Time flies, and so do we. We're beginning to move a lot stiffer than when we were young, and we’re starting to feel joint pains all over our bodies. But how exactly does aging affects our joints or does it really have to do with aging? Let’s find out…

The Aging Joints: Changes Related to Aging

We’re born with healthy joints – healthy cartilage on the end of the two bones where they meet with healthy joint fluid between the joint surfaces. Cartilage allows our bones to glide over each other and absorbs impact during movement, while the synovial fluid prevents them from grinding against each other by keeping the bones within a normal distance apart. Both of these joint components are subjected to damage and injury. As we get older, the synovial fluid becomes less viscous and its lubricating, shock-absorbing, and filtering functions are disrupted. The cartilage starts to worn, most especially in the joints of the hands, hips, and knees. These changes create a great amount of stress to our joints until much of the cartilage is worn out. We start to feel pain and movements become really difficult because the joint space has considerably narrowed that the joint surfaces rub each other. These joint space narrowing can result in joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In arthritis, inflammation occurs in the synovium which results in limitation of motions with pain and stiffness.

Some of the Common Forms of Arthritis…

Some people suffer from arthritis, a painful joint condition that causes inflammation of the joint surfaces. Although it commonly affects older people, it can also affect the younger ones.

• Osteoarthritis (OA): It is the most common type of arthritis and is mostly seen among older people. In OA, the joint cartilage wears away, allowing the bones to rub against each other – thus the term “wear-and-tear.” This causes pain, swelling, and loss of motion.
• Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA): RA is an autoimmune joint disease, where the immune system recognizes the joint tissues as a threat and so attacks it, resulting in pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of motion. RA is a systemic type of arthritis, also affecting the heart, lungs, and other organs in the body. A person who has RA often feels tired and sick with fever and loss of appetite.
• Gouty Arthritis (GA):This type is caused by a high concentration of uric acid and commonly affects the great toe.
• Juvenile Arthritis:As the term implies, it is arthritis seen in children.
• Other forms of arthritis may be associated with diseases like lupus, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, or certain infections.

How Can  Recovapro Vibration Therapy Helps in Arthritic Joints?

Vibration therapy has been found beneficial in the management of arthritic conditions. The following summarizes the common symptoms of arthritis and the mechanism of action by which Recovapro vibration therapy helps in mitigating the painful effects of the joint disease:

• Pain:mechanical vibration induces an increase in blood flow. This allows flushing out of pain metabolites and substrates, which can decrease pain. Pain perception is also reduced via the “gate-control theory” mechanism.
• Joint swelling: application of mechanical vibration on areas surrounding the inflamed joints can stimulate the adjacent muscles causing involuntary contractions. This creates an actual pumping motion, causing an increase in blood flow and movement of excess fluids out of the joint.
• Other symptoms of inflammation, including redness and warmth: to protect the joints, white blood cells infiltrate the area which raises blood flow causing excessive redness and warmth. Redness is caused by the opening of small blood vessels while warmth results from increased blood flow. Mechanical vibration may normalize these conditions through increased circulation.
• Weakness of the surrounding muscles: vibration stimulation can cause involuntary muscle contraction through activation of various reflexes such as the tonic vibration reflex, resulting in increased strength of the stimulated as well as adjacent muscles.
• Joint stiffness and decreased range of motion:joint stiffness is due to inflammation. Vibratory stimulation can alleviate stiffness through enhanced circulation while also relaxing the surrounding tensed muscles, increasing muscle flexibility and joint range of motion.

PRECAUTION: Don’t apply vibration directly over an inflamed joint, especially if it’s severe. Stimulating the surrounding areas will still provide the beneficial effects of vibration therapy.

The Takeaway:

Among all treatments, preventive measures, and coping mechanisms, physical activity is still the best option in the management of arthritic joints. While oral pain and anti-inflammatory medications can give immediate results, these may have adverse side effects. Recovapro's vibration therapy provides safe, nonpharmacologic, and noninvasive but effective treatment for every type of arthritis. For more questions, please ask some advice from a doctor or physical therapist.