 |
Arthrosis |
|
 |
|
Healthy cartilage is the key to healthy joints
| [ |
 |
] |
 |
|
The mismatch between loading and loading capacity, deficiency symptoms and acquired and congenital malformations lead to decreased production of proteoglycans, the water reservoirs of articular cartilage. These include chondroitin, glucosamine and hyaluronic acid. Damaged cartilage triggers inflammation, because the body no longer recognizes these breakdown products as self and tries to eliminate them using macrophages, scavenger cells that ingest foreign bodies, and inflammatory reactions. In the process, previously healthy tissue is also destroyed, resulting in painful, degenerative, joint erosion, i.e. arthrosis.
The already high rate of metabolism is further stoked and oxygen radicals are produced as a byproduct of the resultant increased energy consumption. Although these play important roles in bodily defense reactions, they also damage articular cartilage. These aggressive oxygen radicals must be captured and neutralized, as they otherwise lead to cellular aging. We should therefore consume adequate amounts of so-called antioxidants, present in fruits and vegetables, with our diet. Trace elements such as manganese can also sequestrate these dangerous oxygen radicals and protect the body. One can imagine the articular cartilage to be a pudding, made of collagen and elastin fibers. This pudding gains its rigidity from a jungle of interwoven trees, whose trunks consist of glucosamine and whose leaves consist of chondroitin. These cartilage building materials are made by highly metabolically active cartilage cells called chondrocytes. These cartilage cells require constant stimulation, on the one hand by growth hormone and on the other by voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels. Non-stimulated cartilage cells die. Regular exercise and functional loading, even during sleep, are essential prerequisites for the functioning of cartilage.
The provision of the substances necessary for the cartilage mass occurs via diffusion processes necessary which also, as for a sponge, render regular loading and relaxation essential for the functioning of the cartilage cells. Active movement has been shown to promote regenerative capacity and to inhibit degenerative processes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
)
; "zoom picture")
