osteoarthritis of the hip and WW posture

Submitted by Christine on February 21, 2011 - 6:12pm
Body: 

Hi Everyone,

After weeks and weeks of work, this morning I turned my Whole Woman Yoga script in to my staff for review. While I was expecting to have to go back to the drawing board, they all understood and liked it very much. Yeah!! It’s not simply about the mat program I have developed, but contains a ton of information about “the creation/destruction cycle of life” i.e. inflammation.

It was through this project that I was able to find good scientific validation for the last (I think) piece of the WW posture puzzle - the hip joints.

I have always "known" that the lumbar curve facilitates proper positioning of the torso over the hips, but wasn’t able to validate it scientifically. Here’s how it works:

It is the lumbar curve that positions the torso over these joints, weighting them so they stay tightly sealed. When we lose the lumbar curve, the hip joints are thrust out in front - think of the slinky runway model. The ball becomes more uncovered and loosens within the joint, so that it bumps around on the top of the socket. Over time, there is enough damage to the joint that it becomes osteoarthritis of the hip, which women develop beginning in their sixties. Far more women than men develop this disease, which comes as no surprise because their lumbar curve must be greater to sit over more forward-facing hips.

Studies show that women with less lumbar curve have more arthritis of the hip. These are the studies I jumped for joy to find!! I always say that WW posture builds “bomber hips”, but I needed validation. I try never to say anything that cannot be backed up by science.

Dinah, my assistant, is a forensic artist who has worked with medical professionals throughout the years. Thirty years ago she did a whole series of drawings directed by orthopedic doctors showing how fashion and posture have progressively deteriorated the female hip joint. They know this!! Yet, they implant artificial hips (a horrible surgery) instead of teaching women about body mechanics.

If any of you have felt the signs of arthritis - aching and burning in the joint - place a pillow between your knees at night and rest assured that WW posture is what is needed to properly load the joints so they stay healthy into very old age.

Woohoo!!

Christine

louiseds

February 21, 2011 - 8:49pm

Thanks for this, Christine. I am looking forward to the DVD. My 25 year old daughter has been told by her orthopaedic surgeon that she may need hip replacement surgery. This DVD may be just what she will need to forestall this.

Louise

Vbacmom2

February 22, 2011 - 1:55am

Hello,

I have had SPD during my two very close pregnancies. One hip is slightly higher than the other. I have sacroiliac joint pain on the right side and grinding sound on the front left side of my hip when I walk. Funny enough when I received electro magnetic pulse therapy or anti inflammatories my prolapse felt worse. why would this be? Can the osteoarthritis condition get better without pelvic organ prolapse.

Christine

February 22, 2011 - 6:37pm

What sort of anti-inflammatories? COX-2 inhibitors, such as Ibuprofen, are “non-selective”, which means they inhibit the enzymes that cause inflammation, but also the enzymes that have “maintenance” functions, like protecting the lining of the stomach. Although there are many impressive anti-inflammatories on the market for relieving pain, this class of drugs still requires a lot of scientific investigation.

I don’t know about the magnetic pulse therapy, except to say that when the body (connective tissue specifically) is extremely relaxed - as through full-body massage - prolapse symptoms often worsen for the short term.

We have seen evidence that the WW posture alleviates a wide variety of musculoskeletal problems. One example is the heavy, dragging sensation of the lower spine, which is one of the first symptoms to resolve. I would venture a guess that these sorts of problems straighten out more quickly and permanently than highly fascia-dependent pelvic organ prolapse. The “hanger” upon which the organs suspend may change, but the fascia they are hanging by is not so quick to change with it, as many of us know. The fascia does respond, but results vary according to age and individual condition, diet, genetics and environment.

winni

February 23, 2011 - 7:03pm

Hi Christine,

This is such interesting and timely information for me. I have recently been diagnosed with a cystocele and have been exploring your website and all the information here. I have spent some time wondering about the possible connection between my congenital hip dysplasia and prolapse.

My guess is that my pelvis has been in such an abnormal orientation for such a long time that the prolapse was inevitable. Any thoughts on that??? And/or implications for moving forward???

granolamom

February 23, 2011 - 8:23pm

it is so exciting when you find more pieces to the puzzle!

I've had 'noisy hips' since my teens. when I was in PT school (very early 20's) my professors could not believe how much crepitus was present in my shoulders and hips. so it seems that prolapse was probably on its way even back then.
my hips rarely hurt anymore (when not pg!) but they are still grindy.
do you think it is even possible for the joint damage to eventually heal somewhat? for now, I'm hoping just to prevent more damage.

and louise...I was told I would need shoulder replacements by the time I was 30. I'm 38 and doing fine with my G-d given shoulders.

louiseds

February 23, 2011 - 9:46pm

Hi Winni and Gmom

My daughter's hip problems spring from developmental left hip dysplaysia, for which she had a triple osteotomy at age 16, ie her left, undersized acetabulum was repositioned by carving up her left pelvis and screwing it back together in a functionally more normal configuration, to maximise the contact area of her acetabulum with the femoral head.

It sounds awful but we are happy that it was the best option, as our very-sporty daughter had developed a pronounced waddle and dreadful knee pain, and her acetabulum was losing its spherical shape. We really do not know what the future will bring. Here's hoping her altered hip turns out to be resilient, and doesn't cause more problems than it solved. So far, so good. She also had serious bowel and bladder incontinence/constipation problems as a child, so I will not be surprised if she develops rectocele.

BTW DH had an umbilical hernia repair last year and DS2 just had an inguinal hernia repair a week ago. It could just be coincidence, because I don't think it is normal to drag a 700cc dirt bike out of a mud hole by yourself, and expect to get away with it injury free.

I think sometimes we can draw too many conclusions about what causes what, and different conditions being related. There are so many confounding factors. What is important is that we respond appropriately to them.

Louise

Christine

February 24, 2011 - 12:24am

Hi Winni and Gmom and Louise (Welcome, Winni!),

The WW work was founded on the principles that we are much more alike than different and there exists an anatomical model of female pelvic mechanics that we can all emulate because we have similarly shaped bones with muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia all in the same general locations.

The fate of women with part of their acetabulum missing, their uterus missing, severe scoliosis, or a lumbosacral angle compromised by an extra vertebra is much harder to predict.

Winni, if you have made it into your fifties or sixties (guessing here) before developing prolapse, I highly doubt your cystocele is significantly related to your problematic hip. However, your condition begs the question, if you had begun to carry your center of mass over your hip joints (full lumbar curve) in your twenties, might you have remained asymptomatic in both areas? We can only guess.

Gmom, one of the few truths I have to go on is Wolfe’s Law: Bone in disuse will gradually disappear. The opposite is also true: The body deposits calcium along lines of stress. How about this little orthopedic remark for hope: remodeling takes place on bone surfaces “throughout the whole of life - during growth as well as during aging.” However, they also talk about “postural decay” - the little old lady who is completely slumped over and the possibility that her process began decades earlier with a slight mis-alignment of her hip, knee or foot.

Louise, studying the hip joint has been extremely fascinating and equally frustrating. ALL the science as to positioning is wrong. How can this be? Things only make sense when I rotate the acetabulum 45 degrees forward. Even Wolfe’s Law makes sense because the bone is most dense in places that would be most stressed in WW posture.

The hip joints are “anterior” and the anterior femoral head uncovered when the body is supine (as in a cadaver or hip surgery patient on a gurney) However, in parallel standing with the lumbar curve in place, the femurs rotate medially, which would better cover the head. So much of medical science is based on either supine positioning or “Standard American Posture”, which I think of as “splayed”.

We all have to work with what we have and toward a model of human female posture that is common to all. I believe there is great hope for most of us.

Christine

Little Bit

February 24, 2011 - 12:07pm

I know some of you may think I'm crazy and maybe I am but I must tell you what I know about this. On my 30th birthday, which would have been in 1979, my husband gave me a beautiful silver and black German Shepard dog. He was absolutely the smartest and best behaved dog that I have ever owned BUT he also had the worst case of hip dysplaysia that my vet at that time had ever seen. It showed up at 5 months and was so bad that it also affected the joints in his front legs. The operation for this was new at the time and the clinic that was doing groundbreaking work on this would not operate on male dogs, only female because (I found out the hard way), if a male dog can't lift his hind leg to pee, he will most likely pee on his front legs and the odor is really strong. I had never even heard of hip dysplaysia at the time and eventually followed my vet's advice and had my best friend euthanized.

It was in 1993 that I bought my first dream horse, a beautiful Paso Fino mare already bred. I have written in previous posts about my horses that had a disease now known as DSLD/ESPA. This disease presents itself in different ways and is a connective tissue disease (thought to be genetic) that affects the entire body. One of the first signs in my horses was a popping and cracking sound in the hips and I had at least a couple of vets tell me that their problem was hip dysplaysia but they didn't know at that time exactly what it was that my horses actually had. In any case, a holistic vet recommended some supplements that helped my horses tremendously and I have mentioned at least a couple of those supplements in previous posts. There wasn't anyone that could tell there was anything wrong with my horses as long as they were given the supplements, including vets that hadn't been told. I take the concentrated form of shark cartilage myself and started about a month ago taking a tonic blend that has a concentrated form of chondroitin sulfate in it. I had originally started taking the shark cartilage for arthritis but realized it was also helping my prolapse when I ran out of it. Prolapse has to do with connective tissue too and when I ran out of the shark cartilage and was without it for a couple of months, I started to realize the connection.

There are a couple of good places to go and read some of the testimonials there. Springtime, Inc. is the place where I bought the concentrated chondroitin sulfate for my horses and they also sell people products. If you read some of the testimonials, which I know are from real people because they ran one from me at one time. Bell's shark cartilage web site also has many testimonials from people that I am sure are true because they give their whole name and where they are from. I've never used Bell's product because theirs isn't concentrated and the concentrated form that I use is the only one on the market that I know of. I'm sure Bell's works but anyone would need more of it so it would cost more in the long run.

I just know that what I use works for joints, connective tissue, and arthritis pain. I've used the shark cartilage for over 17 years now and have only had what seems to be good effects from it. When I get a cut, sore, etc., it heals just fine and as fast if not faster than it did before I started taking this. I personally know one person that was told he needed a hip replacement. He started taking the concentrated shark cartilage (one capsule morning & night) and on the 5th day he was completely relieved of pain. In my opinion, he over did it though because he started going out dancing and you name it but, the last I heard which was a couple of years ago, he still did not need a hip replacement and was still taking the shark cartilage and that was about 10 years after he first started taking it.
Little Bit

gardengirl

February 24, 2011 - 3:44pm

Just wondered if gelatine might give a similar result at a much less cost and available at supermarkets?
My mother who is a strong healthy 80 year old uses a little bit of gelatine in her morning breakfast every day.

Little Bit

February 24, 2011 - 6:01pm

Hi Gardengirl,
Yes, gelatin might work. I just did a quick search under "Knox gelatin for joints" and found that it too is said to help repair connective tissue. Gelatin is similar in structure to collagen type 2. My mother-in-law use to take gelatin for her nails and she did have the strongest nails that I have ever seen and she never had joint problems in her entire life so there may be something to it.

If you do the same search that I did, you will see a lot more information on this. I'm not so sure though that gelatin would be cheaper than shark cartilage. What I buy is the Twinlabs brand and you can find it on the Internet for less than $20 for 100 capsules which will last one person 50 days. Even with shipping, it should run under $25. I buy several bottles at a time though to save on shipping. This does work fast as far as arthritis pain goes. Also, according to the holistic vet that first told me about shark cartilage, she said that it has very strong anti-inflamitory properties and that is probably what someone would need with really bad joints. I'm not sure about the gelatin there but you may find something in your search.
Little Bit

louiseds

February 25, 2011 - 4:23am

Little Bit, what was the brand of shark cartilage you like? I might try and get my daughter to try it. She does have some hip pain still.

L

Little Bit

February 25, 2011 - 1:24pm

Hi Louise,
The brand of shark cartilage that I use is Twinlabs. It is the only concentrated shark cartilage that I have been able to find. All the other brands that I have checked are not concentrated. The others might work but anyone would need to take more. Back when I was giving this to my horses, I tried at different times to change brands but they would always go lame again after about 2 weeks and my pain would come back too because I was taking the same thing I gave them. When I would switch back to the Twinlabs brand, my horses would seem fine again after a couple of days and my pain would be gone the next day.

It was my supervisor at the PO that was told he needed a hip replacement. I told him what this stuff had done for me and my horses and he wanted to try it and like I said, on the 5th day after taking one capsule morning and night, he said his pain was completely gone. I sent my mother some when she was 90. She had been using a walker and had not been able to sleep in her bed for 2 years due to back and hip pain. She slept at the kitchen table sitting in a chair with her head resting on her folded arms. It was 2 weeks before her pain went away and I was beginning to think that it wasn't going to work for her. The day her pain went away, she called me and told me that the night before she had actually been able to sleep in her bed again. She did fine after that, didn't even use her walker, until my sister took her to live with her and would not let my mother take the shark cartilage anymore because she didn't believe that it helped her.

Louise, I believe your daughter will have relief before she finishes the first bottle, if not, then it probably won't help her.
Best Wishes,
Little Bit

Oceanblue

February 25, 2011 - 5:55pm

Wow, Christine, this is great news!

Ventured into the city today to get some fabric, and gosh, walking was great! Well, not on concrete, but walking in itself, ... I remember, before I began doing your exercises with the DVD, it was hard as hell.

Can hardly wait for your WW Yoga to be released!

Woohoo? how about Yahoo!

fannierose

February 26, 2011 - 8:41pm

thanks again for all this christine!!

woohoo!!

on my chiro's advice..
i have been sleeping w/a
pillow between my knees for
years.....so i was ww-ish before
loretta :-)

warmly......susan