Hello! And welcome to the Knee Pain Guru, Knee Pain Questions, Answered and this week I got a question from Ruth out of Arlington, Texas and she writes, I am not sure, if I am emailing you at this address, I will keep you inform on my progress. I didn't download the book, but I wonder if I did the wrong thing.
Ruth, by the way, I have my assistant on this to make sure, you've gotten everything taken care of. And you have the e-book that you can check out.
I am 85 years old and I am desperate to get rid out of my pain. In June of last year, I have partial surgery on both of my knees, the inside. Though I went for therapy at the hospital for these two months, the pain is getting worse and I am not sure if I can stand stronger medicine. I know exercise is the answer, but I don't dare get down on my knees, it is almost impossible to get up, nor can I align my back on the floor for the same reason. Do you have any suggestions for me?
I went on the Internet last week and found your website which maybe hopeful that maybe I could live out for rest of my years without pain or at least not as much. The orthopedist gave me a steroid shot in each of my knees, which didn't do anything for the pain, but throw me into a deep depression. So now with all of the other medicines I take, I have added antidepressant. Thankfully they didn't work. I would much appreciate any advice you can give me. Ruth.
Ruth, thank you so much for your email. I do appreciate and I empathize with your situation. As far as a suggestion for you, I mention all those weekly about increasing your water intake and that's going to be a huge piece as far as helping with the knee pain. As we get older, what happens is the body's ability to absorb water decreases. It's something like when we were born we were 90% watering by the time at the end of our lives, I believe this statistic was something like 60% or 70% water, which is a lot of the reasons why people get more brittle and frail as they get older. This also contributes to the space we have between our joints, the lack of water. So increasing your water intake is going to help with that.
One thing to understand about increasing your water intake is you can think of the body like a dry sponge. Like, the dry sponge that's been sitting by your sink for a few weeks and it's really hard and brittle, and you one first pour water on it, it takes a little bit of time for that water to get absorbed into the punch. However, if you continue to work the sponge, then the water is going to absorb into it much quicker and it's going to be very pliable. The body works the very same way.
So when you start drinking water, when you increase your water intake, you are going to want to be consistent with that. At first, the water is going to run right through your body, you are going to be run into the bathroom every five minutes and this can be kind of annoying, however, when you understand it, that's the process of how the body is going to condition itself to absorb more water, then you can understand like the end result that you are looking for.
So as you increase your water intake and be consistent with that, then the body is going to retain the water more and that's going to help flush out the toxins that are going out in your body and the space that reduced between the bones in your knee. So that's one suggestion I can make.
Another thing as far as exercises, you don't need to get down on the floor and you don't need to be down on your back to do vital exercises that are going to help you get that movement back into your knees and get you out of pain. One of the pieces is in the book that you got, it's the leg swing and what I do is, you're basically sitting at the edge of a table and you are swinging your legs to and fro, back and forth, side-to-side and a few other directions. One thing I'd like to add for you specifically Ruth, is to drink a big glass of water while you are doing your exercises, while you are swinging in there. Now what is that going to do?
First of all, you are going to get the body moving while you are drinking the water, this is like working that sponge, that sponge example I was telling you about, and that's going to be able to get the water moving around your body while you are sitting there and absorb into the knee joint. I believe that if you do that for a couple of minutes, five minutes every morning while you are drinking a big glass of water, that's going to have a significant help with you. Help for you with that.
Another piece is when the body gets dehydrated; one of the symptoms for dehydration is depression. So you have more pain, the body gets more tensed, which squeezes out more water, which exaggerates or makes worse the issue of the chronic dehydration in the body. So it's kind of like a downward spiral, you get on this hamster wheel so to speak, that's going to be very difficult to get off of. However, increasing your water intake, doing that simple exercise in the morning and if you really feel ambitious, do it once in the morning and once in the evening for like five minutes.
Double-check with your doctor just in case to make sure he is cool with it. Continue with that and if keep me posted on the progress, send me an email, go to my website, www.thekneepainguru.com and go to the Contact section and send me an email to keep me update with the progress as well as if there are any more questions.
So for those that don't have my book and for those they do not have my video, definitely go to my website and check that out, get yourself a copy, start doing the exercises, because they significantly help strengthen the tendons and ligaments within your knee joint. Thanks for watching and I'll talk to you soon. Bye, bye!
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