Fit at 50 and Beyond – Aches & Pains

The very best thing you can do for your children and yourself is to keep yourself out of a nursing home. Quite simply, nursing homes are absolutely horrible places! My Mom has been in one for 4 years now. She has dementia and kept falling and breaking bones so she had to go to the home. Now, my Dad, who does not have dementia, is also in a nursing home after a recent case of pneumonia took what little strength he had left away and took away his ability to get around. But my father is hating it! He is in the dementia wing to be close to Mom, but they seem to be understaffed as he is very unhappy with the care. A former nursing home worker (and caring person) told me that nursing homes are often understaffed, especially in the dementia units where a lot of care is needed. If you have a day or two, read some of the many accounts of nursing home abuse here.

Predictors of Nursing Home Admission

Probably the most common reason for being moved into a nursing home is onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. But, even though my Mom had dementia, she was able to stay at home with my Dad. What caused my Mom to have to be removed from her home were her falls leading to broken hips (twice).  The falls were due to atrophy of the muscles in her legs leading to virtually no strength. The broken bones were due to typical calcium deficiency and osteoporosis in older women. So the dementia, coupled with broken bones resulting from inability to walk very well required 24/7 care that my father could no longer provide. Listed below are strategies to prevent each of these 3 conditions of insufficient bone strength, muscle loss, and dementia.

How to Prevent Bone Loss

Calcium and Vitamin D need to be maintained at high levels. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, you should take in 1000 mg of Calcium at age 20 and over and 1200 mg of Calcium at age 51 and over for women and 1200 mg of Calcium at age 71 and over for men. Men and women age 20 and over should get 600 IU of Vitamin D and 800 IU of Vitamin D if age 71 or over.  An easy way to insure these levels is to take a supplement daily. I take two tablets daily, for a total of 1260 mg of Calcium and 1000 IU of Vitamin D.

Keep active! And light walking alone is not enough, according to this osteoporosis prevention page on how to avoid bone loss. They recommend aerobic workout classes that involve squats and leg lifts. They do not recommend jumping or running activities due to the stress on joints, but I still get out running my 3.75 miles and will continue to do so as long as I can.  Other sites do recommend jogging. If your body senses that bones need to be maintained, then the bones will be maintained – otherwise the destructive processes will out gain the renewal processes as you age.  And this physical activity will help maintain your muscle mass and strength.

How to Prevent Muscle Loss and Strength

The ticket to preserving muscle mass is pretty simple: Use it or lose it! A 30 year-old with an arm cast will find that the muscles on the casted arm have atrophied after a few months when the cast comes off. No use = lose. When we are young, our existing muscles tend to be naturally rebuilt, but as we age, the losses exceeds the gains if we are not exercising. So exercise daily! In addition, a high protein diet will help you maintain muscle without adding extra fat. What I do is jog every other day and then do some sort of lower impact exercise on the off-days. Just recently I even started doing strength training of the upper body with light weights and pushups on the off-days.

Remember, once your legs lose their muscle and strength, you become a prime candidate for the nursing home! My father made the mistake of giving up his walking when he started getting leg pain in his early 80′s. (which most likely was sciatica related).

Avoiding Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease can be difficult to avoid, but there are several suggested strategies. And these strategies are good in that they have other benefits:

• Mental Activity – keep your mind sharp with a lot of mental activity, as suggested by this medical article. Use it or lose it! This is the time to write your novel – you can have it self-published. Or start a blog like this one!
• Physical Activity – keeping active will promote healthy blood pressure and cholesterol, and this can lower risk and increase brain function, according to studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
• Avoid Obesity – obesity has been linked to increased risk of dementia in a Finnish study. But if you are getting your hour of exercise in daily with 3 or 4 aerobic workouts each week, you will not be obese.
• Diet is theorized to be a possible factor in reducing risk. And good diet is something you will want regardless. A good diet has abundant fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, leaner meats and proteins, skim milk products, and minimum amounts of fat and sugar.

Give yourself a life of dignity and let your kids live their lives. Stay out of the nursing home!

I have been without sciatica pain for years now! But after I returned from a Thanksgiving Day driving marathon that featured about 9 hours in the car total I got a  slight sciatica type pain in my left leg the next day on Friday.  And it persisted into Sunday. So Sunday I dug out the Trueback and simply laid on it for a few minutes during a football game. That was it. I put the device away and the discomfort just dissipated within an hour or so, never to return! So the device does something helpful!

Disclaimer: The Trueback device I have was purchased with my own money. I am not paid by the makers of Trueback to make endorsements.

Well, my runners knee is now almost gone! I would put it at 95% or better. But what is still problematic is the right knee that so easily re-sprains. All I have to do is bump my foot so my foot twists outward and that will do it. I think I may go see a doctor on the right knee – perhaps a brace can keep it from re-spraining. Or maybe even surgery? This right knee has been “going out” for a few years now, on and off. I am thinking this was perhaps part of the cause of the inflammation (runners knee) on my left knee.

At any rate, I am glad to be back running!

Hey, my Runner’s Knee seems to be gone – I ran my normal 3.75 mile run tonight and also two nights ago with no ibuprofen and experienced no inflammation during or after my run! Strangely enough, this occurs just a few weeks after I stopped taking the supplement Glucosamine Sulfate. No, I don’t think the supplement caused my problems, but I am near convinced that it did nothing to help with it. And with respect to the fish oil I was taking – my problems only started after I started taking this! I have long given up on the fish oil and much of my pain subsided when I stopped taking it. I believe the best weapon in battling this case of Runner’s Knee was to just get out there and run, in a normal manner with a normal balanced stride. And for that, I must credit my limited use of the anti-inflammatory, ibuprofen. And it was the dirt-cheap generic ibuprofen, not some expensive name brand.

Another thing that may have played a role in my natural knee joint pain relief was my better diet during the summer. I eat fresh picked green beans and other vegetables daily, and get healthy amounts of sunshine. Frankly, I always feel about a few years younger at the end of every summer due to the better diet and sun. Still another thing: Some guys at church prayed for my knee healing – this marked a turning point of such!

I continue to take two Calcium/ Vitamin D supplements and one multi-vitamin daily along with at least 100% of my daily Vitamin C in the form of orange juice.

In my last post about Runner’s Knee, I spoke of the problems I had with my left knee, which were further aggravated by the MCL sprain in my right knee. Thankfully, my right knee MCL problem has subsided, but I still get some pain in the left knee at times. Even so, I am able to run and carry on with activity on a nearly normal level. Here are my solutions to my Runner’s Knee problem:

• Take 2 (or 3) ibuprofen tablets about 1 hour before running. I know this does not sound like much of a solution, but it allows me to run normally without pain since any inflammation is minimized. Normal running allows me to strengthen muscles to work together in a normal balanced manner, and strength conditioning is listed as one of the best ways to combat this problem. In this case I am using the run itself to condition as opposed to special exercises. Truthfully, I don’t like the idea of taking the ibuprofen, but it works, and I find that each “normal” run seems to leave my knee feeling a little better. On occasion, I try my run without the ibuprofen, but I am still not to the point where I can run without irritation – and a run while the knee is inflamed will further aggravate the problem. To minimize the amount of ibuprofen I take, I abstain from using it otherwise for headaches (if I can). Also, I am considering the use of aspirin as an alternative.
• Ice down the knee if it is inflamed. This is very helpful after any inflammation occurs, and helps to prevent further aggravation.

In summary, insuring that I am not using the knee while it is swollen and/or inflamed seems to be the ticket to recovery. Aggravation of the Runner’s Knee condition occurs when I walk or run on an inflamed knee. Abstaining from running alone did not seem to help me at all and in fact almost seemed to make things worse for me. Also, I continue to take the Glucosamine Sulfate, although I very much doubt it is doing much if any good. I have discontinued use of the fish oil pills – my Runner’s Knee problem started when I started taking these and got significantly better when I stopped taking them. I have found no evidence in internet searches that fish oils pills should cause this, but I am still going to abstain from them to be on the safe side. The only way my fish oil pills could possibly be causing problems would be via mercury contamination, a remote possibility I guess.

About early-March this year I started feeling some pain in my left knee-cap after running. By mid-March, I found I had to even take some time off until I could buy some new running shoes. Then, to make things worse, I sprained my right knee on about the first of April. For about one week, I found I needed to sleep in a recliner because my knees were so aggravated and tender. Finally, a week ago, I went to see a doctor, although my knees started feeling a little better.  After a checkup and even some x-rays I was given the diagnosis: Runner’s Knee.

Runner’s Knee, more formally known as Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome,
is generally is caused by one of the following:

• Over-use – This could occur when one does not take breaks of one or more days between running or suddenly increases the speed or duration of the run. Also, poor shoes could cause this due to the extra pounding against the pavement. over-use of the knee.
• Injury – Falling and bruising the knee could cause this. Also, other injuries may contribute.
• Mis-alignment or Foot Problems – Running on the same side of the road (which slopes toward the outer road edge) causes uneven use by the right vs. left legs. Also, back problems could cause one leg to work harder. Fallen arches or other foot problems could cause extra load on leg and calf muscles.

In my case, I believe a number of things may have led to this  condition. My shoes were in need of replacement. I may have suffered a bruise to the bone shortly before this condition occurred, although it was not severe. I consistently ran on the left side and shoulder of the road, causing uneven strain on my leg muscles.

My knee problems seemed to start when I started taking fish oil, so I stopped taking the fish oil, just as a precaution. But truthfully, I do not believe the fish oil was causing any problems – in fact, it is supposed to help with joint problems. Abstaining from the fish oil had absolutely no effect so I once again am taking 1 capsule a day.

The doctor recommended taking Glucosamine Sulfate, so I am taking it. Truthfully, this seems to have had no effect, positive or negative.

In addition to new running shoes, I am switching sides of the road frequently to even out the stress and strain due to running on the side of a slope. Also, I find that by running on the shoulder (rather than the blacktop) I can lessen the impact on my knees.

I have read that icing down the knee(s) after a run can help. I will try this.

In addition to my left knee experiencing “runners knee”, I managed to moderately strain my medial collateral ligament (MCL) in my right knee! So this has only added to the problem. I have re-injured this knee a few times as well by doing things like kneeling in an awkward position to clean the gutters on my roof. This has only prolonged the problem in the left knee I think.

In conclusion, I will have to find a way to heal up the right knee while doing whatever I can for my left “runner’s knee”. If you have Runner’s Knee, I would recommend new shoes, icing the knee after running, running on a softer surface (rather than blacktop), and trying not to consistently run on the same side of a sloped road. Note that if you switch sides of a road, take all possible safety precautions to avoid being accidentally struck by a vehicle.

I watched an episode of Dr. Oz one day and his guest went on and on about the need for Omega 3 fats and fatty acids in our diet. The big benefit, they said, was to prevent heart disease and risk of heart attack. Other benefits included lubrication of the joints, lower bad cholesterol levels, healthy skin, and even help in brain function. A description from the Doctor Oz site is given here. Is all of this true? Well, maybe, or maybe not. You can read for yourself that many of these claims appear to be true. All of this seemed appealing to me. So I gave it a try. I have been taking fish oil, as pictured above, for nearly 3 weeks now.

Improved Memory? I Will Find Out Myself!
An article at WebMD.com states people 55 and older with age-related memory complaints who took the fatty acid supplements for six months had almost double the reduction in errors on a test that measures learning and memory skills, compared with those who took a placebo. This gives me a bit of hope here!

A little over 2 years back, I posted about memory loss and I also posted results of a memory test I devised. In the test described, I studied a list of random 2 digit numbers for 1 minute and then tried to recall as many numbers as possible. When I took the tests back then, I scored 5.8 words recalled. Just yesterday, I took the test again with 5 trials and averaged 5.0 words recalled. Given the lack of variability, I can conclude that my short term memory has declined a bit in the last 2 and a half years! But will Omega 3 Oil bring it back? I will take this memory test again in a 4 months or so and post the findings. Hope so!

Naked Bee Lotion

After 20+ years of wearing band aids on  my hands to try to heal open cuts and sores, I finally found a product to help. And I did not need a doctor’s prescription nor is this product filled with nasty chemicals! The product is Naked Bee hand cream, as pictured here. It is their standard “lotion”.

My hand problems started a few years after high school. I developed warts that would break open and bleed. Also, they would be quite painful if they snagged on something. At the university clinic I had them burned off with a liquid nitrogen and this process would get rid of them. For a while. Also, I used over-the-counter wart treatments with temporary success. But every time they would come back.

Eventually, and over 20+ years, the warts seemed to be replaced with sores that would not heal. For example, I would get a cut or scrape on my hand or forearm and the cut or scrape would never heal. In many instances I caused the problem to get worse by picking at the scabs but in other cases I would have bug bites that I never even knew about on my legs turn into large sores without my help. It almost seemed like I had some sort of viral or staph infection! At one point, a doctor prescribed some $60-a-tube cream filled with a diverse assortment of chemicals – this worked somewhat, but was temporary and frankly I did not feel it was worth getting a new prescription.

Finally, a few months ago, a lady friend of my wife that sells Naked Bee products gave us a sample bottle to try out. At the time I was on the verge of making an appointment with a dermatologist! My hands were covered in bandaids, sometimes as many as 4 on one hand! But, I started using the cream. The results were not instant, but within hours I noticed that the unbandaged cuts and sores stopped getting worse! And within a day or two I noticed that they were actually starting to heal! My guess is that this product somehow allowed my hands to heal naturally, the way they are supposed to heal. Not sure what is in the product that does it, but it works for me! Truthfully I don’t know if I have had to put one bandaid on my hands since starting to use this product. And it is working for me in the dead of a Wisconsin winter, when the dryness typically causes my hands to crack and bleed more than ever. If you have hands that are cracked and bleeding, give this product a try.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Naked Bee other than my wife’s friend sells the product and she gave us a sample bottle, like she does with everybody else. I am not getting compensated by Naked Bee or any representative of Naked Bee in any way.  We got the first sample bottle free, but since have purchased much more of the product.

With holidays, comes good food. Lots of it! And, of course, there are many holiday treats, cookies, and candies to eat between meals. Many will gain 5 or even 10 pounds over the holidays! I know some health-conscious types will simply pass on all of the goodies, but I don’t. Besides, the hosts spend a lot of time cooking, baking, and preparing tasty hors d’œuvres, and it is a bit of an insult to constantly refuse. So what to do? For starters, one can hold back on portions. Go with one cookie rather than four! But even so, there are so many different treats, they add up, even if you limit portions.

The solution is to walk.

Get your coat and boots on and take a stroll. Check out the neighborhood Christmas lights, or perhaps drive to a local mall and check out the stores. A half-hour walk after two of the major meals can cancel out as many as 260 calories taken in and this exercise will also get your metabolism going. And invite your host and/or spouse along. You can combine fitness with celebrating the holidays.

Calcium & Vitamin D Works For Me!

It has been almost a year now since starting to take Calcium and Vitamin D daily as a way of dealing with some really troublesome lower right back pain.  I am yet to get any noticeably back pain since! And last summer our family took an 800 mile trip all in one day with me doing ALL the driving and I had no back pain! Formerly, I would drive an hour or two in this same vehicle and have to stretch out or use my TrueBack device in some restroom. The only real change for me has been the taking of the Vitamin D and Calcium. And I take the generics shown here, no special expensive brands.

If you are over 40, take these supplements! They are cheap and you should take them anyway to maintain your calcium levels as you get older. And Vitamin D is the one vitamin that everyone agrees is beneficial. I take two tablets daily. I also take a multivitamin as well as get my daily Vitamin C in natural form, which has helped greatly in reducing severity and frequency of colds and sinus infections for me.