Joint Regeneration Protocol

Language

Language is very powerful, especially in the negative, so one of the first things we need to do is change our language about our painful joint. The truth is you have a painful joint. If you haven’t had an x-ray or MRI, this is all you know. 

Stop saying anything like “My joints are worn out” or “old age never comes alone” or “I need a replacement” and “I'll never be able to do this or that again”. Due to the power of our own psyche these things seem more likely to become true, the more you say them. 

Change your language, (and your thoughts) to  more truthful and positive statements. My joint hurts. I know something needs to change, I will make the changes, I am alive so I know my body is capable of repairing anything, under the right conditions. I will do everything in my power to create and maintain those conditions.

Expectations

Perhaps you have definitive evidence (x-ray MRI etc) that you have joint degeneration.

Consider that we now live in a world where “Instant gratification just isn’t soon enough!” But bear in mind that in most cases it’s taken a long time for your joint to ‘wear out’, it's not going to be a quick process to regenerate it.

You may indeed have a degenerated joint and, if you can accept that it is possible to regenerate it, then you must accept that it’s not going to happen overnight. Your expectations should be along the lines of months to years depending on the severity of your condition.

But think of it like this, if you do nothing, continued degeneration is almost inevitable. In five years time it will likely be worse, there is no reason to expect otherwise. But if you change to a regeneration protocol, in five years you could be pain free, active and capable.

Perception

Tying in to both language and expectations, is our perception of what is happening to our joint. We have been strongly conditioned to believe that ‘wear and tear’ is inevitable as we age, that if your joint is worn out, it was activity that caused this and it will continue to wear out until we need a joint replacement. 

There are (at least) three reasons for this (conditioning). One is that we see it all around us. We saw grandma become wheelchair bound because of her knees, or grandad lose the use of his fingers after years as a tool maker. Secondly, we tend to see our bodies and joints as machines, and we know that machines, like cars for instance, wear out with use. There is a definitive life span based on mileage etc. And thirdly, it’s what the medical profession tells us. “Yes you have osteoarthritis, your joint is wearing out, take these drugs and prepare for a joint replacement”

Consequently we believe the above, and our bodies make it true for us.

The reality can be different. We inhabit a ‘biological’ machine, and it’s capable of regeneration. Until the day we die. 

Activity doesn’t wear our joints out, in fact it’s the complete opposite. Think about endurance running, literally hundreds of miles per event, as just one of the many extraordinary activities that humans put themselves through. 

By the above definitions these people should have worn through their legs by the end of their careers, but have been proven to have normal or even more robust joint tissues.

You will understandably question then, why do people get ‘worn out’ joints? Why do we get osteoarthritis? This is actually a hugely debatable subject from which we will for the moment exclude autoimmune disorders such as Rheumatoid arthritis.

One theory is that the toxic load we place upon our bodies through what we eat and what we don’t eat, in terms of vital nutrients, and how we expose ourselves to environmental toxins, has a major role to play in joint tissue degeneration.

Another is that we are using our joints under the stress of unbalanced muscles. Think about how one side of your car tyre wears out quickly when the tracking is not aligned properly. In this context activity will wear a joint faster than the body is able to repair it.

In both of the above examples we have the power to change things. Wear and tear is not inevitable or irreversible. We have the power to stop doing things that lead to joint degeneration and the power to start doing things that promote healing and regeneration.

Diagnosis/Assessment

A diagnosis of your pain is important because..

Joints will routinely become painful if muscles are causing them to work inappropriately. Your joint pain may not be due to joint damage at all. 

However if the above goes on for long enough, the joint may well become worn and painful. X rays and MRI may confirm this

In the first case physical therapy will resolve the problem. In the second case it will remove the underlying cause of the damage. Work then begins on rehabilitation and repair.

Rehabilitation and repair 

This comes under the following four headings.

1. Identify and Remove or modify underlying causative factors.

2. Measurements of limitations 

3. Professional Treatment, self treatment and movement therapy

4. Diary or Journal of progress

Identifying and removing underlying causative factors

Toxins.

As mentioned above, common reasons for wear and tear are toxins that we are exposed to from a nutritional and environmental perspective.

Environmental factors may include chemicals or dust particles that you are breathing in at work or with hobbies. Toxic chemicals are emitted from new furniture, beds and carpets. Try and identify if your aches and pains associate in any way with your environmental influences and modify if possible.

Try identifying all the chemicals you expose yourself to on a daily basis, These may include air fresheners, cleaning agents, anti perspirants, fluorides in toothpaste and water, fly sprays, weed killers etc etc.

Toxins in water and processed food products. Also nutritional deficiencies, particularly magnesium and vitamin D which are commonly deficient. (The only way to know what you are deficient in for sure, is to have a blood test). It’s NOT a good idea to just start taking calcium supplements

Exposure to molds and other allergens can lead to constant low grade inflammation which will cause joint pain, as can food sensitivities, particularly gluten and dairy products, but potentially many more. 

It’s also worth considering your medications, especially long term ones. Statins are notorious for causing joint and muscle pain.

Obviously check with your doctor before changing/stopping any meds.

Check that your symptoms are not related to furniture. This includes your bed, too hard, try a mattress topper. Too soft, try a board under your mattress. If you have neck issues try changing your pillow. Your favourite sofa or armchair may be upsetting your back. It could be your work station or your car seat. These can all lead to muscle imbalances.

Muscle imbalance.

Muscles are designed to have a set level of resting tone (or tension). This, as the title suggests, is the level of involuntary contraction in your muscles when you are at rest. 

When you irritate your muscles through injury, or inappropriate stress such as prolonged awkward positions in work or play or hobbies, (this includes sitting) they will tighten up, and if the stress goes on for long enough the brain will accept the new level of tension- or tone, as normal, and it simply won’t change. Because your brain thinks it’s normal. 

As all muscles are paired, to either bend or straighten a joint. It creates a problem if one muscle now has a higher state of tone than its balancing partner. Now your joint is being stressed. This may lead to a situation where the body is unable to repair the joint at the same rate as it is being worn, especially if you are using the joint excessively as in some sports. (Think again about car tyre tracking)

The only way I know to truly get your brain to re-assess the state of tone in your muscle and reset it towards normal is to create a stimulus using massage techniques. For reasons which I won’t go into here, exercise in the form of stretching or strengthening is not a useful remedial tool. Suffice to say that the problem is muscle tone, not length or strength.

Measuring limitations

This means literally measuring the limitations in your joint range of motion. How far can you actually bend your knee? What is the space between your heel and bum? But also limitations can be due to pain. How much on a scale of 1 to 10 does your knee hurt when you bend it to its limits?

Both the range of motion, and pain during the range, can change, and both are relevant even if only one or the other is changing.

So before you begin your joint rehabilitation you should note as much down as you can about your (joint) limitations.

You can then measure your progress, which will help you stay motivated to continue the process.

Professional Treatment, self treatment and movement therapy

If your muscles are out of balance and stressing your joints, this needs to be addressed through professional and/or self treatment. (And of course removing or modifying causative factors)

By professional treatment I generally mean massage, and by massage I mean the stimulation of muscles through physical manipulation, with an underlying knowledge of the muscle’s role in terms of balance, chains of action, nerve influences, blood supply and connective tissue involvement.

By self treatment I generally mean trying to replicate the professional treatment using your own hands, or with tools such as rollers, balls and sticks etc.

Movement Therapy

Movement therapy is the heart of joint rehabilitation protocols and boils down to this... 

You have to regularly move your joint into the painful range in order to elicit a healing response from your body. You have to do this to a point that creates a stimulus which leads to a healing response, rather than a point that leads to traumatic damaging of the tissues involved.

Think about it in this way…

When your joint (let's continue to use the knee as an example) becomes irritated to the point of painful wear, your natural inclination will be to stop doing the things that irritate it. Such as using stairs or kneeling, or squatting. This stops the joint from hurting as much, but also reduces any stimulation for repair (remember that inflammation is the body's way of healing) 

However there will be times when you will still have to use the stairs, or kneel down, or squat down.

Your knee causes strong pain every time you go up and down the stairs. So you get a stair lift. Now your knee feels better because you never stress it. but it becomes more and more painful if you ever do try to use the stairs.

This is the typical scenario experienced by the average person with joint pain.

But it can work this way…

You may not be able to push up an average 7 inch step without a 9/10 level of pain in your knee, but the chances are that you could manage a 1 inch step with only a 2 or 3/10 level of pain. The interesting thing is that at 2-3/10 pain levels, you are creating a stimulus for repair, but without the trauma of wear. 

Conceivably, when done regularly, this will lead to a rebuilding of damaged/worn tissue, as the body will adapt to the mild stress by thickening and strengthening ligaments and connective tissue. The mild stress will also create a mild inflammatory response which will start to repair the chronic damage

Within weeks you will almost certainly be able to push up onto a two inch step with only a 2-3/10 level of pain.And so on.

The process may be the same with a squat. For instance you may find trying to squat with your bad knee is unbearably painful, but it’s likely you could squat down just one inch with only a 2-3/10 level of pain. And if you did this 20 times per day, every day, what would happen?…

(The protocol  would generally need some individual tailoring regarding repetitions and timing)

This process can be applied to all joints one way or another. Ultimately you have to find what movements cause you pain, and do them. But the secret is doing them in a way that causes only a minimal …2-3/10 level of pain, As previously mentioned this might involve making a 2 inch step from a book or squatting while supporting your weight, or squatting just a few inches. Then doing repetitions of 5, 10, 15 or 20 often enough to create positive change.

This would typically be once per day and you should create a mild flare up. Your symptoms should then return to baseline (the level of pain you started with, or less) within 24 hours. If they don’t then you wait till they do, and re do the movements with less reps or range or both until you can recover within 24 hours. Then build up from that point.

Diary or Journal of progress

The Dean of the college where I studied, once said that the single greatest tool anyone could have for their journey of healing was to keep a journal. The journal would document dates and times of  physical and emotional states, nutritional intake and physical activities.

Your Journal would also include the measurements you took of your joint ranges of motion, levels of pain, and the progress as they change.

Using a journal will potentially uncover patterns that would otherwise be overlooked on your journey to good health. It will definitely provide evidence of your progress, giving you encouragement to continue.

Good luck! Get to it!