, too,” she says.

Prevent Injuries to Prevent Arthritis

While you stay active, it’s important to protect your joints, tendons, and cartilage from the kind of damage that could lead to arthritis later on.

“If you play contact sports, wear the appropriate gear necessary because if you have a tear in the cartilage, that can cause you to have osteoarthritis,” says Nayyar.

Regardless of the kind of exercise you do, Nayyar says to stretch before and after your workout and avoid pushing your body past its limits.

Should You Try Hormone Replacement Therapy?

When women reach menopause, changes in their hormones can result not only in symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, but also overall physical changes, such as an increasing rate of bone loss. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can be effective for some women as a short-term treatment for menopausal symptoms, and there is some evidence that it may also delay bone loss. However, this does not translate to preventing arthritis, says Patience White, MD, chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation and professor of medicine and pediatrics at George Washington University.

“There is no evidence-based data that HRT prevents osteoarthritis,” says Dr. White. “HRT can make people feel less of their aches and pains, but does not change the arthritis disease progression the way physical activity and weight reduction does for osteoarthritis.”

There are other, more effective therapies that can prevent or treat arthritis. And women with rheumatoid arthritis or lupus should be particularly careful with HRT because of the complicated way in which hormones are linked to these conditions. Other risks of HRT include heart disease, breast cancer, and endometrial cancer in older, postmenopausal women.

Seek an Early Arthritis Diagnosis

If you start to feel joint pain or other arthritis symptoms, even if you believe you are too young to have arthritis, talk to your doctor. There are many types of arthritis, but they share a universal characteristic: If you ignore joint pain, you risk further damage to your joints, which can mean treatment may involve surgery instead of less invasive approaches such as physical therapy.

If you’re worried about arthritis in your future, your action plan is clear: Maintain a healthy weight, stay active, and eat right.

Your bones and joints support you day after active day. Keep them healthy and strong with the nutrition they need, and you’ll stay on the move for many years to come. Keep your whole body moving. Enjoy products from Pharmanex below that push your bones and joints move further.

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Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/arthritis/preventing-arthritis-through-lifestyle-changes.aspx