Years ago, the phrase “it must be your arthritis” was widely used in doctors’ offices. Most often, osteoarthritis, as seen on an X-ray, is a condition that has been present for years and has become a part of your daily life, normalized. Drug manufacturers offered over-the-counter medications for the pain, which relieved it but only made the problems worse over time. The arthritis myth continues to exist in medical practice. When you visit urgent care, they take a quick history and offer to take an X-ray of the painful part. This approach shows their lack of understanding, as you leave with a prescription for a cocktail to reduce pain and inflammation in the short term. Unless they can see some degeneration or other problem on the X-ray, their evaluation often is worthless as your problem continues to persist. I often explain to patients that what is normal for you is what you consider normal. Abnormal is when the problem or concern doesn’t go away. From my perspective, a proper history leads to a proper exam, and since I cannot feel what you do, I evaluate function and share this information with the patient to figure out why you hurt and work on the problem rather than the symptom. Often, the problem begins from the ground up and, in time, alters how we walk. A recent article in Medical News Today published on AOL offers advice that is so general and useless, it tells the reader very little. The article assumes the idea that it must be your arthritis, and if you change the way you walk using their generalized ideas, you will feel improved from your arthritis pain. A Small change to how you walk may help relieve osteoarthritis pain While I agree with the premise, the truth is that patients who are in pain should see a chiropractor first for a proper musculoskeletal evaluation. Our patients know and have learned that you will find out more from a good exam than you will ever find out on a cursory history and exam, and then a drug to relieve pain in the absence of the knowledge of why the person hurts. Research suggests that delaying needed and appropriate care, which is what medication does, creates chronicity. We have been adapting from the time we were learning how to hold a bottle, roll over, stand, and develop the skills to walk, run, and more. We adapt from injuries, our body mechanics, and if our parents had problems due to body mechanics, we may as well, since those traits are inherited. Patients with back pain and knee problems often think it’s normal to have these complaints since their parents also have these complaints. If you change the way you take care of yourself, you will get a different and often better outcome than your parents did, who may have taken medication for what was assumed to be arthritis. We may be able to avoid what our parents suffered from by thinking and acting differently. Years later, our X-rays if they were even needed, may look good even in our 60s and 70s. Most importantly, we will experience many more years of good health, take fewer medications, and our bodies will often last as long as we do. So many medical terms, such as polymyalgia or fibromyalgia, have been used to describe pain, yet unless the diagnosis is descriptive, it is meaningless. Understanding why you hurt requires a holistic way of thinking and improving how we move so we feel and function better. If we think that pains are just things that we have to endure, years later, our healthy years will be compromised which it is important to take care of ourselves both in diet and in care of the human frame. Movement, walking and arthritis. I would agree that changes in how we walk can make a difference in how we feel and function. Improvements in function improve gait, which reduces ground impact and stress on the body. Years later, we can have less pain, less degeneration, and even with a proper diet and core strength, less arthritis. Movement and how we adapt are different for everyone. The idea of medication instead of functional improvements to hide the symptoms will cause damage and osteoarthritis. Improvement from the ground up, which can be as simple as an off-the-shelf foot orthotic, requires that we understand the patient first before we do anything. Arthritis is a mechanical problem requiring a mechanical solution. Chiropractic physicians are primary care providers for the musculoskeletal system, and they are experts in body mechanics. Improve movement, improve and level the pelvis, and improve shock absorption, which relieves or resolves most foot, ankle, hip, and back problems. It’s as simple as that. Feel and age better; think chiropractic first. Chiropractic care for what aches, feels numb, and affects our balance may seem unnatural, but many of these problems are movement related. Patients visit with back problems, and one day visit with vertigo. Often, they find out they did not need medical specialists. They just needed to move better, and they often feel improved from their vertigo as well as their ability to get out of a chair with less or minimal pain. Athletes understand that chiropractic care helps them naturally by improving how they move. A first chiropractic visit may include your blood pressure being taken as well as a thorough history of your present and past problems. Your exam may include the typical neurological evaluations and orthopedic tests but also includes evaluations of balance, movement, and flexibility with the goal of understanding why you hurt. Some patients with chronic problems or an acute injury may require an X-ray but most do not. Some may require foot orthotics to improve how they walk and function. Most patients notice they stand better and feel better with the help of the inserts. If you want to prevent osteoarthritis later in life, you should start early by taking care of yourself. Active lifestyles are much more productive without pain. Walking better can prevent osteoarthritis. Adopting a chiropractic lifestyle can help. Feel better in as little as one visit. Book online today or call our offices to schedule your first visit.