MANY PEOPLE WITH hypermobility have just thought they are simply flexible. Being dubbed ‘double-jointed’ and showing off your ability to bend your thumb back to your forearm is a great party trick.

Effortless days cartwheeling around the garden, dropping into the splits without a hint of a warm-up, providing family entertainment. Excelling at gymnastics due to your natural ability and repertoire of tricks is common among those with hypermobility.

Yet what started as an amusing party trick can, for some, evolve into a lifetime of joint pain, recurrent injuries, fatigue and frustration.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

If you have spent years collecting ankle sprains, dealing with unexplained aches or wondering why your body seems to tire easily, being ‘super bendy’, may not be the superpower you thought it was.

For some, this is just a normal, benign trait, how their body was built. But for others, it could be a sign they have a hypermobility condition.

What is hypermobility?

Hypermobility refers to movement in our joints, hyper meaning a joint moves more than the normal expected range of movement for that joint.

Many elite dancers and athletes are naturally flexible, often spending years working to achieve and maintain this. Having flexible joints alone is not the issue. The issue is when that flexibility is accompanied by other symptoms affecting much more than just joints.

Hypermobility-related conditions can affect different systems in your body, leading to pain, fatigue, dizziness, digestive symptoms and joint instability. It can have a profound impact on quality of life and often people do not realise that the symptoms they are having may all be connected to being hypermobile.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Generalised Joint Hypermobility (GJH), Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) are three terms often used to describe different hypermobility-related conditions.

Generalised Joint Hypermobility (GJH) refers to joints that move beyond the normal range and, on its own, may not cause any other symptoms. Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) is........

© TheJournal