#also i have ehlers danlos syndrome hypermobility type if that has any relevance here

[jesusology]

already anticipating that i'm going to be getting a permanent end-ileostomy sometime within the coming months so if anyone here can share any advice/tips/support/etc i would really really appreciate it because Boy oh boy...😔 i'm very stressed about it.

i had a subtotal colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis done last year for reference and everything has been getting worse since then. cries

[cripplecharacters]

Can people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or joint hypermobility do martial arts?

Hey!

As for the EDS part, it will depend on the specific type. There's 13 of them, and a lot of them will have hypermobility as a symptom, but many will also have unrelated symptoms that will make someone unable (or less able) to do that kind of activity. EDS=/=hEDS.

To literally go type by type;

aEDS can come with both low muscle tone and motor delay.

BCS actually only has hypermobility as a potential factor since people who are blind and/or deaf can very much do martial arts.

cvEDS comes with cardiac problems; I won't pretend like a know a whole lot about this one (because I don't), but this generally means fatigue, shortness of breath, etc., which will disqualify a lot of people from martial arts.

cEDS doesn't have any of the issues mentioned above, instead even minor traumas can result in atrophic scarring here. If they did martial arts they would have a lot of that I assume.

clEDS, hEDS, pEDS just have the joint hypermobility and/or instability (as far as the relevant symptoms go) to my understanding.

dEDS mostly has the extreme skin fragility, but also heavily increased risk of hemorrhages, shorter limbs (which you can do martial arts with, but you're definitely at a disadvantage), potential motor delay, etc.

kEDS is similar to aEDS in that it comes with both motor delay and low muscle tone, but it also has increased risk of arterial tears and aneurysyms which is almost definitely a "no" for contact sports.

mcEDS comes with contractures (as the c in the name implies), muscle weakness (as the m in the name implies), motor delay (not all people with mcEDS will be able to walk independently for example), etc.

mEDS has the m for myopathy, but it can also cause contractures, muscle atrophy, motor delay, joint instability, etc.

spEDS can come with so many things - low muscle tone, contractures, limited arm rotation, motor delay, bones that fracture more easily, etc.

vEDS is probably the one least likely to allow a person to do martial arts since the aneurysm/rupture/dissection risk would be through the roof. That can kill someone very, very fast. There are more symptoms of course, but this alone probably makes the answer a "no".

There are also other conditions that come with hypermobility that aren't anywhere on the EDS spectrum and there it will be on a case-by-case basis as well. People with Marfan syndrome will have cardiovascular problems and might be unable to do that kind of stuff, while someone with a different disorder might have no issues at all.

Obviously there is also the topic of chronic pain that a lot of people with hypermobility-associated conditions have (not so much hypermobility alone). For some people the amount of pain they're in will make them unable to do martial arts, for some it won't be an issue. It's very personal. The same goes for fatigue; it can present very widely between people with the same disorder.

It does also depend on where the person's hypermobility is. I can't really imagine that someone with craniocervical instability would do wrestling (I could be wrong, of course) while someone who's "only" dislocating their digits could probably do every martial art that's out there since despite being painful it probably won't kill them. Not everyone has hypermobility that affects literally every joint in their body.

Not every person with hypermobility will also be dislocating their joints (or only specific ones, for example), but the effects of dislocations also depends on the person. Some people just fix it themselves on the go and move on like it's no big deal, others need professional medical help. Here it also kinda matters what kind of martial art you mean - in regulated fights, if someone does dislocate something, the fight stops until the problem is fixed. In street fights, it obviously doesn't.

So I guess the answer is: maybe? IDK? It depends on what your character actually has. If they only have hypermobility (that's not in the neck), they probably can do whatever - and if they have vEDS they probably shouldn't.

Hope this helps,

mod Sasza