Joint Degeneration: Nutrients that Help Improve Joint Health

As you age, your joints tend to weaken and degenerate, which can lead to chronic pain, discomfort, and stiffness. This joint degeneration can be sped up by other factors too, like lack of exercise, a poor diet, and carrying too much weight.

Luckily, there are ways to promote joint comfort naturally by supporting the factors that help keep your joints healthy: boron stores, collagen formation, and stem cells.

You can naturally promote joint comfort through weight loss if you are overweight, exercise to strengthen the muscles surrounding your joints, a healthy anti-inflammatory diet, and taking certain supplements—like Juvenon NuvoFlex.

In this article, you will learn:

• What joint degeneration is and how your body helps to prevent it,
• How you can naturally support your joints through weight loss, exercise, diet, and supplements,
• Which natural botanicals and nutrients can help promote joint comfort,
• And how NuvoFlex can help support your joints.

Joint Degeneration

The joints between your bones are lined with a cushiony layer of cartilage that keeps your bones from direct contact with one another. This allows for a smooth range of motion and helps prevent joint pain.

However, as you age, this cartilage naturally wears down, making the space between your bones thinner and therefore putting you at risk for excruciating bone-on-bone pain. Not only is this painful, it can also lead to stiffness and a limited range of motion. Additionally, this damage to the cartilage can lead to chronic inflammation, which serves to further compound the problem and can lead to even more damage—possibly even to chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.

Unfortunately, this wearing down of the cartilage is normal as you age, but it can be compounded by excess weight, lack of muscle tone, and a pro-inflammatory diet. Luckily, many of these factors are manageable, and lifestyle changes may help bring about some relief.

Here are some ways that improving your diet, adding exercise to your routine, losing weight, and taking targeted joint support supplements may help promote joint health.

Collagen

Joint cartilage is mostly collagen, so any intervention that aims to promote joint support should focus on strengthening and preventing inflammatory damage to existing collagen or promoting collagen formation.

Collagen is a type of body protein that’s found in skin, cartilage, and connective tissue. Collagen fibers in joint cartilage are arranged into a tight matrix that provides structure while maintaining flexibility and cushioning around the bones. There are several types of collagen, but the primary collagen found in the joint cartilage is collagen II. (1)

When this collagen matrix in the cartilage weakens, either due to age, injury, or another factor, this can cause the cushion to compress, leading to bone-on-bone pain. Inflammation at this injury site can further compound the issue, causing damage to the collagen structure that may lead to even more pain. (2)

Boron

Although it’s not considered an essential nutrient, boron is an important mineral that helps regulate bone and joint health. Boron is found naturally in your bones, nails, and hair.

Unfortunately, due to modern farming practices and the loss of minerals from the soil due to rainfall, most soil in the United States has been depleted of boron, meaning that many people may not be getting enough to support the important functions of this mineral.

Studies have shown that a low boron intake may reduce blood calcium and vitamin D levels, causing your body to leach calcium from your bones to maintain your blood calcium level, which weakens them.

Additionally, boron may play a key role in cartilage repair and formation. One animal study found that injections of boron directly into a damaged joint not only helped to repair the damaged cartilage, but also helped to prevent further damage by acting as an antioxidant. (3)

Boron also appears to help accelerate joint healing from stem cell treatments. (4)

Stem cells

Although you may associate stem cell therapy with embryonic stem cells or medical procedures that require injections, this is not actually always the case.

Your body naturally produces its own stem cells to help repair joint cartilage, and these are known as mesenchymal stem cells. These stem cells not only promote healing, but they can also prevent further damage by decreasing inflammation. (5, 6)

Injury to the joint cartilage may actually mobilize these mesenchymal stem cells to help promote healing of the cartilage, however, if you’re older, you may not have as many mesenchymal stem cells as you once did. (7)

Therefore, in addition to repleting boron stores and promoting collagen formation, joint support therapies should focus on promotion and proliferation of these mesenchymal stem cells.

How to Naturally Support Your Joints

Here are some ways to naturally support your joints that may result in reduced pain, reduced inflammation, and a more robust collagen matrix in the joint cartilage:

Weight Loss

If you’re overweight, you may be putting additional stress on your joints and causing more compression of the joint cartilage—especially in your knees. 

By losing weight, you can decrease the pressure on your joints, thereby relieving pain and slowing down the progression of joint degeneration into a more serious condition like osteoarthritis.
Research shows that even just a 10% reduction in body weight can improve joint pain, mobility, and range of motion for overweight people with knee osteoarthritis. (8)

Exercise

Exercise may also help promote joint comfort. Low-impact cardiovascular exercise like walking, bicycling, or swimming can help you burn calories, promoting weight loss. However, these exercises—especially when paired with muscle-building resistance exercises—can also strengthen the muscles surrounding your weak joints, helping to support the bones and prevent bone-on-bone pain.

Research shows that the pain-relieving and movement-improving benefits of moderate exercise can continue even for up to 2-6 months after stopping exercise. (9)

Diet

Inflammation plays a key role in the sustained and continuous damage to the collagen matrix in the cartilage following the initial injury. Short-term inflammation is actually a healthy immune response to injury, but when inflammation progresses over the long-term it can actually do more harm than good.

Unfortunately, a pro-inflammatory diet may promote this long-term inflammation that can further damage your joint cartilage.

Some dietary changes you can make to reduce inflammation and inflammation-related joint pain include (10):

• Limit added sugar and processed foods
• Choose anti-inflammatory cooking oils like olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil
• Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables and be sure to eat a rainbow variety of each
• Eat omega-3 rich fatty fish like salmon and tuna at least twice per week

Supplements That Help Keep Joints Healthy

Finally, targeted supplements may help promote joint support by working in three ways: promoting collagen formation, repleting boron stores, and promoting mesenchymal stem cell activity. Below are some nutrients and botanicals that may help promote joint support through these three functions.

Amla Fruit

Amla fruit, also known as Indian gooseberry, is a fruit that is native to Indian. It’s commonly used in ayurveda and traditional Indian medicine. In addition to a host of other potential benefits, Amla fruit may promote joint health by reducing damage to collagen and promoting increased collagen formation.

Research shows that amla fruit extract inhibits the activity of collagenase type II, an enzyme that breaks down collagen. (11)

An ayurvedic medicinal blend containing Amla fruit extract was also found to prevent collagen breakdown and reduce discomfort in the knee joint. (12)

Icariside-II

Icariside-II is a compound that is isolated from a Chinese herb called epimedium, or more commonly known as horny goat’s weed.

This compound may help promote the proliferation and targeting of mesenchymal stem cells to revive damaged joint cartilage. (13, 14)

Vitamin C

Finally, vitamin C is an essential nutrient that also serves as a potent antioxidant and immune-supporting agent. What’s more, vitamin C is key to collagen synthesis and formation—making it an important consideration for joint health. It also has properties that can be joint-protective.

Supplementation with vitamin C may promote increased collagen synthesis and help regenerate the collagen matrix that forms healthy cartilage. (15)

Additionally, its antioxidant benefits can help decrease joint discomfort and reduce cellular joint damage from harmful molecules called free radicals. (16, 17)

NuvoFlex

Juvenon NuvoFlex contains amla fruit extract, icariside-II, and vitamin C—in addition to a highly-absorbable, food-based form of boron that is able to directly penetrate the joint cartilage. These four compounds work synergistically to promote joint comfort via the three mechanisms discussed above: collagen formation, boron repletion, and stem cell activity.

This makes NuvoFlex an excellent choice to support your joint health.

Summary

Degeneration of the joints is unavoidable as you age, but certain factors—like poor muscle tone, a pro-inflammatory diet, and carrying excess weight—can speed up joint degeneration, leading to increased pain and stiffness and decreased mobility and range of motion.

Luckily, there are many lifestyle changes you can make to promote joint comfort, even as you age. In order to support your joints, these changes should work to promote collagen synthesis, decrease inflammation, promote stem cell activity, and replete your body’s boron stores.

Some examples of lifestyle changes you can make include losing weight, engaging in moderate cardiovascular and weight-bearing exercise, and eating an anti-inflammatory diet. You can also choose targeted supplements that are specifically formulated to support your joints.

Juvenon NuvoFlex contains a food-based form of highly-absorbable boron to help replenish your boron stores, amla fruit and vitamin C to protect existing collagen and promote the synthesis of new joint collagen, and icariside-II, which may help to increase the activity of mesenchymal stem cells on joint cell rejuvenation.

In addition to healthy lifestyle changes, taking NuvoFlex is a simple, effective way to promote joint comfort.

References:

1. Gottardi R, Hansen U, Raiteri R, et al. Supramolecular Organization of Collagen Fibrils in Healthy and Osteoarthritic Human Knee and Hip Joint Cartilage.PLoS One. 2016;11(10):e0163552. Published 2016 Oct 25. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163552
2. Cui SJ, Fu Y, Liu Y, et al. Chronic inflammation deteriorates structure and function of collagen fibril in rat temporomandibular joint disc.Int J Oral Sci. 2019;11(1):2. Published 2019 Feb 20. doi:10.1038/s41368-018-0036-8
3. Korkmaz M, Turkmen R, Demirel HH, Saritas ZK. Effect of Boron on the Repair of Osteochondral Defect and Oxidative Stress in Rats: an Experimental Study.Biol Trace Elem Res. 2019;187(2):425-433. doi:10.1007/s12011-018-1381-3
4. Liu S, Pu Y, Yang R, et al. Boron-assisted dual-crosslinked poly (γ-glutamic acid) hydrogels with high toughness for cartilage regeneration.Int J Biol Macromol. 2020;153:158-168. doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.02.314
5. Korbling M & Estrov Z. Adult stem cells for tissue repair - a new therapeutic concept?N Engl J Med. 2003;349:570-582.
6. Murphy MB, Moncivais K, Caplan AI. Mesenchymal stem cells: environmentally responsive therapeutics for regenerative medicine.Exp Mol Med. 2013;45(11):e54. Published 2013 Nov 15. doi:10.1038/emm.2013.94
7. Khan H, Mafi P, Mafi R, Khan W. The Effects of Ageing on Differentiation and Characterisation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells.Curr Stem Cell Res Ther. 2018;13(5):378-383. doi:10.2174/1574888X11666160429122527
8. Messier SP, Resnik AE, Beavers DP, et al. Intentional Weight Loss in Overweight and Obese Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: Is More Better?.Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2018;70(11):1569-1575. doi:10.1002/acr.23608
9. Fransen M, McConnell S, Harmer AR, Van der Esch M, Simic M, Bennell KL. Exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee: a Cochrane systematic review.Br J Sports Med. 2015;49(24):1554-1557. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2015-095424
10. Winkvist A, Bärebring L, Gjertsson I, Ellegård L, Lindqvist HM. A randomized controlled cross-over trial investigating the effect of anti-inflammatory diet on disease activity and quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis: the Anti-inflammatory Diet In Rheumatoid Arthritis (ADIRA) study protocol.Nutr J. 2018;17(1):44. Published 2018 Apr 20. doi:10.1186/s12937-018-0354-x
11. Sumantran VN, Kulkarni A, Chandwaskar R, et al. Chondroprotective Potential of Fruit Extracts of Phyllanthus emblica in Osteoarthritis.Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2008;5(3):329-335. doi:10.1093/ecam/nem030
12. Sumantran VN, Joshi AK, Boddul S, et al. Antiarthritic activity of a standardized, multiherbal, Ayurvedic formulation containing Boswellia serrata: in vitro studies on knee cartilage from osteoarthritis patients.Phytother Res. 2011;25(9):1375-1380. doi:10.1002/ptr.3365
13. Luo G, Xu B, Wang W, Wu Y, Li M. Study of the osteogenesis effect of icariside II and icaritin on canine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.J Bone Miner Metab. 2018;36(6):668-678. doi:10.1007/s00774-017-0889-5
14. Luo G, Xu B, Huang Y. Icariside II promotes the osteogenic differentiation of canine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells via the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/S6K1 signaling pathways.Am J Transl Res. 2017;9(5):2077-2087. Published 2017 May 15.
15. Sharma G, Saxena RK, Mishra P. Regeneration of static-load-degenerated articular cartilage extracellular matrix by vitamin C supplementation [published correction appears in Cell Tissue Res. 2009 May;336(2):347].Cell Tissue Res. 2008;334(1):111-120. doi:10.1007/s00441-008-0666-9
16. Ripani U, Manzarbeitia-Arroba P, Guijarro-Leo S, Urrutia-Graña J, De Masi-De Luca A. Vitamin C May Help to Reduce the Knee's Arthritic Symptoms. Outcomes Assessment of Nutriceutical Therapy.Med Arch. 2019;73(3):173-177. doi:10.5455/medarh.2019.73.173-177
17. Chiu PR, Hu YC, Huang TC, et al. Vitamin C Protects Chondrocytes against Monosodium Iodoacetate-Induced Osteoarthritis by Multiple Pathways.Int J Mol Sci. 2016;18(1):38. Published 2016 Dec 27. doi:10.3390/ijms18010038