Joint Pain, Is It Genetic?
Could your constant joint pain be because of your genetic makeup?
I was surprised to see my genetic test results, but at the same time excited. So many things started making sense to me. Being an athlete all my life, and constantly trying to lose weight, by trying different diets, detoxes, etc. and such was exhausting. I think I lost and gained the same 30–50 lbs. over and over.
The battle continues! If you are a woman in peri or post menopause, you know what I mean.
This article is not about weight, it’s about how your genetic makeup can contribute to your pain. Knowing the specifics and what actions you can take to help is very important.
This picture is part of a sample overview of test results that shows the impact of certain genes/combination of genes may have on your organ systems. On the bottom of the picture you see bone/collagen/joints very high impact. This means the test subject most likely is suffering from joint pain.
If you are someone that has had joint pains for a while, I’m sure you are somewhat happy to see this. This may actually explain why after all the exercise you do, massages you get and other alternate therapies explored, you still have joint pain.
This certainly does NOT mean that you will always have joint pain.
Once you know the impact your genes have on your body and organ systems, you can take specific actions to correct the issue. This may include lifestyle changes, dietary changes, incorporating specific supplements, etc.
Knowing the root cause, the main WHY, can help you manage not only your current pain, but potentially prevent similar or new pain from occurring in the future. This is the beauty of knowing your genetic makeup.
If you are interested in learning more about how genes and specific variants may effect joint pain, here’s an interesting study of knee pain identifies associations with GDF5 and COL27A1 in UK Biobank article.
Before you know it, you are going to start using the word epigenetics the same way as you use blood test. it will be a household name.
Epigenetics is the study of biological mechanisms that can switch genes on and off.
Epigenetics tells us how our environment and our lifestyle can contribute to the way our genes are expressed. Our daily choices — diet, exercise, sleep, how we react to stress, etc. have the potential to determine whether specific genes get expressed or not.
This may be a bit geeky and over the top but I strongly believe that it’s very important to know the difference between Nutrigenetics & Nutrigenomics.
Nutrigenetics looks at how we respond to nutrients based on our genetic profile. For example: you know that you can’t drink coffee after 12 or 1pm or you’ll be up all night. This is because you carry a specific gene variant, you metabolize coffee very slowly. Compare to me, who metabolizes coffee very fast, and that is why I can drink espresso before bed and still fall asleep.
Nutrigenomics explores how foods and nutrients change the way our genes express themselves.
And this is what makes you so unique, this is the reason you may love spicy food and can stand to eat habanero pepper and why your brother/sister can’t even handle extra black pepper.
This is why knowing your unique genetic makeup will help you reduce your risk of disease and help you live in optimum health, and yes help you overcome that joint pain.