Why Our Joints Now Fail Sooner

Studies show that our joints are degenerating at younger and younger ages. Is there anything we can do?
- Links and Sources -

70% of Adults Over 21 Exhibited Disc Degeneration:

Osteoarthritis Study:

Osteoarthritis of the Knee Prevalence Doubled:

Fatty Streaks in Children:

Graded relationship between knee osteo and clogged arteries:

Wrist Osteo and Atherosclerosis:

Rheumatoid Arthritis Definition:

Animal Product Bacteria Response:

Inflammation of Joints Accelerates Artery Clogging:

Vegan Inflammation Study:

Vegan Diet Rheumatoid Arthritis Study:

Dr Esselstyn's Clinical Trial - Unclogging Arteries:

Microfracture Source:

"virtually no absorption of peptides longer than four amino acids."

Human Collagen:

Hydroxyproline in Plants:

[CraftyVegan]

success story here: My knees, back, elbows, wrists, ankles, feet, hands, and shoulders were always sore and stiff, especially after sleeping... which was supposed to be the time of healing, according to my doctor.
After I went vegan, my joints felt better, but were still painful and stiff, and then after I cut out oils and the majority of oily veggies (as well as anything processed), I am pain-free and I even run, which is something I have literally never done before in my life, but I love running now ^_^
I still feel sore after a long run, but it's a muscle soreness instead of a joint soreness, and it goes away after I wake up in the morning.
Speaking of running, I am due for a run here in about 3.5 hours... love the channel ^_^

[scheelescorvid]

MORE. JOINT. VIDEOS. These are so useful, as an athlete or as someone who just likes to practice sports, joints are so much of a problem and not talked about enough.

[plantbasedsenior]

Great video. I'm a 65 year old guy who's been vegan 10 years now. Managing scoliosis and arthritis with diet and yoga.

[annlamb]

Stopped eating meat and dairy after being diagnosed with arthritis in thumb. Huge improvement. Also stopped cooking with oil. Thanks Mic. Great video as usual.

[vfran]

I'm in my 60's and had arthritis in my hands and knees for years - and then I went oil free vegan - and now I have very little problem with my arthritis. Before going vegan I couldn't walk up stairs because of my knees. Now my knees are fine.
PS - As usual I am in awe of your videos! I work in a medical setting and they give me a subscription to MedScape for MD's and you can't believe the lack of knowledge about diet and health they show. I would love you to do a bibliography and reference book for physicians (maybe you could pair up with Dr. Klaper or Dr. Barnard). I also think this video is a key to chronic pain. I used to teach a chronic pain class and I showed some of your videos. People loved them.

[AnaliliB]

I thought joint pain was a normal part of aging, but after skipping eggs for breakfast, meat, and cheese, and eating more plant based and less processed foods I found myself pain free.
I've learned so much from your channel so thank you for bringing the vegan message to all who will hear!

[CAT-]

When ur immune system supposed to protecc
But it only attacc
All because you wanted cheesy meaty eggy snacc

[chuckterrell]

My mom had bad arthritis in her fingers, hands, wrists. Went vegan and her frikin fingers straightened out! PLUS she she is completely off one blood pressure pill and cut the other dose in half! Yet people I work with think it's a fluke and are convinced KETO is life... facepalm

[eelkeaptroot]

Another reason why one might want to avoid bone broth would be that lead seems to accumulate in bones, though lead has a high density I doubt you want that in your bones...

[grandmameaders]

I am 61 and only started my vegan life 16months ago. I am happy to hear I might undo some damage. That would be great. Even if less damage thru my kind and cruelty free life style, aka vegan.

[KS-ckht]

Thank you for adressing the bone broth issue. I still hear that argument from virtually everyone in my family and relatives. Now I know how to respond to that riduculousness.

[VeganBrainFood]

I imagine that more and more of the human population living in concrete jungles must play a role as well. After running the marathon a few years back I vowed never to run again on concrete whenever possible, I wasn't noticeably injured after, but 42 kilometers of pounding your knees and back on concrete will definitely give you an epiphany about being nice to your joints...

Great low impact cardio alternatives are biking, Kung Fu/Martial Arts minus the punching bricks, with certain techniques even weight training doubles as good cardio, and if you do run, only ever do so on grass/soil. The concrete jungle is not our natural habitat!

Massively useful video once again Mic. had no idea how much of an influence diet had on our all too fragile joints. Teenagers getting these problems, Yeezus!

[roku]

As one with spinal disc degeneration, my experience has been that its progression  has stopped (proven with MRI and x-rays)  and there has been some improvement of symptoms in the 4 years I have followed a vegan diet.

[eightybananas]

Great video Mic. This Massage Therapist approves, I see this stuff everyday at the Chiropractic office.

[jessica_swan]

I’d like to add in my anecdote to support: I’ve been vegan for going on 8 years now and I battled chronic crippling knee stiffness and pain for about 3 years. I worked on my feet every day, didn’t exercise, and ate an unbalanced diet. I also had a high stress level that probably didn’t help. After I removed a great deal of stress by exercising and doing yoga, I changed jobs to one that wasn’t so rough on my body and I felt better immediately. Over time, the exercise and diet helped. It’s still a process for me to make sure I’m getting all my nutrients in and to make sure I’m eating as much whole plant foods as possible. Being vegan is a way of life for me, but it wasn’t enough without ensuring that I ingested whole plant protein and pushed my body to heal itself through exercise. I feel better than I ever have almost two years later and my knees almost never bother me. It’s honestly the best thing you can do for your joints. Don’t listen to anyone who says you need animal collagen. It’s just plain unnecessary.

[j.c.spires]

Thanks for the video! It's a huge encouragement that it's possible that increased blood flow could bring new cartilage. I'm 64 now and have eaten a plant based whole food diet for almost four years. Before I went on this diet I ate a good version of the standard American diet, but by my late fifties I was having a lot of knee and lower back pain, in addition to obvious heart issues, and there was no longer any such thing as a "small cold". Every cold and flu season I was starting to really get my butt kicked as my immune system was becoming more and more compromised. I work as a waiter, have always worked on my feet. I changed diet in hopes of averting the litany of typical disease running rampant today, mostly cancer and heart disease. I have been shocked that since the diet change I have not had a single cold, and also has virtually reversed the back and knee pain I had been experiencing. I wasn't even expecting that! I lost 30 pounds and assumed that was the only reason for the turn around. Fascinating to consider maybe the increased blood flow is also aiding the absences of those debilitating, career threatening, life changing issues. Thank God! It only inspires me to stay the course all the more as it's easy to slowly get lax. Thanks again Mic!

[adamaj]

I get that there is a diet component. But I've always wondered, do we, especially professional athletes, put stress on our joints that they were never designed (evolved) to take? I'm thinking about modern sports like tennis, basketball, soccer, football, track, or just exercising in general, lifting weights, cardio, etc. Sports played on hard surfaces with lots of running, quick turns and changes of direction putting crazy amounts of torque and torsion on the joints. What about a marathon runner. Are we supposed to run 26 miles? I know some people that run 5+ miles a day. Were our joints made for that day after day for decades? We exercise now because we're very inactive. But our ancestors wouldn't have done anything like this unless they absolutely had to expend the energy to survive. While our ancestors evolved, we mainly just walked around. Look at animals in the wild. They don't expend energy unless they have to. I'm not talking about young playing, etc. I'm talking about an adult moose just being like, "I think I'll go run downstream 20 miles for no reason." Doesn't happen. Most of the exercise animals get is walking, with relatively rare and short bursts of running.

[GranolaCloverPatch]

My story is just anecdotal but here it is. I followed a paleo style diet for 2 years, religiously drinking bone broth. I ended up with horrific joint pain that I'd never had before. I've been vegan this time for 10 months now and virtually all joint pain and a laundry list of other horrible symptoms are gone!! I'm not going back again!!

[carolschwers]

Prior to going vegan I suffered from Arthritis in my fingers and sore ankles in the morning. Six months into eating a healthy WFPB diet I had no pain. My reasons for the lifestyle change initiated from high cholesterol, which took a nose dive, and is now normal. I also suffered from embarrassing hotflashes at all times of the day and night and those are completely gone!!

[courag]

I have experienced great healing of my arthritis from giving up dairy as at that time, 10 years ago, my hands were growing distortions in the joints and the fingers were so painful that the pain was not allowing me to really even grip a pen and my signature did not look right any more. I could not open a jar from the store or jelly jars my adult sons had closed. I got myself a combo can opener/jar opener and it was great. I have not had to use it in years.

I began to realize that I had had problems with dairy making me sick and giving me severe asthma as a child. Even as a child I tried to not to drink milk as it also made me throw up. When I stopped all dairy, I had been having low-fat yogurt for lunch as I thought the calcium would be good for my joints and it was convenient.

Within one month my hands were so much improved, I could grip a round doorknob. My husband had replaced all our doorknobs except the one into the garage, with lever-style knobs as I had such trouble turning doorknobs. My back also improved as I often had such back spasms, which would throw me into a wheelchair.

I did not realize about the other animal proteins in my diet and did not really take vegetarianism which I thought was enough, to the next step, going vegan until 2-1/2 years ago when my husband had prostate surgery with stage 4 cancer and he was operated on. I had been encouraging him to eat better and give up dairy. I did not realize how dairy could cause prostate cancer also. I did realize that it could cause breast cancer and my mother and sister had died of breast cancer, so ditching the dairy was definitely right for me. It is right for everyone. Who needs cancer or arthritis?

Plant-base milks taste great so there is little reason to tempt us away to go with dairy for anything. My husband still is not as firm in his resolve, he gets that resolve from me. I will not allow him to endanger his health any more. He likes to think he is "vegan", but cheating most times at restaurants is not what you do if you are committed to veganism. If I force him on that, I may alienate him when he gets loads of benefits eating vegan most of the time.

We both have lost weight effortlessly, I've lost 50 lbs. and he's lost 45. We eat mostly according to the Starch-Based diet of Dr. McDougall. I don't do oils very much at all, my husband has much trouble not putting butter albeit it margarine on his vegetables. He is off Pepsi and drinks water.

Progress comes slowly but even with partial implementation of the diet, his bloodwork came back like he was a young man instead of that he is almost 68. If we were judging what a 20 year old true vegan's bloodwork would look like as normal, my husband would have further to go. But he is well-protected from most diseases. And is is off his blood pressure meds and his asthma pump and nightly nebulizer which shows how much better his lung function is without dairy and lowered animal proteins.

I no longer get any urinary tract infections. I used to get them at least 4 times a year. Without bombarding my kidneys with protein, it is easier on them and on my bladder. I also do not have pathogenic bacteria in my colon which can migrate to my bladder from a fart rolling out the wrong direction (LOL, don't believe I could be so graphic -- but it may help someone),

It is well-worth the effort to go vegan. Though I still keep the wheelchair, it is stored in the garage. I don't need it. And kale healed my ankle which was fractured that all the calcium pills the doctors had me take could not do. My body like yours, is designed to absorb nutrients from plants. The best calcium is not in a pill but in leafy greens. Calcium in kale and other veggies is what keeps our joints healthy and heals us when nothing else can.,