The truth: Will you get arthritis if you don't wear long johns?

Who is the bravest woman? The woman who doesn't wear long johns in the winter! Many beauty-conscious ladies absolutely cannot tolerate having their slender legs wrapped in long johns, because it will affect their perfect image!

Q: Will not wearing long underwear cause people to suffer from arthritis?

Medicine has discovered that joint problems are beginning to appear in younger people, and most of those affected are beauty-loving women who are "freezingly beautiful." Some people believe that cold stimulation is the direct cause of arthritis. They believe that cold stimulation can weaken the metabolism and immune defense ability of articular cartilage, causing the cartilage surface to ulcerate and be damaged, resulting in inflammation. However, is this really the case?

Wear and tear is the common cause of osteoarthritis

Most of the diseases such as "arthritis" and "rheumatism" mentioned by people actually refer to osteoarthritis. Most of the inflammation is related to the end of the service life of the joints. In addition, some arthritis is caused by dysfunction of the human immune system, and a small part is caused by microbial infection. However, there is currently no clear conclusion to support the claim that cold causes arthritis.

So, how does the "lifespan" of joints affect the human body?

We all know that everything has a useful life, and human joints are no exception. As time goes by, joints that people use repeatedly will undergo certain changes. The cartilage in the joints will become thinner, soften, lose elasticity, and even break and peel off. The bone under the cartilage will proliferate and form osteophytes, eventually leading to joint pain, joint stiffness, and limited mobility. This is osteoarthritis.

Moreover, people are more likely to develop this disease after the age of 40, and those who bear heavy weights or engage in strenuous exercise for a long time may experience premature joint disease.

Of course, in addition to life expectancy, currently known risk factors for osteoarthritis include advanced age, obesity, estrogen deficiency, abnormal bone density, excessive exercise, smoking, vitamin D deficiency, as well as mechanical factors such as trauma, abnormal joint morphology, weakness of the muscles around the joints, and repeated stress loads.

Cold weather may make joint pain worse

Although cold weather does not directly cause arthritis, it is not accidental that the older generation put forward this view. Because the main clinical manifestation of arthritis is joint pain, and every time the weather changes and it is damp and cold, the pain of arthritis patients will worsen, which inevitably makes people think of the causal relationship between cold and arthritis.

So why do people with arthritis get worse when it's cold?

So far, there is no scientific conclusion on this issue. Some people believe that the cold environment changes the compliance of the tissues around the joints, the viscosity of the synovial fluid, and the permeability of the capillaries around the joints; others believe that this is entirely a psychological effect. When the cold affects people's emotions, negative emotions can lower the pain threshold, thus making people feel pain.

No matter what the reason is that the cold aggravates the condition of arthritis patients, people should still take care of their joints, because in cold weather, people will experience muscle contraction, joint stiffness, reduced blood flow to the joints, and reduced synovial fluid secretion, which will greatly increase the chance of accidental joint injury and cause indirect harm to the human body. If this continues for a long time, it will undoubtedly increase the burden on the joints and reduce their service life.

In addition, we would like to remind everyone that joint pain or arthritis caused by joint wear and tear may also be caused by problems with the body's immune system, which attacks its own joint tissue and causes joint inflammation. This disease is called "rheumatoid arthritis."

This disease is a specific autoimmune disease that primarily affects the synovium of the joints. In this disease, the abnormal immune system not only attacks the synovial membrane of the body's own joints, but also attacks other organs such as the eyes, lungs, blood vessels, etc. Therefore, once discovered, active treatment is required to avoid disability.

in conclusion

Leg pain after catching a cold is indeed one of the symptoms of arthritis, but cold itself is not the cause of arthritis. Whether or not to wear long johns is purely a personal habit and it will not cause you to suffer from arthritis. However, people should still take care of their legs and keep them warm in time if they cannot withstand the cold.