About Hip Osteoarthritis (myth busters and remedy)

Hip Osteoarthritis is not a sentence to a hip replacement.

It really isn’t!  You can stop it in its tracks, especially if you catch it early. And you may be able to reverse some of the wear and tear.

I was diagnosed in 2009 at the age of 33 with hip osteoarthritis.  And a labral tear in that same left hip. And SI joint dysfunction. And I had been living with back pain from scoliosis for years. 

When I was told I would need a hip replacement in a couple of years I was shocked.  I had been active my whole life - dancing since the age of 3, working out at the gym, practicing yoga on a daily basis.  And all of that had become painful.

I didn’t opt for the labral tear surgery and I didn’t opt for a hip replacement either. I learned that in order to experience this arthritis there has to be inflammation and there has to be misalignment in the hip joint.  For there to be a labral tear, the same misalignment has to be true in order for that tear to occur.  

So I got curious about hip alignment. I was already knowledgeable about this but did more studying and research and trial and error in my own body.  And I had a friend and teacher who was a physiologist to help with feedback and education as well.  

It is 14 years later.  I keep up with my hip maintenance, exercise 6 days of the week and do anything I want to do physically.  No pain.  No surgery.

Realignment and body mechanics are the keys.

Scared to exercise in almost any way because of pain, I went in hesitantly and gently.  Quickly I learned that, with the right alignment, there was so much I was able to do without pain that was causing pain before. Hmm. Alignment is key!

So I began to be curious about where and when I was weak. I did exercises to point out where the weakness were - odd exercises, but ones that did a good job of pointing out my weakness. They didn’t produce that dopamine I was used to experiencing when working out and nailing it.  You know how you feel like you won the workout? This is not that. It feels closer to failure…until the realization sets in that this is like discovering gold.

Then came the polishing. Once I discovered weakness, I went to work on strengthening. I quickly learned that big movements that used a lot of force, impact or big action were NOT the ones to strengthen weak areas. In fact, those movements were training in pain patterns by allowing the sleepy muscles to stay asleep while others did more than their share of the work to make the movement happen at any cost.

And I had to learn how to inhibit those muscles that were doing more than their share so that I could isolate the weak ones so they wouldn’t have a choice but to turn on. And that means working on a subtle level.  Again, not something I was used to or felt like I was winning at… 

Which will lead us into a conversation about mindset…

Mindset is a HUGE factor

To effectively do this work, it takes something. It takes putting away the notion that you are strong in that traditional sense and get really curious about working in the subtle layers.  Because, surprisingly, not only is this the way to create alignment and transform your joints, but it’s also a huge secret to how to get strong – like that kind of strong that you never knew was available and you never saw coming.

I’ve seen it time and time again.  The mind getting in the way. We will take from this one client who was a dancer.  She has hip OA and took some sessions with me.  I started to talk to her about her “turnout” where her toes turn out when walking, standing, just being.  And this is something that many of us who have OA do - we have external rotation in one hip or both and it grinds in the hip joint, puts some of our lesser glutes to sleep and irritates and wears on the joint.  So part of this work is creating the strength to have the body naturally not want to turn out.  But the turnout to her MEANS she is a dancer and that is such a huge part of her identity that she got physical pain from the pain of having to have that ego part of her let go. So part of her physical pain was actually her mind wanting to cling to the identity of being a dancer and, to her, turnout is a huge part of that.

So we have an expert who can work on just that in all our programs.

Osteoarthritis is not genetic.

Even if it looks, smells and tastes like it’s genetic, it is not. Here’s how it may look that way, though.  

Have you ever known someone who was adopted at a young age and took on the looks of their adoptive parents?  Here’s how that happens.  As children we learn very subtle movement patterns from our caregivers.  A twitch in the face at a funny story, tongue pressure against the teeth when angry, etc. This muscular activation puts pressure on the ligaments and bones of the face and moves the bones into a position based on that pressure.  And those movements creating shapes create shapes that mimic the caregiver.

Same for the hips.  We mimic using this muscle but not that one when walking. We mimic holding tension here but not there when sitting.  We mimic holding anger in the hips when it goes unexpressed.  Etc.!  

So the hips might be merely copying someone else’s physical movement patterns and emotional holding patterns! And you just didn’t know it. And it’s not their fault. Or yours. It’s simply been passed down - but not genetically.

So if it’s not genetic, there’s some freedom to realize that it can change!  You can change your patterns.  

This is why you may not need a hip replacement. You just might need to change your patterns.

This has been proven true time and time again. Most people, if told by someone who has authority that they need a hip replacement, that is what they choose believe, without further investigation.

But then there may be someone like me. Or like you, who is saying, “what if that’s not true?”  What if there is a different adventure for me rather than a joint replacement?

If you catch it early enough – or even prevent this entirely – you can change your own body and you can change your own mind. Your health is in your hands.