Change Activities to Save Your Knees

Here is a great article on ways to keep moving to forestall knee replacement surgery and other assorted illnesses that result from inactivity. Consistent movement is critical to remaining active in your older years. If you stop all activities you are more likely to face the ultimate in knee arthritis treatment which is a total knee which everyone knows it not an easy surgery to recovery from and takes up a significant portion of your life.

If you have an activity that is causing you pain, better to drop that activity and to pick up new ones that are not as painful than to stop moving altogether. Read more about changing from tennis which is very hard on your knees because of all the side to side movement and the pounding on hard surfaces, to daily dog walking.

Keep moving, even if in new ways, to stave off arthritis

Read more… I was a fanatical tennis player for decades until my increasingly painful arthritic knees forced me to stop playing. The knees were replaced two years later, but by then, I had filled in my life with other activities, including a daily 3-mile walk and aerobic swim, and cycling for exercise and errands.

A key to fighting off debilitation is to find activities you can do when ones you have done become difficult or impossible. Weight loss helps, too. (Paul Rogers/The New York Times)

“Arthritis affects more than 52 million adults in the United States and is the most common cause of disability,” the CDC states. Yet it often takes a back seat to other chronic ailments in treatment and public awareness.

“The depression is not necessarily severe, but low-level depressive symptoms can interfere with daily functioning,” Parmelee said. “People tell us ‘I’m not functioning as well as I could,’ ’Life isn’t as good as it could be.’ ” The trick to not losing quality of life “is to find a substitute for the activities limited by arthritis,” she said. “Can’t play golf? Can’t garden? What can you do? Walk, swim, walk in water — anything that gets you moving. The bottom line: As we get older, if we don’t get up and move around as much as we can, then we soon won’t be able to move at all.”

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