Struggling with Arthritis in Laguna Beach CA?

Does your arthritis keep you from fully engaging in the activities you love? Maybe you can't play the sports you love, pop up quickly on a surfboard, or run around with your kids. Don't let your pain dictate your life. Our chiropractors in Laguna Beach CA have solutions to help restore your health.

Arthritis is Widespread:

• More than 50 million adults have doctor-diagnosed arthritis.
  that’s 1 in 4 people over age 18.
• Number of people expected to have doctor-diagnosed arthritis
  by the year 2040: more than 78 million.

---

TWO MAIN TYPES OF ARTHRITIS in Laguna Beach CA

Although there are many forms of Arthritis, there are two main types. The most common is Osteoarthritis, also termed Degenerative Joint Disease. This occurs due to the wearing down of cartilage in the joints over time.

The other is Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), which is a type of autoimmune arthritis. In RA, the immune system attacks certain areas of the body, especially the joints. This causes inflammation and can lead to severe joint damage.

These two types of Arthritis have different causes as well as different forms of treatment.

---

CAUSES OF OSTEOARTHRITIS:

Osteoarthritis is a progressive chronic condition. It is caused by a combination of past injuries, everyday wear and tear on joints, and extra pressure placed on joints due to obesity or unnatural repetitive movements.

In order to better understand the role of past injuries in causing Osteoarthritis, let’s take a look at what happens in the body after a joint injury. After a trauma, the injured joint goes through three main phases of healing:

• First phase: Inflammatory phase, which lasts for 3 days. As part of the healing process, the body generates inflammation in the area for further protection of the joint.
• Repair stage: In order to restore the muscular tissue that was damaged, the body lays down reparative connective tissue, also known as scar tissue, in the affected areas. If the joint is not kept moving as it should throughout the repair stage, this scar tissue forms areas of tightness, tension, and discomfort called adhesions. These adhesion lead to pain and postural distortion. It is only when the injured area is cared for correctly during the repair stage that the formation of adhesion can be decreased and long term damage prevented.
• Remodeling Stage: During this phase, the cartilage begins to remodel its protein and collagen matrix based on the way that the joint healed during the repair stage.
  Because many people do not get the care they need during the repair stage and a distorted pattern has most likely been formed, the cartilage will also be formed in a distorted matter further damaging the joint.

---

Layers of Trauma

Every injury and trauma we endure leads to layers of inflammation, scar tissue, and adhesions. Layer upon layer.

Our bodies respond to structural stresses such as injuries, by becoming less flexible and more distorted. So we must be careful to make sure we get the proper treatment needed after injuries.

Besides past injuries, stress on the joints can be caused by everyday wear and tear if the body isn’t functioning as it was meant to. Our bodies were designed with a specific ‘architecture” to handle the stress of everyday movements, much like a bridge is meant to hold up the weight of the cars driving over it. This architecture has to do with posture, which helps us to withstand the weight of gravity and the weight of the body itself. The actual curves of the spine are well researched, and optimal posture is defined by specific angles and measurements of the curves. These curves help to diffuse the 32g/in2 of gravitational forces pulling down on our bodies at all times.They help to keep the body from developing arthritis and degeneration.

Unfortunately, problems arise when one’s posture is out of alignment and the curves are distorted. Without proper posture, gravity will place abnormal pressure on bones and joints, creating inflammation leading to degeneration in the joints. The abnormal pressure on bony tissue also leads to the formation of bone spurs through the piezoelectric effect. In this process, extra minerals are magnetically pulled into the affected area to increase the density of the tissue, and thus bone spurs begin to form from the scar tissue. If a joint is not moving like it should because of excessive scar tissue, it will begin to fuse. If joints don’t move, they will fuse.

Thus, postural restoration and maintenance is very important when it comes to preventing Osteoarthritis and treating those suffering from it.

What can you do about Arthritis?

---

HOW TO AVOID IT AND HOW TO TREAT IT

For cases of Osteoarthritis, the most important thing is to restore proper movement to the joint. Where there is movement, there is life! Timing is important for this. If a person waits too long, the joint can completely fuse, and there is not much that can be done to restore it at that point. However, before it fuses, there is GOOD NEWS! The joint can be rehabilitated through therapies that help to restore proper motion.

We combine gentle chiropractic adjustments and a select combination of therapies in order to restore movement in the joints. When you restore proper motion to the area, inflammation decreases, and the pain pathways are turned down. The more a joint is moving, the less it will hurt and the less it will degenerate. All of our therapies are designed to stretch and loosen the area and begin to break down old scar tissue patterns. Along with improving motion, our treatments also work to restructure and remodel the posture. When this happens, unnecessary pressure on joints and discs is removed and the body is able to withstand gravity as it was designed. Thus, when proper motion is restored and posture is remodeled, joints are restored and healed!

---

TREATING RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS:

Rheumatoid Arthritis has a different cause than Osteoarthritis, and is therefore treated differently. As an autoimmune disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis can be managed through lifestyle medicine as well as treatment modalities for the joints. We do in-depth integrative exams to determine the underlying cause of the pain and inflammation. From there, we work to treat all areas of stress in the body: structural, biochemical, emotional, and energetic. For those suffering from RA, diet and supplementation is very important and a correct nutritional program can greatly decrease inflammation. A combination of different therapies, including chiropractic, massage, therapeutic exercise, and joint therapies then helps to restore proper movement, range of motion, and circulation to the joint areas. When all areas of complication are addressed including inflammation, immune health, structural health, digestive health, emotional health, etc., those with Rheumatoid Arthritis can begin to see the transformation, pain-relief, and restoration.

---

A CHOICE TO MAKE

Let me ask you this... Let’s say you wanted to buy and sell a house. So, you invest to buy the house, and you know it could be greatly improved if you remodeled it. Would you spend the time and money to remodel that house knowing that the value would be much greater when you decide to sell it? You would probably say yes. This is what people do when they flip houses. They buy at the low, invest money to make it beautiful and then make more money because the value has been increased.

This house is an external dwelling that you won’t even live in. Now let me ask… how much do you value the house that you live in all day long- your body? Don’t you think it is worth investing in? How much more enjoyment would you get from your body if it didn’t hurt, if you didn’t continue to let it degenerate?

The choice is yours. There are solutions to stop the degeneration and relieve the pain! Restore your body, your home. You have a choice to make, you have the power, use it!