I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Move It or Lose It”. This is particularly true when it comes to our musculoskeletal system that encompasses our muscles, bones, joints, and connective tissue. Like it or not, as our bodies age stuff happens. Body parts break down, get weaker, become stiff, are more prone to injury and take longer to heal. My patients often tell me, “Getting old sucks” and to that I respond with my mom’s favorite reply, “There’s only one alternative!”. But some days, I can’t help but agree.
As we age, changes happen at the cellular level due to a process called senescence, which is the slowing of our cell’s ability to divide and grow. For example, when you were a kid and scraped your knee, the cut almost seemed to heal before your eyes. However, five or six decades later, it takes longer for that same scrape to heal. In addition to our skin, age-related changes affect the musculoskeletal system in the following ways:
- Underlying bone structure changes, resulting in loss of density. This bone demineralization is often more pronounced for women because the hormonal changes associated with menopause accelerates this loss. For both women and men, however, loss of bone mass translates into weaker bones, osteoporosis and a higher risk for fractures.
- In our joints, synovial fluid that acts like a lubricant, decreases with age, which can impact flexibility. In addition, the shock-absorbing cartilage that cushions the bones in our joints begins to thin and wear away, which can cause bones to painfully rub together. The loss of synovial fluid and protective cartilage can cause inflammation in the joint and trigger degenerative changes, including osteoarthritis.
- Although we are still able to build muscle after the 4th decade of our lives, the tendency is for our muscles to decrease in size and strength as we age. The loss of muscle mass is accelerated by hormonal changes as well as by a sedentary lifestyle. Over time, these muscle changes can create a negative spiral in which fatigue and weakness can make it harder to exercise and rebuild muscle mass.
- Collagen, a protein that keeps many tissues flexible, decreases as we age. Collagen fibers give our skin that youthful look, and are a crucial part of keeping our ligaments, tendons, cartilage and even our bones flexible. However, after about the age of 25, collagen begins to decline causing our ligaments and tendons to become less flexible.
The truth is that as we age, our joints are less mobile, muscles lose strength, bones become more brittle and prone to fractures, range of motion is reduced, our gait and posture change, muscle weakness can affect balance and we are more likely to suffer from falls, injuries and osteoarthritis.
Whew! All of this sounds terrible. But there’s actually some good news. Remember the adage, “use it or lose it”? Staying active can keep your bones strong and slow the rate of mineral loss. Through weight training, you can maintain and build muscle mass (it also builds bone mass). Physical activity and stretching can help keep muscles, joints and connective tissue flexible and increase your range of motion. The key is to keep moving. It’s been said that when it comes to your body, motion is lotion!
While I can’t turn back the clock with acupuncture and Chinese medicine, I can offer some healing tools that will help in keeping you active, injury-free and out of pain. Let’s start with acupuncture; it’s well-known through research and experience that acupuncture increases circulation. It keeps blood flowing and protects synovial fluid in your joints, provides nutrients to your muscles and connective tissue, and supplies oxygen and nutrients to your cells. Acupuncture can also help reduce inflammation and help you stay pain-free. In part because where the needles are placed, tiny microscopic wounds are created that your body mobilizes to heal. In that healing process, blood cells rush to the area to fight inflammation, and collagen production is increased to help heal the tiny wounds.
I also provide cold laser therapy, which can be especially helpful in treating age-related changes and injuries. Cold laser is a light therapy that gently penetrates deep into your tissues to cause positive changes in cellular metabolism—exactly where age-related changes are occurring. Cold laser therapy can be used on all kinds of tissue—muscle, joints, ligaments and tendons—and helps reduce inflammation, decrease pain, reduce swelling and promote faster healing.
In treating injuries, I also use something called shockwave therapy. It’s a treatment that uses pulsed sound waves that are delivered to the treatment area through a hand-held device. The benefits of this therapy are that it helps to break down scar tissue and calcium deposits, it stimulates cellular metabolism, and it promotes increased circulation to the treated areas to help regenerate healthy tissue. Like cold laser therapy, shockwave therapy can be used to treat problems in your ligaments, tendons, joint capsules, muscles and bones.
When working with patients who are experiencing age-related changes and injuries, it’s important to me to provide safe exercises, stretches and normal daily movements. It’s helpful to know where you can start and how to progress. In some instances, eliminating the problem or becoming pain-free means closer management of the problem and building new habits for the long run. That’s because injuries that aren’t related to trauma may have developed over years, and it can take months and even years to completely heal them. And sometimes changes in your life can cause an injury to recur or create new injuries. This is common after periods of inactivity, such as a long flight or driving trip, or a traumatic injury that takes you out of the physical activity game for a while.
The bottom line is that as we (all!) get older, our bodies change. Tissue tightens up, begins to ache and become less flexible. However, if there were a fountain of youth, it would be physical activity. While I can’t stop the clock, I have the tools and experience to help you stay active and heal from injuries, overuse and painful conditions. If you’d like to know more about the many ways that I can help you, please contact me.
Click here for a free 15-minute consultation!
Dr. Jeda Boughton is a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Registered Acupuncturist in Vancouver. She is also a Registered Herbologist and the founder of BodaHealth.
