The above quotes are poppycock! The above quotes are what we hear day in and day out from patients who come for treatment, usually as a last resort, having been fobbed off by everyone else, including (and most worryingly) themselves. The quotes are poppycock because there are a long line of patients who are living their lives, more actively with reduced pain and suffering since coming to this practice and receiving osteopathic treatment.
Some “arthritis” facts:
- Arthritis is not a normal event in a healthy body.
- Arthritic pain does not come on quickly over days, weeks or a few months.
- Arthritis on X-Ray is an extremely common finding on almost everyone over the age of 35-40, therefore, X-ray findings of wear and tear are not always the underlying cause of your pain.
- Advanced arthritis can be managed well and in most cases its advance halted.
Your family osteopath does not believe that because of your age, pain and disability is natural for you and that “it’s what you should expect at your age” – you don’t have to put up with it!
The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, also called degenerative arthritis, and it is reported that over 50% of people over the age of 65 suffer pain and disability as a result. This type of arthritis begins years before any bone changes are found on x-ray and is primarily the “wear and tear” arthritis associated with every day life. In many cases, your osteopath can help you to accommodate to this change in structure, perhaps by freeing up related joints so that they share more of the load, or even reducing the tensions in the muscles of the area to reduce the inflammation and pain – treatment has proven to be immensely successful. There are also wealth of postural exercises and day to day tips that can help you to help yourself.
It is important to remember that in most cases, osteoarthritis is not an event that suddenly happens, so please, if you have aches and pains in joints that you have heard normally are subject to it, and the pain has come on over a matter of days, weeks or a few months (and in some cases years), please don’t resign yourself to it being osteoarthritis as it could be something far more simple to deal with, instead make an appointment to have a full osteopathic assessment because even if it is osteoarthritis, then help can be provided in some shape or form.