Arthritis is one of those non-diagnosis diagnoses. It just means "you have pain in your joints".* It's like "tendinitis" or "sciatica", it's a description of symptoms, not an explanation for them.

Patient: "Doctor, I have this terrible pain in my head"

Doctor: "Well, you have what is medically known as a headache"

Patient: "Doctor, I have this terrible pain in my joints"...

Arthritis is not inevitable, it's not about getting older, and it's not irreversible. It's about movement starvation and misaligned musculo-skeletal system.

If you have knee pain (and I know of at least 3 people on my f-list who mention it), I BEG OF YOU before you do anything as drastic as go under the knife with something as essential as your knees, read Pete Egoscue's Pain Free. Read this interview with Pete. Watch this brief video (with diagrams) further explaining how & why proper joint alignment IS ESSENTIAL, and why misalignment is the cause of much of the pain modern people live with.

I have one buddy who recently chose the knife for his knees rather than look into Egoscue, and I wish him the best. But before anyone else chooses to get their knees cut because they're in pain...

My knees used to be for crap. I've had ankle problems, back problems, and was generally softer and weaker than a self-respecting guy my size should have been since college.

I turned 40 this year. At 35 I was weak, overweight, and soft. I now do snatch/get-ups with a 20kg kettlebell in sets of 10. I climb trees. I walk everywhere, and feel my ass-muscles involved in the walking (In addition to sitting at a desk, it's riding in your car that's slowly killing you). I am literally in the best shape of my life due to physical activity (Particularly Egoscue & kettlebells) and I started 2 years ago.

To be human is to move, because plants don't need brains. Movement heals and feels awesome, sedentary lifestyle causes pain and kills. It's as simple at that.

From "You Can Live Free Of Pain":

It’s widely believed that knee cartilage doesn’t heal itself. A “when it’s gone it’s gone” type of mentality. However, Egoscue believes differently. We believe that the body has an amazing ability to heal itself... We believe that cartilage has the same healing ability and stimulus-response characteristic that the rest of the body has....

I was ecstatic to read this article. It might just be the start of proving what Pete Egoscue has said forever: The knee, its makeup, and its design are no different than the rest of the body. It’s not poorly designed, it just gets into the wrong position, and a compromised knee position is most likely a painful knee position. If you get the knee in the right position the pain will be eliminated and the knee can start its healing process. Keep moving and stay healthy!
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Exercise May Improve Cartilage in Arthritic Knees
The changes imply that human cartilage responds to physiologic loading in a way similar to that exhibited by muscle and bone, and that previously established positive symptomatic effects of exercise in patients with OA may occur in parallel or even be caused by improved cartilage properties.’Moderate exercise may improve the physical composition of joint cartilage in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism [emph mine].

EDIT: Via samajh, "Arthroscopic Knee Surgery No Better Than Placebo Surgery:

July 11, 2002 — Arthroscopic knee lavage or debridement was no better than placebo surgery in a randomized controlled trial described in the July 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The fact that the effectiveness of arthroscopic lavage or debridement in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee is no greater than that of placebo surgery makes us question whether the dollars spent on these procedures might not be put to better use," senior author Nelda P. Wray, MD, MPH, from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, says in a news release. [you can bypass registering to login by using http://bugmenot.com]

-Previously in O,DIKTO?:

-Kaiser Auditorium: The Joy of Effort

-Mah sweetie's GUNZ, courtesy of Pete Egoscue

-The Male Physique: Options

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* Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease of a different stripe. But most people with "arthritis" don't suffer from that. They just suffer. And IMO, needlessly.