I’m a 28 year old guy, no signs of arthritis yet. But both my parents have quite debilitating and different forms of arthritis.
My dad (54 years old) thought he tore something in his knee getting out of his car on some ice recently. It wasn’t healing. MRI revealed that he just has terrible arthritis. He’s about 200lbs and 6 feet tall and fairly active still. But for years his knees have made it hard for him to hike or mountain bike. He still goes, but complains constantly. He can not do a squat, can’t sit cross-leg, and has trouble getting down onto the ground or back up (for like 10 years straight).
My mom used to cut hair, now she has really bad arthritis in her fingers, and some in her back. She’s far more mobile than my dad. Also a healthy weight. I’m a software engineer so my fingers are quite important to me.
Neither of them smoke or drink alcohol - at all.
I’m super active. I ran track in college. I mountain bike, freedive, backpack, pretty much anything outdoors. Exercise fairly regularly (2 times a week). My hope is that staying healthy and active is enough. But seeing them struggle to keep up has me worried. They haven’t aged much, but it’s like they feel pain moving.
My maternal grandpa was backpacking and biking into his early 70s pain-free. I’d see that as an absolute win compared to my parents. The research I did this morning had some basic suggestions, but also a lot of “we don’t really know.”
I’ve had a few sports injuries, but nothing that has bothered me after it healed. Some were serious enough to required physical therapy. Mostly ankle and wrist sprains, plus regular stress fractures in my feet from indoor track.
Correct me if I’m wrong: but right now one of the things I want to incorporate more of is mobility work. I like yoga so that’s probably what I’ll try to add more of. Once a week was what I was planning on. I do a lot of active things that I don’t consider exercise, like biking to work, walking the dog, etc.
Also, I don’t run a ton anymore, but it’s never bothered me and I love going on a run every now and again. The research here seems to be super conflicting. My interpretation is that you can run unless you have arthritis and it bothers you. But running doesn’t seem to cause arthritis or knee pain (even though a lot of personal anecdotal stories blame running on knee issues). In general, the lower impact the activity though, the better it is for people with arthritis.
So if anyone has resources to link to, or long-term lifestyle suggestions, I’m all ears. My ultimate goal would be to just feel as healthy as I do right now, for as long as possible.
And so; what lifestyle practices combat/prevent arthritis?
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that you are more prone to due to genetics. Unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do to avoid it if you are going to have it. You should stay up to date on it as our understanding of autoimmune diseases changes constantly. Make sure you are mentioning to your doctor that your father has rheumatoid arthritis. Catching it early before joint damage occurs is key. The moment you feel swelling or pain in your joints you need to speak to a doctor about it and discuss your family medical history, don’t leave it until the damage is done. We have better medications today than your father had.
Especially when (IIRC) it is linked with our natural biome which we are only recently starting to study.
Yes, healthy eating and an antiinflammatory diet can be very important in managing autoimmune disorders.