Arthrosis disease and the role of collagen according to Rheumatologist
What is Osteoarthritis exactly? What role does cartilage play? How is the collagen dosage important? Questions to rheumatologist Gérard Guillaume.
What is Arthrosis exactly?
Arthrosis is a disease of the cartilage and the joint (subchondral bone, ligaments, joint capsule, periarticular muscles, and synovial membrane).
This disease results in mechanical pain and joint stiffness.
3 types of lesions have been identified for this disease:
- Osteosclerosis: excessive densification of the bone
- Cartilaginous ulcerations
- Osteophytes (bone growths, beaks of parrot)
The exact causes remain to be identified but we can distinguish 2 kinds of osteoarthritis:
Primary osteoarthritis:
Favored by factors such as aging, mechanical overload to the joint (overweight, architectural anomaly of the joint), abnormalities of metabolism (diabetes, etc.), hormonal influence (women after menopause, the protective role of estrogen). It can also exist because of a direct or indirect familial predisposition (genu varum, genu valgum, hip dysplasia).
Secondary osteoarthritis:
Related to a joint trauma (meniscal or cross knee lesion), high-level sport, or inflammatory joint disease .
The evolution of the disease can be:
- Slow and progressive over several years
- Extremely fast with cartilage loss in 12 to 24 months
- Intermediate with alternating periods of rapid aggravation and lull
What role does cartilage play in a general healthy situation?
It has a dual role: it allows the bony ends to slide on one another without friction; it ensures the transmission, distribution, and damping of the stresses suffered by the joint. Importance of cartilage is therefore paramount. To be able to play this role, joint cartilage is made up of several main elements: a network of collagen fibers, a gel of hydrophilic proteoglycans and chondrocytes.
What does collagen do in cartilage composition and in joint help?
In humans, as a structural protein of the body and the most abundant one, collagen plays a key role in maintaining the structural integrity of most tissues of the body: bones, skin, tendons, muscles, ligaments, cartilages. That is to say, it ensures the cohesion, elasticity, resistance, and regeneration of all connective tissues.
It is in the skin (80%), bones and teeth (10-20%).
More importantly, it confers on cartilage and tendons, their specific mechanical properties in giving its shape and tensile properties to cartilage. This is why the TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) recommends for thousands of years to consume animal cartilage to treat joint disorders.
What is the role of other cartilage components?
PROTEOGLYCANS
Gorging themselves with water like a sponge, control the deformation of the cartilage subjected to pressure
CHONDROCYTES
Synthesize all the elements of the cartilage to ensure its trophic
water
present at 70/75%, does the rest
What THERAPEUTIC MANAGEMENT do you recommend for joint diseases like Osteoarthritis?
1. Have a HEALTHY LIFESTYLE, with HYGIENE-DIETETIC RULES
Physical Activity: neither too much nor too little Healthy diet: avoiding sugar, processed foods, excess meat; restoring the omega 3 / omega 6 balance, increased intake of fruits and vegetables.
2. Feed the CARTILAGE
GLUCOSAMIN, CHONDROITIN, COLLAGEN, SULFUR (knowing that sulfur is also present in high concentration in the collagen of the joints, skin, and vessels).
How do you proceed?
By a supplementation of these elements and in particular Collagen.
In the body, collagen is sensitive to the effects of time, because of external aggressions such as oxidation and glycation.
With Age, the ability to renew your own collagen decreases on average 1.5% per year, the body undergoes a kind of general decay of the body, at all levels: osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, tissue aging (wrinkles ).
Maintaining the quality of its collagen over the long term is very important.
Collagen maintains the skeleton, strengthens joint mobility, and improves flexibility by reviving cartilage and bone formation .
The use of collagen in the 1980s had not yielded the expected results (quality, dosage, insufficient dosages). Today we have pure marine collagen, better matrix with the human body, in 10g bag that contradicts the results of the 80s.
How is the collagen dosage important in Arthrosis' treatment?
Today's scientific studies show that the dosage is correlated with the effectiveness of collagen supplementation. This is why you should take 10 g daily during the treatment.
It's better, associate it with Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin D.
3. Use ANTI-RHEUMATIC PLANTS
Meadowsweet, White Willow, Horsetail, Nettle, Blackcurrant, Harpagophytum, and locally applied HE Gaulthérie.
4. Use the IMMUNOTHERAPY IN VERY HIGH DILUTION
The basis of my therapy is to assume that osteoarthritis is the result of lifetime exposure to microorganisms (viruses, bacteria) that cause a local immune reaction, anti-body (anti IgG) that attack the cartilage. One of the therapeutic ways is to use these antibodies in very high dilution as an information medium with LOCAL TREATMENTS such as:
- Viscosupplementation: Hyaluronic acid, essentially knee
- Acupuncture
- Cryotherapy
- Pulsed electromagnetic waves