Joint diseases: principles of treatment, exercises and work with emotions

When we talk about joint pain, most often we mean … knees! Yes, they hurt in 80% of people over 45 years old, and in athletes, in general, in 90% of cases and regardless of age. Next in popularity are hip joints, ankle sprains, and only then – wrists, elbows, shoulders. Why do legs get hurt more often? The answer is simple: because they bear the weight of the body, they work with weights all their lives. And nothing can be done about this fact. What can you do with it? Let’s figure it out.

Water balance

The key to joint health is a sufficient amount of joint (synovial) fluid. It performs the function of lubrication, thanks to which the joints work properly and do not wear out. In order for there to be enough joint fluid, the body needs to create it from something.

Therefore, when thinking about the amount of water you drink per day, keep in mind that this is necessary not only for the functioning of internal organs and skin quality, but also for the joints to serve longer and better.

Posture

Any changes in posture affect the health of the joints of the legs. Why? Imagine that a person has, say, a slight torsion of the pelvis – that is, the pelvis is slightly rotated around its axis. The iliac bones are not in the same line, but one is slightly higher, the other is slightly lower. As a rule, it is not very noticeable to the eye.

It is more noticeable that a person has one shoulder slightly higher than the other. If so, one can be almost certain that the pelvis is also asymmetrical. In this case, an uneven load is placed on the joints of the legs. That is, one joint is slightly overloaded, the other, on the contrary, is less involved. In addition, it turns out that each of the joints is also asymmetrically loaded: on the one hand, it wears out a little more, on the other, less.

Any competent doctor who advises a person with diseased leg joints will recommend healing gymnastics for the spine – exercises that restore correct posture. For diseases of the knee and hip joints, gymnastics aimed at relaxing the muscles of the spine can be very, very useful – for example, qigong for the spine Sing Shen Juang (Xinshen).

What is the principle of such gymnastics: by relaxing the muscles, you “release” the bone structures, the muscles stop pulling them, and the spine returns to its normal position. The posture becomes slim and beautiful, the load on the joints is balanced, and they are restored.

emotional status

In Chinese medicine, it is believed that any disease of the body is associated with an emotional background. For example, stomach problems are often associated with irritability, and in people with lung problems, the emotion of sadness dominates. When solving this or that problem with health, it is important to pay attention to the emotional background: if the emotion is worked out and you can take it under control, then the health of the body will recover faster.

Chinese experts associate diseases of the joints with a condition that can be described by the phrase “through force”. A person acts on the verge of his capabilities, constantly spurring himself, although the chosen type of activity does not give him pleasure.

This state in modern urban life is often considered the norm: we do not always compare the causes and consequences of our active actions – we are used to them, and if there is no this constant “spurring”, there is even some kind of hunger (something I’m not doing, something that’s not enough).

Meditation helps to assess this state from the outside and get out of it. Please note that people who have dedicated their lives to meditation, such as monks, often suffer from diseases of the joints of the legs for a more mundane mechanical reason. Sitting motionless for many hours in the lotus position negatively affects the condition of the knees. It is possible, by the way, that they also work on their spiritual growth through strength.

However, it is not necessary for beginners to repeat this pose – sitting with crossed legs. Meditation is a search for inner silence, a state of mind in which the inner monologue is turned off. It doesn’t matter what position you meditate in. The main thing is not to lie at the same time in a comfortable position in which sleep comes in a minute.

Finding Inner Silence

Sit on a chair, your back is straight, your shoulders are straightened, the top of your head tends up. Close your eyes and pay attention to two factors:

• the tongue is relaxed – it literally spreads over the lower jaw. When we talk to ourselves, the language is reflexively tense: the speech system is preparing to reproduce our thoughts. This relationship also works in the opposite direction: when the tongue is relaxed, the flow of thoughts slows down, and it is easier to find a pause between them – that very silence, immersion in which is called meditation;
• count your breaths – without speeding up or slowing them down. Just watch the air enter the body and count. If extraneous thoughts appear, just follow them with your attention – like clouds running across the sky. Not developing thoughts, but simply observing them.

It is enough to perform this exercise for three to five minutes a day to learn how to “slow down” your activity and begin to prioritize more clearly. What needs to be done now, what can be put off for later, and what can be easily abandoned. Such an approach to the formation of one’s activity frees up time for the creative solution of the same tasks that were previously solved “impudently”, with a running start, with the application of the maximum amount of effort.

And the more creativity in each step, the more effective our work, the less fuss and the need to “run faster”. This means that there are fewer actions “through force”, which have a destructive effect on the state of the joints.