As someone who spent thirty plus years running, creating arthritic hips, I was interested in recent research conducted at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital in Boston which has revealed interesting findings regarding how to rebuild arthritic joints. The article was featured in Life Extensions Winter 2011-2012 issue and I must admit with my hip problems, I got excited about the results of this research. In the study, findings as to why our joints become arthritic have uncovered answers regarding how to overcome this issue with a substance called undenatured type II collagen, otherwise known as UC-II.
Osteoarthritis in a Nutshell
Arthritis of the “osteo” nature has long been thought to be due to wear and tear that occurs over our lifetimes as we age. The hips and knees take the biggest beating from bearing most our body’s load throughout our lives. Eventually our joint bones become frayed and worn disrupting the smooth surface of the joint bone. This results in the collagen within that bone becoming exposed to our immune system cells. The cells are doing nothing more than the job they know how to do by identifying the exposed collagen fibers as foreign and an enemy to the body. Once the immune cells begin their fight on those fibers, the inflammation and stress to that joint ensues, and the pain that so many arthritis sufferers are familiar with has begun. Personally, I find myself in this predicament due to my running career of 30 years and because of this am excited to possibly have this option to try.
Rheumatoid Arthritis in a Nutshell
Basically, the same immune process occurs with rheumatoid arthritis as with osteoarthritis, without the wear and tear involved. This arthritis occurs from an autoimmune disorder wherein the synovial membranes and cartilage are identified falsely as the enemy due to dysfunction in the immune system. In both osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, the smooth surface of the joint becomes damaged from this process.
UC-II and Complete Arthritic Remission
As an avid runner with hips that hurt, reading this Life Extension article gave me a new sense of hope for the future. The study conducted at Harvard involved 60 patients that had active rheumatoid arthritis, and revealed a reduction in swollen and tender joints for patients that took a 3 month long course of UC-II however, there was no change in pain for those recipients that received placebos. Even more exciting was the fact that 14% of the group that took the 3 month course of UC-II had achieved complete remissions of their diseases.
This study also included juvenile rheumatoid sufferers, with findings of decreases in tender and swollen joints topping off at 61% and 54% correspondingly.
Source:
Life Extension Winter 2011/12 issue