By Previnex®
Articular cartilage is the connective tissue that protects your bones and joints. Healthy articular cartilage helps your joints move smoothly, absorbs impact, and decreases friction, preventing your bones from rubbing together. Unfortunately, due to articular cartilage injury, cartilage damage, cartilage degeneration, arthritis, or wear and tear, cartilage can break down over time. For example, knee cartilage can wear down and cause pain in your knee joints and even knee osteoarthritis. Similarly, cartilage deterioration elsewhere can cause joint inflammation. While there are medical and oftentimes surgical ways to go about cartilage repair, the good news is there are ways to protect cartilage from breakdown, such as incorporating a joint health supplement into your routine!
What Causes Your Cartilage to Break Down?
There are a number of factors that can contribute to cartilage breakdown:
Joint Stress and Overuse
Things like being overweight, sports, and other high-impact activities can put undue stress on the joints, causing them to be overused and, thus, causing cartilage breakdown. Joint stress and overuse can cause conditions like osteoarthritis, which is a wear and tear condition occurring when cartilage and joint tissues break down or change their structure. Symptoms of osteoarthritis include pain, stiffness in the joints, joint tenderness, loss of flexibility, grating Sebastian, bone spurs, and swelling.
Inflammation and Autoimmune Conditions
In addition to osteoarthritis, other autoimmune conditions play a role in cartilage breakdown. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune condition affecting the lining of the joints and causing painful swelling. Eventually, it leads to bone erosion and joint deformity. Symptoms of RA include tender, warm, swollen joints, joint stiffness, fatigue, fever, and loss of appetite.
How Can You Prevent Cartilage from Breaking Down?
There are a few ways to prevent cartilage injuries and breakdowns! Low-impact exercises, maintaining a healthy weight, and supplementation are great ways to support your joints.
Low Impact Exercise
Your joints have to move. Exercise is important in maintaining optimal joint health. But if you struggle with joint pain—and especially if you struggle with inflammation or have arthritis or other autoimmune conditions—keeping that movement low-impact is one of the best ways to support your joints and prevent cartilage breakdown. Exercises like biking, walking, yoga, and swimming are great for maintaining healthy joints and protecting cartilage from breakdown.
Maintaining Healthy Weight
Maintaining a healthy weight is key for preventing joint pain and cartilage breakdown. Being only 10 pounds overweight increases the force put on your knees by 30-60 pounds with each step. Additionally, research shows that losing just 10% of your body weight (if you’re overweight) can decrease your arthritis pain by half! Exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, and maintaining a healthy weight are key to preventing cartilage breakdown (and are also key to preventing joint pain together).
Supplementation
NEM®—Natural Eggshell Membrane—is clinically proven to prevent cartilage breakdown during exercise. In fact, one study showed that NEM® rapidly improved recovery from exercise-induced joint pain and stiffness and even decreased discomfort immediately after exercise. Plus, NEM® is proven to be up to 5x more effective than glucosamine and chondroitin alone or together. One supplement that combines NEM® with a powerful, natural anti-inflammatory (Boswellin®) is Previnex Joint Health PLUS®, so think about adding it to your supplement regimen!
How Do You Strengthen Your Cartilage?
There are a few ways to strengthen cartilage, such as exercise, diet, and even alternative therapies like acupuncture.
Strength Training and Flexibility
While low-impact exercises like walking, cycling, and swimming are great for preventing cartilage breakdown, things like strength training and stretching/yoga are great for strengthening cartilage! Strength training helps build the muscles around your joints, protecting your joints from damage and wear and tear. Strength training can also help you maintain a healthy weight, decreasing the amount of pressure put on your joints. Additionally, strength training preserves cartilage, decreasing the potential for joint problems in the long run. Flexibility exercises like yoga and pilates improve muscular strength, core strength, and overall flexibility, which help your functional mobility and decrease pressure on your joints.
Diet
Ultimately, eating an anti-inflammatory diet is key to strengthening your joints, strengthening your cartilage, and preventing cartilage breakdown. Eating a diet rich in foods like Omega-3 fatty acids (salmon and mackerel), cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts), lots of protein, and healthy fats (avocados, olive oil, and nuts) will help decrease inflammation throughout your body.
Alternative Therapies
Acupuncture is one therapy option that can help reduce cartilage degradation and reduce inflammation. When it comes to cartilage degradation and strengthening your cartilage, acupuncture can help by inhibiting cytokine expression in the p38MAPK pathway. This is a signal network in your body that regulates cellular processes like inflammation and cell growth.
What Prevents Cartilage from Healing?
Since cartilage doesn’t have a direct blood supply, it doesn’t heal well on its own. If your cartilage gets damaged or worn down and needs regeneration, there are surgeries like an abrasion arthroplasty, which is when a doctor creates small holes below damaged cartilage to stimulate repair and growth. Another option is osteochondral autograft transplantation, which is when the cartilage is moved from a healthy, non-weight-bearing part of your body and placed in the damaged area.
Conclusion
Since cartilage is a key part of your body and overall joint health, it’s important to ensure it’s taken care of properly. Through low-impact exercise, strength training, stretching, eating a well-balanced diet, supplementing properly, and even exploring alternative therapies, you can have happy, healthy cartilage. If you’re looking for a high-quality, effective, third-party tested joint health supplement to add to your regimen, get yourself a bottle of Previnex Joint Health PLUS®. From its pairing of NEM® and Boswellin® to its ingredient sourcing and effectiveness, this supplement is a must-have for those looking to improve their joint health and protect cartilage from breakdown. Get your bottle today!
