A Success Story to Start the New Year!

Why not start 2023 with a story of someone overcoming knee pain? Hoisted from comments and lightly edited (with emphasis mine): 

Your book "Saving My Knees" was an inspiration. It gave me hope that I could overcome the limitations of osteoarthritis (Stage 3 according to an orthopedist who interpreted my MRI results). Three years ago, I couldn't walk the length of my house without pain so bad that it even interrupted my sleep at night.

After reading your book, I decided to chuck the orthopedist and the NSAID he recommended, and embark on a program of my own design after reading everything I could about osteoarthritis.

I soon learned that inflammation played a major role in both the pain that people with osteoarthritis endured and the progression of the disease. In addition to daily walks and yoga, I adopted an anti-inflammatory diet consisting mostly of plant-based whole foods. Currently, I eat seven to ten fruit and vegetable servings per day as well as legumes, whole-grains, and soy. I also lost 20 lbs. of excess weight, which I'm sure has contributed much to my improvement.

This morning I walked [four miles in an hour] with no pain. Most days I walk 6,000 to 9,000 steps daily during my walks and about another 1,200 to 1,500 steps as I do my daily chores at home. Not bad for a man in his seventies!

I love reading stories like this.

First of all, note that this person's knee pain was hardly mild: "stage 3 according to an orthopedist" (I suspect that refers to the extent of deterioration in his cartilage, where stage 4 is bone on bone) and "I couldn't walk the length of my house without pain so bad that it even interrupted my sleep at night."

Can you imagine that? Just walking from one end of your house to the other, and then having intense knee pain at night as a result? I'm sure some of you can, but this is definitely at the more extreme end of the knee pain spectrum.

After that, he did a few smart things, maybe the smartest being this: "I also lost 20 lbs. of excess weight ..."

I'm not sure how much an anti-inflammatory diet contributes to alleviating knee pain -- it didn't seem to make a huge difference for me, but my dietary changes weren't really radical -- but I've read so many medical studies about how being overweight contributes to knee pain that I'm quite confident that shedding pounds will make some kind of difference, if you're patient.

I also sense a kindred spirit in these words: "I decided to chuck the orthopedist and the NSAID he recommended and embark on a program of my own design" ... which is exactly what I did. Again, I'm not trying to denigrate doctors, and some are very, very good, and they are important to help diagnose what might be plaguing you. But ultimately, a lot of healing chronic knee pain will depend on you and your individual efforts and plan to heal.

But of course he healed, you may have thought after reading the first few paragraphs -- he was probably in his twenties or thirties, at an age when healing is still possible ... nope! He was in his seventies!

In some ways, it may be easier to heal in your seventies instead of your twenties or thirties. Why?

When you are young, that illusion of immortality, of being unbreakable (at least in a permanent way), is still very much with you. And that can be a dangerous illusion. It will cause you to pronounce yourself prematurely healed; you will tend to think that all healing must be on a two- to four-week (or at most a four- to six-week) timeline.

When you are older (in your forties, fifties, sixties, or beyond), you have two advantages: (1) the knowledge that good health shouldn't be taken for granted, that it can be a fragile and easily lost thing if one is reckless or ignores the body's warning signals (2) patience.

Yes, healing takes longer in someone older, but that older person is more likely to possess the wisdom and patience to be able to handle that fact.

There you are: a success story to start 2023.

How are you all doing out there? This year, my posting will probably become less frequent, as book sales have kind of tapered off, and that has led to a corresponding dip in traffic to this blog. But I'll still be here, at least occasionally.

Best wishes, and to all, good knee health in 2023!