Dealing With What Ails Us

[techno900]

While not wanting to promote extended tales of what ails us, I am interested in finding out what some of you "elder" windsurfers are doing about arthritis and or pain. I am now having some issues with hip arthritis (little if any cartilage in the hip joints) and am receiving conflicting treatment information from deferent sources. Hip replacement, in hopefully the long run is likely, but dealing with the discomfort is why I am posting this now. Good strength is important for stabilization and minimizing wear and tear, no question here, but when it hurts - then what?

I have found that typically, NSAIDS are the common recommended treatment for pain, but now I find conflicting information. This discovery was initiated by my Niece, who is a physical therapist working with sports injuries. She says that I should take Tylenol and not Naproxen, which has been my go to pain med for years. Reducing inflammation has always been a good thing, but now, maybe not.

[jingebritsen]

i hear and read about cases where cannabis worx

http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com/arthritis-medical-marijuana-research-overview/

wish i could remember more, but..... LOL

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/827241

[U2U2U2]

These studies crack me up.

Taking anything All the time is going to effect something inside.

My take is NSAIDs ..like Advil or ibuprofen , are pain but more important help with inflammation.

Tylenol, a acetaminophen, is pain, and does little to reduce inflamed areas.

For arthritis, I use Meloxicam, a NSAID, as needed.

[DelCarpenter]

At 73 yrs 8 mo, I have only very minor instances of pain which might be arthritis. Maybe that is related to 22 years of a low fat diet high in grains, vegetables & fruit which became a vegan diet 8.5 years ago. Whatever the reasons that I am lucky, my suggestion is to look for dietary changes which will reduce inflammation.

When I do have my minor knee pain while walking, it is always near the beginning of the walk. I've learned I can get rid of that pain (so far) by keeping on walking. Our normal schedule is 4 times a week walk about 1.6 miles to the recreation center, attend an aerobics class geared to seniors for an hour (or an hour of yoga), (sometimes add another hour of fitness class), walk 1.6 miles back home. We usually walk 2 miles on the other three days a week. I think the daily movement may have as much to do as the diet does with my avoidance of arthritis & other pains. I know I don't have the pains in my back muscles that I had before we started our current schedule 8.5 years ago. Retiring and not sitting such long periods helped too.

[techno900]

The only medical diagnosis so far is arthritis from an X-ray in the ER. I have had some minor discomfort in the groin for about 6 months, but a few weeks ago, over a 8 hour period, the pain in the groin and outside of the hip became unbearable, so I went to the ER. I left with a muscle relaxer and some pain meds. After 48 hours, back to normal. I went to a Hip Orthopedic MD and he said arthritis too. Except for the 48 hour ER event, I haven't taken any pain relievers for the hip, since it hasn't been that much of a problem.

I got an MRI yesterday, but the Dr. hasn't seen that yet. Playing golf, windsurfing, walking and weights don't hurt, although I am occasionally aware of a slight twinge in the groin or hip.

The reason I posted this has more to do with the NSAID/inflammation issue. As Iso believes, the current/typical medical response may not be the best or proper treatment based upon the few studies I have seen regarding the role of inflammation in healing. The issue is just something to keep us on our toes and maybe find a better path to dealing with a problem that is not likely to go away. Since I haven't taken any pain relievers for the arthritis (yet), I am not sure what I will do. More after my MRI is read.

[kmf]

As a sufferer of Rheumatoid Arthritis, I can tell you that the best anti-inflammation drug that I have found is prednisone. When I have a severe flare up, I can have multiple joints in my body swell up and hurt like hell. Nsaids work for minor flares, but only in larger doses. Usually a couple of weeks on small doses of prednisone will do the trick, I will start with 5mg and taper to nothing in a couple of weeks. Stops inflammation in it's tracks. My Rheumatologist says that small doses of prednisone have fewer side effects than large doses of nsaids, problems with prednisone come with large dose long term useage.
Bottom line, use what works, while keeping an eye on side effects and your body's response. Use as little of any drugs as possible. Quality of life is more important than longevity. You are going to die anyway, be comfortable.
Supplements and experimental drugs, read pot, can be dangerous as one has no idea of the dosage of the item being ingested, and actually one has no idea of long term side effects. or drug interaction.
Just my opinion of course.
So let the flaming begin.

KMF

[cgoudie1]

Amen KMF, live well, long will take care of itself. Being an occasional user of prednisone, I can say it really does a job on inflammation,
it is a powerful drug! But, the side effects, on me, are brutal. At a minimum
even small doses have such a suppressive effect on my immune system, that within 2 days its whole body acne city. And on longer usage, I find
sleep nearly impossible, even with strong sleep medications. With long
term use, I develop pretty serious fluid retention.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea (I use it when things get really ugly),
just that there are trade-offs.

-Craig

[swchandler]

I thought that I might offer a different perspective on things, based on my experiences some years ago. I used to downhaul my race sails manually using a small clamcleat tool. Over years, I started have problems with my right hip, to include a lot discomfort that wasn't going away. Increasingly, I wasn't able to walk comfortably, and I started to limp like a pained old man. To make a long story short, I had a suspicion that downhauling sails was a the root of it. I bought a Rig-it-Right tool, and miraculously my problem faded away within a few weeks.

From what I could make of it, the strain that I was putting on one side my back was the root of my problem. Why the pain and discomfort focused on the hip is a mystery to me, but our spine and nerve system services our whole body. A problem with misalignment of the spine, or an abnormal pinching of the nerve cluster at some point in the back can result in a problem elsewhere in the body without a clear sign that it is originating in the back.

Because your problem appears to be more sudden in its onset, it just might be a problem more like mine. While analgesics can help us manage pain and its related problems on occasion, I'm not one that likes to use them on a regular basis. I feel it's best to get to the root of the problem. Sometimes that means surgery. I had to go the surgery route with my left shoulder and rotator cuff, and also with a couple hand surgeries. With these surgeries in my mid-60s, I've had a hard time being in good shape to sail hard. Still though, the surgeries did resolve my specific problems. Now, getting back to my more youthful condition is a different matter.

Needless to say, getting old is hell.

[isobars]

As I've posted and cited numerous times and to which Techno referred, research shows that ice and/or NSAIDS impede healing. When I get a musculosketal pain I can't explain, my protocol is pretty consistent:
1. Take a big dose of the OTC drug IIHDDI (generic name If It Hurts Don't Do It). I avoid Tylenol if I sense a need not to mask symptoms.

2. Study it online (carefully!) enough to spot BS from paid providers. If it hasn't healed by then, I

3. Consult an orthopedic physician for diagnosis ... (NOT treatment; diagnosis ... and a referral to a physical therapist.) I don't need no stupid drugs until a trusted physical therapist tells me I do. (That's not irrational pharmaphobia; it's simple recognition that most physicians just push drugs without thinking.)

4. When the PT tells me he's done all he (mine happens to be a he, not a she) can, that I should go back to the physician (or to a different one), THEN I take #3 seriously.

Somewhere right in here I will also see a massage therapist. Not a masseuse; an advanced therapist who knows how actually FIX soft tissue maladies, not just rub 'em. A good PT should be able to recommend one. I've seen them fix long-lasting, deep-seated, horrible problems within days to weeks after years of wasted doctor-time. The same goes for a good chiropractor with any skeletal issues, which includes MANY varieties of pain. My chiropractor is also a body-builder, an athlete, and a nutrition freak, really knows his stuff, and would never treat me himself if he found a problem better suited to PT, massage, or a physician.

Any of those options beats the heck out of a new joint as long as we can spot the quacks before any harm is done.

5. EVEN THEN, however, I don't actually DO anything serious (e.g., drugs, extensive PT, surgery) until further and more focused research supports it.

6. If it can safely and fairly comfortably wait (or if the "cure" simply can't be scheduled for days or weeks) and there are harmless, cheap, simple, alternative solutions worth trying, let me at 'em.

I can't TELL you how many times that approach has led me down what turned out to be the right path among these possibilities: avoiding HUGE mistakes, finding a superior doctor, taking better drugs, picking between surgery and PT, avoiding nasty drugs altogether by simple diet or exercise changes, and much more. That sequence had made very dramatic positive impacts on dozens of maladies from a pimple on my finger (couldda lost the last joint) to four independent primary cancers, three of them lethal.

With anything even remotely associated with inflammation, my very first "treatment" would be avoiding grains, especially wheat. And I haven't even read the authoritative anti-whest books on my shelf yet! It's too simple, too often effective, too cheap, too harmless, and for many people too beneficial in too many other ways not to try it for starters. I hadn't even thought about until you brought it up because it wasn't why I quit eating wheat, but now that I think of it, the long-diagnosed OA in my neck, left elbow, right knee, left ankle, most fingers, L5 vertebra, and left S-I joint have all improved over the past year or two. Even more important, our usCRP, a very important marker for the blood vessel inflammation very highly associated (infinitely more so than cholesterol) with cardiovascular disease, needs to be below 1.0. Mine is 0.2, which my carefully selected PCP says is so low that I can ignore virtually any other heart risk factors I may have.

OTOH, some people need new hips, plain and simple. I know several serious Gorge WSers with them. In the meantime, conditioning the right muscles can alleviate a lot of joint pain. That's where a good PT is invaluable. By now, mine just winds me up (tells me what to do) and turns me loose (he knows I will comply) with checkups if necessary.

Beats surgery all to hell if it works, and helps me accept surgery if it fails.

How seriously do I take this stuff? Let me put it this way: This winter it's literally deadly serious, yet I'm fairly confident that I'm on the optimal path with my approach.

[swchandler]

Regarding osteoarthritis problems, I have it in the top my left foot, to include in the joint of my big toe on the same foot. Right now, the joint deformity on the top of my foot really prevents me from wearing a ski boot. If I want to snow ski, I'm going to have to physically modify the hard tongue of the boot, or go in for another surgery.

Fortunately, wearing my regular shoes isn't a problem. However, if I don't walk very regularly, both problem areas of my left foot start to become more painful and discomforting. So far, I've been able to tolerate my windsurfing footstraps without too much after the fact pain, but it's harder to deal with if I don't sail regularly. Also, I'm lucky in that I don't stick my feet too far into the straps. If I sailed with my feet in the straps like most wavesailors, it would be a far too painful to pull off successfully.