Cartilage Degeneration

Pathological Considerations:

Cartilage metabolism is controlled by the chondrocytes, the cellular component of cartilage. Greater knowledge of the behavior of chondrocytes in human osteoarthritic cartilage is likely to pave the way for earlier intervention and improved treatment of the disease process. The chondrocytes manufacture the surrounding matrix of collagen fibers and proteoglycan aggregate.

Cartilage tissue contains 60 to 80 precent water, according to joint type. Of the remaining dry weight, collagen accounts for around fifty per cent, with the remaining mass being proteoglycans (protein-glycosminoglycan molecules), chondrocytes, and non-collagenous proteins, lipids and inroganic material. This would tell us that we need to increase our water intake. The water we recommend is Nariwa. Nariwa is a micro cluster water that can increase the saturation in the cells.

Physiological Considerations:

Although cartilage is often regarded as a simple structure that is a vascular and aneural, it is actually a complex, metabolically active tissue with a large degree of structural heterogeneity. Furthermore, biochemical analysis has shown it to possess complex components. The collagen/proteoglycan matrix provides the structural framework of the tissue and also forms a fluid compartment for transport of nutrient, waste products, chemical messengers and hormones, to and from the chondrocytes.

In cartilage, the key structures of interest with osteoarthritis, are the chondrocytes, the proteoglycans and the collagen. The chondrocytes sit within a matrix of proteoglycans and collagen, which are related in such a way as to give the cartilage its important compressive and tensile properties.

Avoid the following foods: Coffee, Black Tea, Alcohol and Acid Foods.