When it comes to knee care, people often make three mistakes! Don't say you did everything right

After entering middle age, many people often go hiking to keep fit, or they climb stairs instead of taking the elevator, but they end up experiencing knee pain. At this time, everyone will feel confused, why does exercising cause health problems? In fact, not all forms of exercise are beneficial, especially for the knee joints. Mountain climbing is harmful to the knee joints. Do men and women have the same knee lifespan? Can you avoid knee injuries by not exercising? Can early calcium supplementation extend the life of the knees? ...The wear and tear of the knee joint is irreparable, so how can we extend the life of the knee? Let’s see how orthopedic experts can help you.

When it comes to knee care, what misunderstandings need attention?

Why do some people’s knees, which are designed to have a lifespan of 70 years, have problems in their 30s and 40s, while others remain intact? When it comes to knee care, what misunderstandings need attention? Cao Xuewei, director of the Orthopedics Department 3 at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, pointed out that the load-bearing capacity of the knees is actually established at the age of 20. If you want to protect your knees, you must learn how to maintain them.

Myth 1: The life span of knees is the same for both men and women

According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), osteoarthritis ranks fourth in prevalence among women and eighth in prevalence among men. Throughout their life course, women have two more chances of knee degeneration than men, so women should pay special attention to maintaining their knees.

First, if women do not take good care of themselves after childbirth, their knees are most likely to have problems.

During a woman's childbearing period, in order to prepare for childbirth, all the joints in the body need to relax, and the knee joints will become loose. Therefore, you will experience symptoms such as knee weakness, fear of cold, and soreness for a period of time after delivery, but this is transient and usually recovers in a year or a few months. "Therefore, if you don't take good care of yourself after childbirth, your knees will easily develop various problems."

Second, after the age of 30, men and women will experience decreased bone density, bone loss, and prepatellar pain.

After women reach the age of 30, when their bone age reaches its peak, they begin to lose bone mass and bone density, and experience prepatellar pain (pain in the front of the knee joint), as well as pain when going up and down stairs or squatting. This period occurs in both men and women.

Third, when women stop menstruating around age 50, they experience a round of severe bone loss during menopause.

If women take good care of themselves at this time, they will experience the second round of bone loss at the age of 70. If this round of care is not taken care of properly, not only will there be problems with the knee joint, but it will also lead to lumbar compression fractures, hip fractures or obvious degeneration of the knee joint. For men, comparatively speaking, there will be a short period of degeneration at the age of 30, followed by a stage of systemic functional decline after the age of 60. Just like women at the age of 70, they will experience lumbar compression fractures, obvious knee joint degeneration, hip fractures, etc.

Myth 2: To prevent knee injuries, it is best not to exercise

Whether exercise will damage the knees depends on different age groups. Exercises that may injure the knee joint include squats, mountain climbing, and forced postures (such as squatting or kneeling for long periods of time). "The knee joint has good circulation only when it flexes and extends. If you squat all the time, the blood circulation in the joint will be very poor, a lot of metabolic products will accumulate and cannot be discharged, and nutrients cannot enter, so the joint will age very quickly." said Cao Xuewei, director of the Orthopedics Department 3 of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Osteoarthritis is a specific manifestation of local degeneration of the human body. The extent of degeneration is most related to several factors:

weight. The human body's knee joint is formed when the body weight at the age of 18-20 years old can be maintained throughout life, the aging rate of the knee joint will be greatly slowed down.

sports. "We can make our knee joints very strong through exercise before the age of 20. Between the ages of 20 and 50, even if we exercise vigorously, the impact on the knee joints is not significant. We call this the plateau period. Therefore, we should maintain a certain amount of exercise between the ages of 20 and 30. If we exceed this amount of exercise, it will cause wear and tear on the knee joints, which can easily lead to overuse of the knee joints."

If you don’t exercise much when you are 20, what should you do if you want to stay in shape after you turn 30? Cao Xuewei said that weight-bearing exercises such as running and climbing put pressure on the knee joints. Many orthopedic experts from famous hospitals remind us that mountain climbing is the “stupidest sport”. Mountain climbing is a weight-bearing exercise. The joints below the waist have to bear the weight of the body, especially the knees, which are under the greatest pressure. When the body climbs up the stairs, the weight borne by the knees will instantly increase to about 4 times the normal weight.

If you have done very little exercise before and want to resume exercise, you can start with non-weight-bearing exercises such as swimming, abdominal muscle training, and back muscle training, and then slowly transition to weight-bearing exercises. This way, your knee joints will not be easily injured.

Myth 3: Early calcium supplementation can extend the life of the knee

Whether calcium supplementation is needed depends on whether the body is calcium deficient. Young people generally do not need special calcium supplements. Usually, calcium intake from sun exposure and a normal diet is enough to meet the body's needs. Forced calcium supplementation is not only a waste, but also interferes with the body's circulation.

After the age of 50, calcium intake decreases due to factors such as the decline in gastrointestinal function and the body's conversion function, so calcium supplementation is recommended. "Usually when we are calcium deficient, we will feel frequent muscle soreness, cramps, and weakness. At this time, we can go to the hospital to have a blood calcium level test to find out whether we are calcium deficient." Cao Xuewei said.

How to take good care of your knees and extend their lifespan?

○Knee care methods: 1. rub 2. press 3. pat 1. bend 2. lift 3. stand

Cao Xuewei pointed out: To maintain the knee joint, the first thing to do is to keep warm.

When the knee joints are exposed to cold, their metabolism will deteriorate and they will age faster. If your knee joints are cold, you can jog to sweat and expel the cold and moisture. Or you can use traditional Chinese medicine's warm therapy, such as frying coarse salt, wrapping it in coarse cloth, and applying it to the knee joint for 20 minutes at a time to remove the cold. Traditional Chinese medicines such as Evodia rutaecarpa and white mustard seeds can also be used to dispel cold from the knees. In addition, moxibustion can also achieve the effect of warming the meridians and eliminating cold.

Second, for daily knee care, you can remember the formula "one rub, two press, three pat; one hook, two lift, three stand".

For example, rubbing the painful points on the inside of the knee joint, pressing the Zusanli, Yanglingquan, Xuehai, Yinlingquan and other acupoints, and patting the knees on both sides can help circulate qi and blood in the knees and warm the meridians and dredge the collaterals.

In addition, curling your toes can exercise your muscles. Lifting your legs straight is extremely important. The method to practice it is: lie on the bed with your legs naturally straightened, lift them 15 times with your knees straight, maintain the posture of lifting them 15 times for about 5-10 minutes, and persist until you tremble for 3 minutes. Rest for 2 minutes and repeat again. Just complete it 10-20 times a day.

Standing on one leg with your eyes closed for more than 10 minutes can enhance your perception and control of your legs, increase the coordination of the muscles in the knee joint, prevent sprains and improper movements, and help you deal with potholes better. It is a good way to restore your proprioception.

○ To extend the life of your knees by 40 years, do not do these actions

Avoid doing strenuous exercises on hard floors, such as squats, frog jumps, running, skipping rope and dancing, as these will increase wear and tear on the kneecap. Especially when squatting down and then standing up, the wear and tear on the joints is the greatest. Articular cartilage is about 1 to 2 millimeters thick and its function is to buffer pressure and protect bones from breaking. Therefore, it is recommended to play sports only on rubber sports surfaces. The most suitable exercises for knee joints: swimming, cycling, and gymnastics. For ordinary people, swimming is the best exercise for joints.

In water, the human body is parallel to the ground and the joints are basically not weight-bearing. People with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension should swim more often, which is good for the whole body. In order to achieve the purpose of physical exercise, you can choose sports that put less weight on the joints, such as swimming, cycling, and gymnastics.

In fact, the lifespan of joints is limited, which is mainly determined by genes. The general healthy lifespan is 60 years. Excessive use will cause wear and tear on it that cannot be repaired.

Therefore, experts recommend: Encourage people in their 30s who are physically strong to do strenuous exercise, because bone mass is the best at this time; when they reach menopause, they should not exercise excessively, as estrogen levels drop rapidly during menopause and the entire bone mass is in a period of rapid loss. At this time, the knee joints are the least wear-resistant and most likely to experience decompensation; when they are in their sixties and seventies, it is only recommended to sunbathe, use crutches, and walk on flat roads to reduce the chance of falling and fractures.

○The most suitable exercise method, knee rehabilitation

The editor recommends a form of exercise for everyone that does not require going out, does not require any equipment, does not damage the knees, and at the same time can exercise the knees!

How to do it:

1. Find a chair with a backrest, sit back with your buttocks against the backrest. Place your hands behind the back of a chair and place a cushion on your back.

2. Put a bath towel under your thighs, or you can tie several bath towels and towels together, as long as they are thick enough and tied firmly. The purpose is to raise your knees.

3. Sit upright with your back straight, your feet hanging down, and sway naturally back and forth. There is no need to swing it too much, just shake it gently.

This move seems very simple, but it is very helpful in strengthening the knees. If you can shake 4,000 times a day, the exercise effect will be better than running! People with old knee injuries or foot pain can use the healthy foot to move the painful foot. The healthy foot can support the painful foot and rock it naturally back and forth. This is equivalent to rehabilitation and can gradually restore the health of the knee.