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Joint Preservation vs. How to Get Rid of a Double Chin. Fibromyalgia vs. If you have joint hypermobility syndrome, there are things you can do to improve joint and muscle strength and reduce strain.
Joint hypermobility syndrome can run in families and it cannot be prevented. Usually, the joints are loose and stretchy because the ligaments that should make them stronger and support them are weak. The weakness is because the collagen that strengthens the ligaments is different from other people's.
Most experts agree that joint hypermobility syndrome is part of a spectrum of hypermobility disorders which includes Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. People with "double-jointedness" actually have hypermobility syndrome, a condition that allows them to move a bone within a joint to its fullest capability, but without experiencing the pain and discomfort that the average person experiences when extending a joint beyond its normal range.
What makes a person seem double-jointed can actually have more to do with the soft tissue that's near the joints than the actual joints themselves. Most joints are wrapped in ligaments, which connect bone to bone, and tendons, which connect muscle to bone.
Everyone's joints have the same range of motion, but the flexibility of a person's ligaments and tendons determines a person's ability to, say, flex at the hips in order to touch their toes. People with JHS often benefit from a combination of controlled exercise and physiotherapy, as well as additional help to manage pain and make everyday tasks easier.
The nature of JHS means that you are at increased risk of injuries, such as dislocations and sprains. Managing the condition may therefore also involve treating short-term injuries as they arise, while following a long-term treatment plan to manage daily symptoms.
Read more about treating joint hypermobility. Joint hypermobility is thought to be very common, particularly in children and young people. Some estimates suggest that around one in every five people in the UK may have hypermobile joints. In many cases, the joints become stiffer with age, although joint hypermobility and its associated symptoms can continue into adult life.
It's not known how many people have JHS in the UK, as the condition is often not recognised or is misdiagnosed. It's thought to be more common in females than males, and less common in white people than those of other ethnic backgrounds.
Many people with joint hypermobility have few or no problems related to their increased range of movement. Being hypermobile does not necessarily mean you will have any pain or difficulty. If you have symptoms, it is likely that you have joint hypermobility syndrome JHS. A person with JHS may also have a number of other symptoms related to weaknesses in the connective tissues throughout their body. Some of these symptoms are described below.
JHS can cause symptoms that affect your digestive system, because the muscles that squeeze food through your digestive system can weaken.
JHS can also cause abnormalities in the part of your nervous system that controls bodily functions you do not actively think about, such as the beating of your heart. This is known as your autonomic nervous system. These abnormalities can cause problems when you stand up or sit in the same position for a while.
Your blood pressure can drop to low levels, making you feel sick, dizzy and sweaty. You may also faint. In some people, these abnormalities can lead to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome POTS. POTS causes your pulse rate to increase rapidly within a few minutes of standing up.
You may also experience:. Although a link is not entirely certain, it is thought that some people with JHS may be at an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis earlier in life than usual. Collagen is a type of protein found throughout your body — for example, in skin and ligaments. Ligaments are tough bands of connective tissue fibres that support other tissues and organs in your body that link two bones together at a joint.
They strengthen the joint and limit its movement in certain directions. If the structure of your collagen is altered, it may not be as strong, and the tissues that contain collagen will be fragile.
This can lead to weakened or easily stretched ligaments. Changes in the structure of your collagen are likely to be caused by changes to your genes. Genes are units of genetic material that you inherit from your parents. They contain instructions that tell your body how to work. If the instructions within the genes change, it can alter the structure of your collagen. A joint is the junction between two bones. The shape of the bones determines how far you can move your limbs.
For example, your limbs will be more flexible if the socket that the bone moves around in, such as the shoulder or hip socket, is shallow. Children with joint hypermobility may have a degree of hypotonia low muscle tone , which makes the muscles "floppy" and could mean the child is able to bend their joints more than usual.
You should be able to sense the position and movement of your joints. For example, even with your eyes shut, you should know whether your arm is bent or straight.
The medical term for this sense is "proprioception".
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