By EY on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 08:53 am:

Hi there,
I am currently seeing someone who showed me that he was "double-jointed" in his hands. He has torn his ACL in both knees a few years ago playing contact sports. I am not sure he knows about EDS or HMS. I was just wondering if you are double-jointed, does that automatically mean you have EDS or HMS? If I marry him, does that mean our kids could have HMS? And if he did have EDS type III, does that mean our children could get other types or only type III? If anyone can help or has info, please let me know. I really appreciate it. I want to tell him about these conditions so he can see a doctor, but I want to get more information first.

By Ian on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 10:53 am:

Joints are created whenever two adjacent bones meet. They have fibrous bands of connective tissue called ligaments that stabilize the joint. Connective tissues also form the tendons that join the bones to the muscles. Ligaments and tendons usually restrict the movement of the joint, but in some people, these normally restrictive tissues can be quite flexible and allow a wider range of motion than is usual. Such a person is hyper mobile and may be called “double jointed” by friends. There are many people with hyper mobile joints and they go through life like this without any problems. Practice can increase a joint's natural flexibility just the way stretching can increase your muscles' flexibility so a person who regularly demonstrates party tricks to “freak out” friends will become more and more flexible and more and more amazing with these party tricks. But if the hyper mobile joints cause problems such as frequent pain or joint dislocation the person may have Hyper Mobility Syndrome (HMS). Living with HMS can be a major problem in terms of pain and mobility problems.

However, if the hyper mobile person has more than joint problems they may have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Various forms of EDS have hyper mobility as a characteristic but will also have skin stretch or other major problems that can even be life threatening. To a person who has hyper mobile joints and great pain, or even unintentional dislocations, the name given to their problem (EDS or HMS) will be of little interest to them as they seek a cure to their joint problems. As well, the medical folk tend to be finite in their definitions but a person with HMS or EDS can well have overlapping symptoms so they must explore the facts of what symptoms exist and accept these as a gene problem within their whole situation.

When a person has hyper mobility this is often found in a parent or grand parent because it is generally accepted as a gene thing related to collagen. A child born to a hyper mobile parent is not guaranteed to have this characteristic but often does.

By EY on Sunday, January 05, 2003 - 09:09 am:

Thanks for you answer Ian! I really appreciate it. It helps me a lot! Just another question, since hypermobility can be passed on from parent to child, if the parent has no pain from hypermobile joints (in other words, no HMS or EDS), is it possible for them to pass on the hypermobility syndrome, or will they pass on just hypermobility? Any information helps! Thanks.

By Ian on Sunday, January 05, 2003 - 09:37 am:

Hello EY

In my studies of a very large number of cases of hyper mobility without any pain, a child born to a hyper mobile parent will simply be hypermobile without the problems of HMS/EDS sufferers.

By Vickie Staley on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 11:20 pm:

I have been hurting all my life & fiannally found a doctor he said i had EDS111 Hypermobility Syndrome11&3&4type.there not a day that goes by that i cant get up with out hurting. the only time i dont hurt is when i sleep.so that what i do most. i am also double-jointed. tell- me something i could do to help the pain? i aslso have alot of other help problem.


thank-you
Vickie