I know a few people are going to be offended and probably won’t read the rest of this article just because of the title.
I just hope they don’t have arthritis because if they do, they’ll be missing out on information that could dramatically change their experience of life.
I may even receive some nasty emails (minus the profanity) telling me how I’m a horrible role model, or to think of the children.
More importantly, you’re likely curious to know what this article is all about and why I’d tell you to fuck arthritis, so here we go…
I could lose visitors, subscribers, and even customers.
And I’m OK with all that.
I wasn’t always, but now I am.
While I’m not yet at the point where I care so little about what other people think I can let out a loud fart in any social situation without hesitation, I do give much less of a fuck about pleasing absolutely everyone than I did in years past.
Especially in articles, where I choose my words with much more precision and can hum and haw for forever before publishing, I’ve been grappling with the idea of using the words I normally use in everyday conversation with friends and family (except my Mom and Dad – they’re old school) vs. keeping everything PG.
Guess who won?
So if you’re still with me, it shows you’re not that easily offended and we’d probably have some good laughs over a frosty pint of bitter ale.
More importantly, you’re likely curious to know what this article is all about and why I’d tell you to fuck arthritis, so here we go…
What the hell is arthritis anyway?
The definition of arthritis from dictionary.com is this:
arthritis [ahr-thrahy-tis] – acute or chronic inflammation of a joint, often accompanied by pain and structural changes and having diverse causes, as infection, crystal deposition, or injury [1]
Looking at this definition, we can see clear as day that arthritis is a label given to a set symptoms; not something that tells us what the actual root cause is, such as when a doctor tells you you’ve got malaria, which is a clear diagnosis of the root cause of how shitty you’re feeling and also provides the path to getting well.
Speaking of doctors, they throw the term arthritis around almost as much as they throw prescriptions for painkillers around.
Want to hear some scary stats?
From 2010- 2012, an estimated 52.5 million US adults (22.7%) annually had ever been told by a doctor that they had some form of arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, lupus, or fibromyalgia. [2]
And in 2012, 259 million prescriptions were written for painkillers. [3]
“So Mrs. Brown, you knee’s been hurting the last couple of days?
Could be arthritis. Here’s some Vicodin.”
“Hello Mr. Johnson. You’re telling me your shoulder has been sore for the last couple of months?
Hmm… Maybe it’s arthritis. I think you need some oxycodone.”
“Hi Mr. Wong, good to see you. Back pain you say?
I’ve just the thing for you – codeine. Here’s a month’s supply – if you run out just come back and see me and I’ll get you fixed right up.”
Do you see the grave problem with this?
We’ve got a loose diagnosis, based on a set of symptoms and instead of addressing the root cause, you get a script for something that many people get addicted to (2 million Americans in 2014) and could kill you (33,000 Americans in 2015).
Maybe I should’ve titled this article FUCK DOCTORS instead.
But I do understand it’s a systemic issue that creates this phenomenon and doctors have not the time nor the training to deal with something like arthritis effectively, so we’ll leave it as is.
What we must do is first understand what the root cause of the pain is, then we can deal with it.
2 Common Types of Arthritis
Now, there are different subtypes of arthritis, but the two main ones are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Osteoarthritis – the most common form of arthritis, usually occurring after middle age, marked by chronic breakdown of cartilage in the joints leading to pain, stiffness, and swelling. [4]
Rhematoid arthritis – a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation of the joints, frequently accompanied by marked deformities, and ordinarily associated with manifestations of a general, or systemic, affliction. [5]
These are two different beasts, the former is more of a biomechanical nature and the latter is more physiological.
For the purposes of this article, we’re going to focus on OA since it’s the most common and it’s the one I understand.
However, if you do have RA, much of the same advice applies to you too so stay with me. [I honestly didn’t feel like diving into the research to fully understand RA today. Sue me.]
What Causes “Arthritis”?
The Mayo Clinic lists 5 general risk factors for arthritis:
- Family history
- Age
- Gender
- Previous joint injury
- Obesity
A lot of people like to grasp on to the first 2, family history and age, as the top reason they have arthritis (or cancer, heart disease, blood pressure, etc).
Thing is, we can’t do shit about those things (nor gender), so we might as well forget about them because they fall outside of our circle of influence.
The circle of influence is a concept I learned from Steven Covey’s book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which states that there are 2 broad categories of things we can choose to focus on, things we can control and things we can’t.
The things that we can control fall inside our circle of influence and the things we cannot control fall inside the circle of concern.
When we direct energy to the circle of influence, we can actually get results, which feels great, creates momentum and fires us up.
However, when we direct energy to the circle of concern, it’s not only impossible to have an impact because it’s on something we don’t control, we’re wasting time and energy that we can never get back and all of this is stressful as fuck.
Focus on the things you can change and fuck the rest.
So what can we change?
Our daily thinking and actions.
That’s it.
So let’s focus on those now.
How to Fuck Arthritis: Part I – Lifestyle
We know that arthritis is acute or chronic inflammation of a joint, so it makes sense that we want to do less of the things that promote general inflammation and more of the things that decrease it.
We’re going to break this down as simple as possible so as not to lose anyone because in the world of health the forest often gets lost in the trees so if you’re going to get butt hurt because we don’t dive into the science of c-reactive protein, you might as well stop now.
Lifestyle Factors That Promote Inflammation
FOOD: while we’re not going to go into all of this (you can Google it yourself), generally speaking refined and processed foods like white sugar, cheap vegetable oils and synthetic chemical additives promote inflammation. So if you’ve got arthritis and you drink blue gatorade because it helps you skate faster, you’re fucking yourself. Stop putting this shit in your body. It’s poison.
POOR SLEEP: if you pride yourself on sleeping 4 hours a night, welcome to inflammation city. Don’t believe me? Read this and this. Poor sleep is also a function of quality, so if the TV is blaring and you’re being woken up multiple times a night, fix it (tips below). But for most, we need to follow this simple advice: go the fuck to sleep.
STRESSING OUT: if you’re always stressed, worried and on edge, your body loses its ability to regulate the inflammatory response, according to these two dudes that research this kinda thing.
One thing that I’ve witnessed from friends and family who tell me (or show) that they’re stressed is they try to do too much or try to do things too perfectly.
If we don’t get everything done it’s not the end of the world and the truth is that nobody is perfect so trying to be perfect is a game that can’t be won. For example, I have a chipped front tooth, I sometimes have difficulty being empathetic towards my wife (don’t worry, she lets me know) and I’ve shit my pants numerous times as an adult (usually because of a misjudged fart).
Perfect I am not.
But I’m happy as a pig in (my own) shit.
Now that we know the most common things that promote general inflammation, what decreases it?
How to Decrease Inflammation
FOOD: real natural foods like vegetables, meat, fruits and drink water. Done. People make this shit way too complicated. Fuck ’em! There’s this thing called Paleo that I’ve heard about that would probably be a good place to start if your idea of breakfast is a piece of toast or dinner is boiling pasta and throwing tomato sauce on top.
Or if you do want a concrete plan, try this:
Breakfast = 2 eggs + a fruit
Lunch = meat + salad
Dinner = meat + steamed veggies + rice
QUALITY SLEEP: here are Dr. Wong’s 3 rules of sleep:
- Aim for 7-8 hours a night
- Go to sleep at the same time (ideally no later than 11pm) and wake up at the same time
- Do your best to get an uninterrupted night of sleep (use white noise and blackout curtains)
And don’t knock yourself out with booze or drugs. Passing out isn’t quality sleep.
RELAX: chill the fuck out. A few tips of things you can do everyday that can help you relax include meditation, not trying to do more than you’re capable of in any given block of time and laughing until your belly hurts. In fact, start by watching this video:
SUPPLEMENTS: according to the good people at Examine.com, there are only a few supplements that have been shown to decrease inflammation: curcumin and fish oil, with curcumin being more powerful.
If you’re feeling the effects of inflammation, I highly recommend a turmeric supplement called PuraThrive that you can find HERE, because I’ve used it myself with great results after having trouble healing a chronic wrist injury.
I also recommend getting a decent brand of fish oil such as Carlson, Ascenta or NutraSea and taking 3 grams total fish oil/day (that’s about 1 tbsp of the liquid).
So that concludes Part I.
Know what’s really cool about these things?
Dial them in and you’re not just saying fucking arthritis, you’re also flipping both middle fingers to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, bags under your eyes, premature grey hairs, a limp dick, feeling twice your age, disgusting bowel movements and more.
Simple?
YES.
Easy?
Nope.
Good thing too, because nothing in life truly worthwhile is easy.
But you can make it easier on yourself by starting with one thing and making it a habit before moving on.
While today’s society promotes instant gratification, if you get trapped by this evil power you’ll be miserable and your life is going to quickly pass you by without you having done anything worthwhile.
Fuck instant gratification while we’re at it.
How to Fuck Arthritis: Part II – Movement
Arthritis is inflammation of joints and the inflammation is often related to damage and/or degeneration of the passive soft tissues in the joints such as intervertebral discs, menisci and bursae.
These passive tissues are designed to facilitate joint movement and prevent bones from ramming into each other.
However, these tissues are not your first line of defense…
Your first line of defense to keep your joints healthy are your MUSCLES.
If your muscles are too weak or don’t fire when they should, these passive tissues must deal with whatever forces aren’t controlled by the muscles and if they have to deal with too great of a force or too much force over time, they will break down.
This will cause pain and the vicious cycle begins, because pain will restrict movement and the only way to heal these tissues is through movement since these tissues have poor blood supply and movement is how they get the nutrition they need to heal and stay healthy.
The main takeaway here is that PAIN-FREE MOVEMENT at every joint is necessary to maintain healthy joints for life.
But that doesn’t mean that pain is bad.
How to Fuck Arthritis: Part III – Using Pain
If a movement hurts, you can pop painkillers and make it go away so you can go jump on a box or play short stop at your beer league baseball game, but this is going to remove the very thing you need to understand what your body needs to heal.
Every injury I’ve ever had, including my back surgery, a broken clavicle, sprained joints, muscle contusions and anything else that’s resulted in painful movement has taught me more about my body than any teacher or coach I’ve ever had.
This is because pain gives me instant feedback into which movements hurt and which don’t, my body’s compensatory patterns and how to alter movements through different choices or muscular activation patterns affects the pain.
That’s why I love delayed-onset muscle soreness aka DOMS and use it as a way to help me learn when certain muscles are used and how to activate them, because when a sore muscle contracts, you feel it and you know if it’s working or not.
If I were to pop painkillers and train or play through it, I’d be deaf to what the pain was trying to teach me about how my body works.
The body is too complex and situations too diverse to go into a one-size fits all prescription here, but just know that pain is your body’s way of guiding you to repair, not something to be bound and gagged.
So here’s what to do about painkillers:
How to Fuck Arthritis: Part IV – Patience
Arthritis is not going to go away overnight.
It may take years of consistent (not insane) effort to heal your body.
Just think of how many years of abuse created the problem in the first place and how ridiculous it is to expect to undo it all in a couple of months.
Also don’t set yourself up for failure by expecting that you can be 100% cured.
Aim to get to 80-90%, which is an A, not 100% which is that old perfection monster rearing its ugly head again.
And like I said, you don’t have to dedicate your entire life to dealing with it.
Just take it a step at a time, starting with Part I.
Being here and reading this, you’re likely someone who already moves, so just take what I said in Parts II and III into consideration.
Then apply a little bit of patience and since 2 years is going to pass anyway, you might as well set yourself up for your future self to be a lot healthier, happier and to move without pain by taking steps now, doncha think?
This is one of the earlier posts here on PrecisionMovement.coach and I’ve put it out now because I want everyone to know right from the start what we’re about here.
WE reject quick-fix, band-aid solutions and address the root causes to truly cure our problems.
WE are not afraid to put in the work necessary to get the results we’re after.
And WE love to MOVE and will do what it takes to move freely without pain so we can get the most out of our bodies and out of life.
Thanks for listening and being cool.
If you haven’t yet, join me on the PM.c Facebook page here.
It’s gonna be a fun journey together and we’re just getting started.
