Joint Task: Take Action To Combat Pain
From Your Aging Knees
By Alice Shaw
Contributing Writer
If you have aging knees that are giving you problems (and who doesn’t?), don’t just sit around and wait for the day that your doctor tells you that knee replacement is your only option.
Physical therapist Debra Coglianese insists there’s a lot you can do to help your knees function better and put off the day when surgery is needed.
Ms. Coglianese explained how in a recent talk on “How To Manage Aging Knees” at the Marple, PA Public Library. The program was sponsored by Surrey Services for Seniors.
First of all, Ms. Coglianese emphasized, don’t blame yourself if your knees aren’t as flexible and pain free as they used to be.
Your problem, she suggested, could be genetic. “You may have material in your knees that ages a little faster no matter how much you exercised in your youth,” she said. Though you can’t control heredity, she said, there are a lot of things you can do now to mitigate knee problems.
A very important thing to keep in mind and practice, Ms. Coglianese said, is making sure your body is properly “aligned.” Don’t curve your feet out or in when you walk, and stand as straight as you can. She said that, believe it or not, good general posture helps make better knees. Keep your shoulders back and your head up at all times, she urged.
“Wearing supportive shoes also makes a huge difference,” she said. She recommended buying shoes at stores that specialize in selling good, sturdy shoes and which have sales people who take time to fit your feet properly and who watch how you walk in the shoes you try on.
She added “make sure the shoes you are buying match the shape of your feet.” One way to test if the shoe is providing the proper support, she said, is to stand on one foot — first with the shoe on and then barefoot. If you stand better with the shoe on then when barefoot then the shoe is providing the support you need, she said.
Ms. Coglianese also recommended “gentle” exercises for helping aging knees — and she emphasized the word “gentle.”
One example of such an exercise: sit on the edge of a chair, making sure your hips are higher than your knees. Bend over so that your belly button reaches for your knees while keeping your head up and your shoulders back. Contract the muscles in your backside and push your feet into the floor while counting aloud one, two, three.
She explained that it’s important to count out loud so you don’t “hold pressure in your chest.” She also recommended using a folded blanket rather than a pillow to raise your hips because pillows are too “squishy.”
In answer to questions from the audience, Ms. Coglianese said using a sedentary bicycle may do more harm then good because too many people set the resistance mechanism on the bicycle too high. She also warned that ankle weights may aggravate knee problems, particularly if you wear these weights as you walk around.
Asked what to do for pain, Ms. Coglianese said, “use an ice pack.”
“We (therapists) put ice on everything,” she said. “You can ice pain every 20 minutes for the rest of your life.”
On the other hand, she said, most so-called pain relieving ointments are merely “counter-irritants.”
She also hesitated to endorse the various injections that are given for painful knees. “Not that many donate their knees to science, so the jury is out on that,” she said.
“You can make your muscles healthier,” she said, “by gentle stretching, getting enough sleep and drinking enough fluids.” Ms. Coglianese warned that the effects of insufficient fluid intake “can be devastating on muscles and joints.”
With respect to water, Ms. Coglianese said another good idea is to exercise in it. “Water exercises — such as water walking — are a good idea,” she said, “because of the resistance of water and its buoyancy.”
Finally, she said that if you need a cain, use it!
From Your Aging Knees
By Alice Shaw
Contributing Writer
If you have aging knees that are giving you problems (and who doesn’t?), don’t just sit around and wait for the day that your doctor tells you that knee replacement is your only option.
Physical therapist Debra Coglianese insists there’s a lot you can do to help your knees function better and put off the day when surgery is needed.
Ms. Coglianese explained how in a recent talk on “How To Manage Aging Knees” at the Marple, PA Public Library. The program was sponsored by Surrey Services for Seniors.
First of all, Ms. Coglianese emphasized, don’t blame yourself if your knees aren’t as flexible and pain free as they used to be.
Your problem, she suggested, could be genetic. “You may have material in your knees that ages a little faster no matter how much you exercised in your youth,” she said. Though you can’t control heredity, she said, there are a lot of things you can do now to mitigate knee problems.
A very important thing to keep in mind and practice, Ms. Coglianese said, is making sure your body is properly “aligned.” Don’t curve your feet out or in when you walk, and stand as straight as you can. She said that, believe it or not, good general posture helps make better knees. Keep your shoulders back and your head up at all times, she urged.
“Wearing supportive shoes also makes a huge difference,” she said. She recommended buying shoes at stores that specialize in selling good, sturdy shoes and which have sales people who take time to fit your feet properly and who watch how you walk in the shoes you try on.
She added “make sure the shoes you are buying match the shape of your feet.” One way to test if the shoe is providing the proper support, she said, is to stand on one foot — first with the shoe on and then barefoot. If you stand better with the shoe on then when barefoot then the shoe is providing the support you need, she said.
Ms. Coglianese also recommended “gentle” exercises for helping aging knees — and she emphasized the word “gentle.”
One example of such an exercise: sit on the edge of a chair, making sure your hips are higher than your knees. Bend over so that your belly button reaches for your knees while keeping your head up and your shoulders back. Contract the muscles in your backside and push your feet into the floor while counting aloud one, two, three.
She explained that it’s important to count out loud so you don’t “hold pressure in your chest.” She also recommended using a folded blanket rather than a pillow to raise your hips because pillows are too “squishy.”
In answer to questions from the audience, Ms. Coglianese said using a sedentary bicycle may do more harm then good because too many people set the resistance mechanism on the bicycle too high. She also warned that ankle weights may aggravate knee problems, particularly if you wear these weights as you walk around.
Asked what to do for pain, Ms. Coglianese said, “use an ice pack.”
“We (therapists) put ice on everything,” she said. “You can ice pain every 20 minutes for the rest of your life.”
On the other hand, she said, most so-called pain relieving ointments are merely “counter-irritants.”
She also hesitated to endorse the various injections that are given for painful knees. “Not that many donate their knees to science, so the jury is out on that,” she said.
“You can make your muscles healthier,” she said, “by gentle stretching, getting enough sleep and drinking enough fluids.” Ms. Coglianese warned that the effects of insufficient fluid intake “can be devastating on muscles and joints.”
With respect to water, Ms. Coglianese said another good idea is to exercise in it. “Water exercises — such as water walking — are a good idea,” she said, “because of the resistance of water and its buoyancy.”
Finally, she said that if you need a cain, use it!
