Joint Pain: Understanding Your Joints and Finding Relief

Sore, aching and painful joints can put a real dent in our enjoyment of life. Whether it’s your knees, hips, shoulders or back, joint discomfort can make everyday activities more difficult than they need to be. One factor often discussed when we look at joint health is something called joint space.

What is joint space? A joint is a complex structure. Cartilage covers the ends of the bones, helping them move smoothly against one another. Synovial fluid lubricates the joint, while ligaments, tendons and surrounding muscles provide support and stability.

Over time, injury, repetitive loading and changes associated with ageing can affect these structures. In some cases, the space between the bones appears reduced on an X-ray. This is known as joint space narrowing and can be associated with cartilage loss, although an X-ray does not show cartilage directly.

Joints can be stressed in many ways. Sports involving collisions, physically demanding jobs, and activities requiring repeated heavy lifting can all place considerable demands on the body. Carrying excess body weight can also increase the load on weight-bearing joints, particularly the knees and hips.

The spine deserves attention, too. It contains numerous joints, including the small facet joints between the vertebrae, which can be affected by loading, repetitive movement and age-related changes.

The Importance of Gradual Activity

Have you ever experienced what I call leaf-raking syndrome? Imagine spending six hours raking leaves in the autumn when you haven’t done much physical work for months. Or taking a long break from running and then heading straight out for a six-mile run. Perhaps you decide to carry several 60-pound bags of soil for your garden, even though you only do that sort of thing twice a year. It is hardly surprising if your body complains afterwards!

The problem isn’t necessarily the activity itself. It’s often the sudden increase in physical demand without enough preparation or recovery. Muscles, tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues respond differently to exercise and injury. Some tissues recover relatively quickly, while tendons and ligaments may take considerably longer to adapt or heal. Giving your body time to recover is an important part of maintaining joint health.

A little preparation can go a long way:

Build up gradually. Increase the duration and intensity of physical activities over time. 

Use good body mechanics. Keep loads close to your body and use your hips and knees when lifting, rather than relying on your back alone. 

Exercise regularly. Moderate, consistent movement helps maintain strength, mobility and function. 

Allow time for recovery. Alternate demanding activities with rest or lighter movement. 

Manage joint loading. Avoid carrying unnecessarily heavy bags and consider whether reducing excess body weight might help ease pressure on your knees and hips. We shouldn’t seek to avoid activity but to find a sustainable balance between movement, loading and recovery.

Looking Beyond the Obvious

When someone comes to see me with joint discomfort, perhaps following a fall or car accident, or after weeks or months of repetitive activity, I like to look at the whole picture.

Joint movement, surrounding muscle tension, posture and the way the body distributes mechanical loads can all be relevant to how someone feels and moves and joint space is one part of that picture. When we look at an X-ray report, we may see the words decreased joint space. This can provide useful information about the joint, but it doesn’t tell us everything about the person’s pain, mobility or day-to-day experience. There are many ways to support joint function, including appropriate strengthening exercises, mobility work, gradual movement etc. 

But what is different about what I do and about Craniosacral Therapy is that I see the joint space as a thing in and of itself.  I do work to decompress the joint, to address tensions in muscles which are adding to the compression, to un-torque the joints, but it takes a long time to grow back knee cartilage, for example, even with all the best stimuli. 

In my CST practice, I pay particular attention to the subtle sensations of tension, restriction and movement around the body. By subtly working with the space itself, some relief can be found fairly soon. Some of the movements the body makes are quite subtle and barely visible to the naked eye, but a trained practitioner can detect the tensions and torsions in a joint, and help release them. We then move on to what is called distraction (lengthening) but in a less mechanistic way. We actually make the space itself bigger, and the various tissues then follow. 

Our joints serve us throughout our lives, and they benefit from a little care and attention. Regular movement, sensible loading, gradual increases in activity and adequate recovery can all help us stay active.

Take care of your joints, listen to your body, and give yourself time to recover. As we enter Autumn and leaves begin to pile up, take care of your back just like you take care of your lawn!

I hope you stay well.

John