Habits That Harm Your Hips

How can you keep your hips fit and which habits are harmful to them? Everything you need to know and good tips in this article.

The hip is made up of the pelvis, the upper part of the thigh bones, and the hip joints. Pain, osteoarthritis and wear and tear can mean that a new hip joint has to be inserted even at a young age.

Find out in this article how you can prevent this and which habits can harm your hips .

Common diseases of the hip joints

In the past, hip joint diseases were mainly known to affect older people; today, younger people are also suffering from them.

The most common diseases of the hip joint are hip arthrosis (wear and tear of the joint surfaces), hip joint arthritis (inflammation of the joint space) and femoral head necrosis (death of bone material due to poor blood circulation). We explain the causes of these complaints here.

Obesity

Too much body weight puts a lot of strain on all joints, not just the hip joints. Due to the constant overloading, the joints wear out much faster if you are overweight than if you are normal. The knees and hips are traditionally affected.

The cartilage layer of the joint is worn away too quickly by the increased body weight and is therefore thinner and thinner. As a result, the bone lying under the cartilage is then stressed, deformed and perforated.

Due to the constant pressure from being overweight, the damaged head of the thigh is then deformed in such a way that it is no longer spherical, but flattened. This results in increased wear and tear, in addition to a misalignment, which in turn causes further increased wear.

The simplest solution here is: Avoid being overweight!

overload

Those who are not overweight can also damage their joints from excessive stress. These overloads can occur in leisure time or at work. For example, intensive and monotonous sport or intensive monotonous standing on the assembly line can lead to greater wear and tear on the hip joints.

Moving in a varied rather than monotonous manner is a good way of preventing overstressing the hip joints.

gout

Gout is a form of arthritis that has been known since ancient times and is characterized by an increased uric acid level in the organism. As the uric acid level in the blood rises, crystals can accumulate in the joints, trigger inflammatory processes there and thus lead to gout.

Such inflammatory processes can ultimately lead to hip joint damage. Uric acid is mainly produced when purines are broken down. Purines are substances found in foods, especially meat. Therefore, meat consumption should be severely restricted in order to lower the level of uric acid in the blood.

Sedentary lifestyle

Excessive stress damages your joints, but too little exercise is bad for all of your joints. Due to the weakening of the muscles, the risk of joint damage increases if there is a lack of exercise – not just on the hips!

Well-developed, strong and resilient muscles protect the joints from overload. Weak muscles promote damage to the joint, which in the long term leads to osteoarthritis.

Since a lack of exercise very often leads to obesity, the increased weight puts additional strain on the joints, which also promotes the development of osteoarthritis. So lack of exercise is doubly bad for your hips!

What can you do for a healthy hip?

Eat healthy

A healthy, balanced and sensible diet supports your normal weight or helps you to reach your ideal weight.

In your balanced diet, you should pay attention to bone minerals such as calcium, magnesium and phosphorus and avoid foods that, for example, dissolve phosphorus from the bone mass. This includes, for example, processed cheese. A healthy diet also prevents gout and obesity.

Move

Exercise means that your joints are well supplied with blood and are supplied with enough “ synovial fluid ”, which ensures that friction on the cartilage is reduced and the cartilage is better protected and less worn.

Movement promotes your muscular system, which supports the joints and protects them from improper strain. Choose an exercise that is easy on the joints, especially if you have a little too much weight on your hips. Swimming or walking works well.

Avoid sports in which your (excessive) body weight impacts the joints in blows, such as jogging.

Choose a sport that not only strengthens one area of ​​your body, but also gently loads the entire body muscles and thereby strengthens and strengthens them in order to protect other joints such as the shoulder joint.