Knees and Your Health

By Jenetta Haim

Knees been playing up lately? Is it just a sign of getting older or can it point to other issues? When your knees hurt it makes moving about awkward. Getting up and down stairs, kneeling, gardening, dancing, and exercise. All these and much more becomes affected. There are many common causes of knee pain. You may have had an injury or just overuse so that means it's temporary. However there are other more serious causes like arthritis. Some causes are less obvious however.

One of the first things to question if you have not overused your knees in some way is to look at your weight. Are you overweight and are your knees feeling the pressure? Did you know that the knees can feel the pressure of up to five times of your body weight? So if you are overweight apart from attending to your diet and some exercise you need to do some muscle strengthening exercises specifically for that area of your body.

Or is it that you are exercising too hard or too often? This can cause major strain on all your joints and exercise done incorrectly can affect the cartilage and add to knee degeneration. So it is important to warm up and stretch before any exercise and do a cool down to avoid injury.

Of course we can't discount the fact that you are getting older. Age puts stress on all parts of your body. Your muscle mass decreases and so does your body strength so it is natural that there should be a few aches and pains if you are not taking care of yourself. The way to combat this is to have a balanced diet, a balance in your exercise routine, a balance of sleep, relaxation, work and take the right supplements for your age.

Surprisingly also people who are depressed tend to get more aches and pains than people who are happy with their lifestyle. This is because when you are depressed you tend to neglect your diet, exercise and social connections. You also tend to brood and worry more. All this makes for a more sedentary lifestyle and your muscles are not getting a proper workout. There is a psychological effect by the depression which causes a physiological effect in that you don't move about as much and it becomes a cycle of one symptom adding to another. So if you are anxious and depressed make sure you see a natural therapist who can give you a tool kit of how to handle your depression and some natural supplements to make you feel better.

There are illnesses however that will affect your knees as well as other parts of your body. Do you have gout? Gout can be controlled by right diet and supplements. It is due to perhaps eating a lot of red meat or drinking too much alcohol. Also Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are two diseases of the digestive system that can cause pains in joints. There are other diseases that do this also. So always look at your diet first when you are not feeling well in any area of your body. Again this can be remedied by seeing a naturopath or nutritionist who will give you a proper diet to control your symptoms.