Arthritis is not caused by freezing, but I still advise you to wear long johns

gossip

In the past, there was a kind of cold called "your mother thinks you are cold", and a kind of concern called " your mother told you to put on a pair of long johns, otherwise you will get arthritis "... Now, many people don't even need their mothers to nag them, and they voluntarily wear long johns - because they are afraid of getting arthritis...

So, is arthritis really to blame for not wearing long underwear in cold weather? Let’s talk about it today.

Let me first tell you the conclusion: arthritis is not caused by cold and has nothing to do with long johns, but I advise you to wear them first.

analyze

Will you really get arthritis if you don’t wear thermal underwear?

Copyrighted stock images, no reproduction is authorized

To fully answer this question, we have to start with the causes of arthritis. There may be more than 100 causes of arthritis, but most of them are very rare. Based on the daily cognition of ordinary people, it can be divided into four categories:

The first type is the most common osteoarthritis among middle-aged and elderly people. It mainly occurs in the cartilage, the cartilage is worn, and there is aging in the joints.

The second type is related to the body's autoimmunity, the representative of which is rheumatoid arthritis.

The third type may be rarer. It means that our joints were injured when we were young, and we may suffer from traumatic arthritis over time.

The fourth type is even rarer, which is infectious arthritis, an infection caused by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi that enter the joints.

This ranking is also based on the disease spectrum, from the most common to the rarest. The most common of these four categories is osteoarthritis, followed by rheumatoid arthritis.

The saying "not wearing long underwear will cause arthritis" may come from these two.

First of all, it is true that cartilage wear and joint aging are more common as people age, but in the eyes of many people, the reason is simply summarized as "not wearing thermal underwear in winter when they were young."

Some people, upon hearing the word "rheumatoid", will immediately think of a cold and humid environment, and think that arthritis is caused by such an environment - this is probably why people mistakenly regard cold as the cause of arthritis. In fact, as mentioned above, the real cause of rheumatoid arthritis is a problem with the autoimmune system, and cold and humid conditions or cold joints are not the causes of the disease, but the triggering factors of arthritis symptoms.

For example, if there are potential problems in the joints, the patient may not feel anything in a suitable environment. However, if the patient is in a cold and humid environment all year round, or if he or she fails to keep warm in a short period of time and gets cold (for example, not wearing long underwear in time when the temperature drops sharply), it may induce joint pain, swelling, and stiffness. Therefore, cold and humidity are only the triggers of the symptoms, not the causes of arthritis.

It seems that not wearing long johns does not directly lead to arthritis. So the question is, do we still need to wear long johns?

Copyrighted stock images, no reproduction is authorized

It has nothing to do with arthritis, but I advise you to wear long johns

It must be said that although catching a cold is not the cause of arthritis, there is definitely no problem in keeping the joints warm. When the weather gets cold, wearing long johns (or other clothes that can keep the joints warm) in time is good for maintaining your joints (of course, it can also take care of the mood of mothers).

In addition to the fact that cold joints are more likely to induce discomfort, from a health perspective, in a cold state, joints tend to become stiff, and the blood and flexibility of the joints will be affected. In this state, if you are doing strenuous activities, such as running outdoors when the temperature drops, or rushing to work to catch a bus, and then doing other outdoor sports, if you don’t warm up well and the joints are not well kept warm, it is easy to cause sports injuries. So from this level, keeping the joints warm is also very important to prevent injuries.

This is because when we are cold, our muscles will contract for protection. For example, when we describe a person as cold, we would say "shrinking into a ball". This is actually an automatic reaction. The relationship between most of our muscles and joints is that the muscles cross over and surround the joints. When the muscles tighten, the joints will tighten as well. In this case, if you don't warm up and keep warm, the joints will be easily injured.

Joint health is very important for our normal life and exercise. Next, we will introduce some behavioral habits that may cause joint injuries. I hope everyone will pay more attention to them.

What behavioral habits can easily hurt joints?

Squatting for a long time, climbing mountains, climbing stairs, kneeling to mop the floor, and working at a desk for a long time are all very harmful to the joints. These are also the most common causes of joint pain in our outpatient clinic.

Copyrighted stock images, no reproduction is authorized

Why do these behaviors easily cause joint pain?

This is because the weight that the joints bear on the body will change under different conditions. In the above-mentioned movements, the joint bending angles are relatively large. In this case, when the weight of our body is pressed on the joints, the force borne by the joints may be 2-6 times that of normal. The pressure on the joints is actually greatly increased.

How big is the surface area of ​​each person's knee joint? You can stretch out your fist to compare. The surface area of ​​the knee joint is roughly the size of your fist. It's stressful to think that such a small space has to bear your weight.

What's more, we often bear weight on one leg when exercising, so when the angle of bending is large, there is a leverage effect, and the pressure on the cartilage will be greater. If you do these movements repeatedly for a long time, it will easily cause osteoarthritis, cause cartilage wear, and cause pain from joint overstrain.

Protect your joints, pay attention to these two points

Having said that, many of the behaviors mentioned above, such as climbing stairs, may be something that each of us must do on a daily basis, and mountain climbing and fitness have many benefits for physical and mental health, so we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are many details in this regard, so for easy memorization, I will focus on two points.

Copyrighted stock images, no reproduction is authorized

The first thing is to “stop immediately if you feel any discomfort in your joints”.

The joints are very sensitive. Once they send you a signal saying "I feel uncomfortable again", you need to stop immediately.

Do not endure the discomfort in your joints and insist on completing certain movements or maintaining certain postures.

For example, if you squat for about half an hour and your knees start to feel uncomfortable, you must stand up and move your legs, because the knee joints are already overloaded. If you continue squatting, it will easily cause joint damage. So if we want to protect our joints, we should listen to the signals that the joints send to the body.

Secondly, “stop immediately if the movement becomes abnormal.”

When doing any movement, if it is strenuous, for example, you feel your legs are tired and start to shiver, then the movement has begun to go wrong. At this time, do not continue and take a rest.

Many people who love sports have strong willpower and can endure, but this kind of persistence is often very harmful to the joints. Because when the movements are out of shape, the joints are unstable and it is difficult to move along the normal trajectory.

In this case, the force on the joint will change from surface force to point force, and more pressure will be concentrated on a point on the joint, which is prone to injury. If it happens to be concentrated on your tendon or meniscus, it is easy to cause injury to these places.

in conclusion

There are many causes of arthritis, but cold is not one of them. However, we still need to wear long johns, because cold joints can easily induce discomfort and may also cause joint damage. When we exercise, we should also pay more attention to the condition of the joints and don't force it to avoid injury.

Produced by | Popular Science China Chinese Medical Association

Author: Liu Qiang, deputy chief physician of the Department of Orthopedics, Peking University People's Hospital

Reviewer: Tang Qin, Director and Researcher of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association

Manuscript editing丨Qi Yuan (intern)

The article is produced by "Science Popularization China". Please indicate the source when reprinting.

The cover image and images within this article are from the copyright gallery. Reprinting and quoting them may lead to copyright disputes.