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Healthy Knees

Healthy Knees as we age most of us begin to notice stiffness particularly in our knees. Even without injury, many of us find that getting up and down, negotiating stairs, stooping, squatting, even standing or walking for any distance can become bothersome.

The basic culprit is osteoarthritis, “the wear and tear” type arthritis that can affect us all as we grow older.

Since we want to keep going, hoping that when we reach our golden years we will be able to enjoy the things we like, what can we do?

First of all “keep on keeping on.” With the caveat that if one or both of your knees swell, hurt and you limp with any increase in activity, see your doctor to make sure there isn’t anything else going on before you begin your programs.

Warming up and cooling down before and after exercise can limber your joints and allow for more fruitful exercise.

Generally heat, particularly moist heat, is helpful including use of knee wraps which hold in your body heat more than actually giving your knee support. Ben Gay and other deep heat rubs are available in convenient patches and may help. Supportive shoes are important.Exercise done on level ground or soft surfaces (grass lawn, asphalt, and treadmill) is more forgiving.

If you handle everything else well, you may possibly progress to uneven ground such as in the woods.

What medication to take, if any?

Tylenol is the basic first step. It reduces pain without reducing the swelling & inflammation of arthritis. Its use must be limited because of possible kidney or live problems.

So-called NSAIDS (Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) work on pain and inflammation and must be used regularly to reduce inflammation. Examples are Ibuprofen (Advil), Naproxen (Aleve) and should be taken as directed on the bottle. If none of these are helping, you may have to advance to prescription NSAIDS.

These are two types, the old COX 1 type (Naprosyn, Motrin) and COX 2 type (Celebrex, Vioxx and Bextra).

The later group has been quite controversial of late with Vioxx and Bextra being voluntarily withdrawn by their manufacturers.

Celebrex is considered safe but is quite expensive and its primary purpose is for those who have GI problems taking standard NSAIDS. Your physician can help you sort out which is best for you.

Good Luck! Next time we’ll go into more aggressive treatment options.