Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000089B
|
00:01 Welcome back to Ultimate Prescription.
00:02 I'm your host Nick Evenson here with Dr. James Marcum. 00:05 And we've been talking about pain 00:06 and today specifically we're talking about joint pain. 00:09 And Dr. Marcum, 00:11 we covered a lot 00:12 of the introductory topics last time. 00:14 Yeah. 00:15 But we're gonna get to some questions 00:16 that people asked in just a moment. 00:18 But I want to talk to you 00:20 about something that is weighing on my mind. 00:22 Okay. 00:23 I've got a couple of young boys and having a couple of kids 00:26 just makes realize I'm getting older. 00:27 Yep. 00:29 And when I get even older, 00:30 say my grandparents' age 00:32 things are going to be lot different in my body. 00:34 Right. 00:35 And hopefully my mind and my body 00:36 age at the same rate, 00:38 so I know what's appropriate to be doing and what's not. 00:40 But as we get older we need to manage risk 00:42 because getting up on ladders 00:44 or climbing up on the roof 00:45 at older ages like you mentioned. 00:47 Yeah. 00:48 It's kind of a not so smart thing to do, right? 00:49 No, we've talked about how our joints just wear out. 00:53 And everything at the body gets older 00:55 at a different speed. 00:56 Right. 00:57 And one of the key things, 00:59 we have to keep our joints healthy as we age 01:01 because that's one of the key things 01:02 for our independence. 01:04 You know when the hips and the knees, 01:06 we can't move to the bathroom, 01:08 we can't take care of ourselves, 01:09 guess what happens. 01:10 We have then someone else take care of us. 01:12 So that's why joint care is so crucial at younger ages. 01:17 Some people say, oh, I don't have to do anything, 01:18 you know. 01:19 I can abuse my joints 01:21 when I'm younger and when I get older 01:23 and those are the people 01:24 that end up not being able to move 01:26 when they're older. 01:27 It's right. 01:28 And heavy people, 01:30 you just can't lug them to the bathroom 01:31 if they can't move their parts. 01:32 So joint care is very important 01:34 in realizing being smart enough 01:37 and wise enough to say listen, 01:38 I have to take care of my joints 01:39 not only when I'm young but when I'm older, 01:42 I might have to take care of them even more. 01:44 And some people don't like to have extra things 01:47 to help their joints do better. 01:48 But I would rather have someone have a walking stick 01:52 or a walker and move around slowly 01:54 than sit in a chair all day and not move at all. 01:56 Yeah. 01:58 'Cause movement is very helpful, 01:59 keep the joints going. 02:01 But sometimes people have to be more careful, 02:03 I mean, some people I've noticed as they age 02:05 and I take care of a lot of people 02:07 between 85 and 100. 02:09 They say well, I can't walk as much 02:11 and I'm embarrassed to have a walker or a device. 02:15 Well, I would rather them do that 02:16 and keep moving than sitting at in a chair all day. 02:19 Yeah. 02:20 We know that sitting would, you know, 02:22 causes the joints to get older quicker 02:24 and keeps us from moving as well 02:26 and we lose our independence sooner. 02:28 So I'd rather have someone get up 02:29 and move every hour 02:31 and protect their joints 02:32 by either a cane or walking stick. 02:34 Some joints need stability with a device 02:37 to help stabilize that joint as we get older. 02:40 But that's important for older people to do that, 02:43 but it's also important for the younger persons 02:45 like you're to start thinking 02:47 about what can I do now to protect my joints 02:50 when I get older. 02:51 Right. 02:52 That's like not doing crazy things 02:54 like we've talked about 02:55 like if you're tennis player 02:56 and this is wearing out will quit wearing it out. 02:58 Yeah. 02:59 You know, if you're a football player 03:01 and you're wearing out your knees, 03:02 maybe you should quit playing football. 03:04 Long distance runners you know, 03:06 God never made us to pound the knees and hips 03:09 26 miles at a time. 03:12 Long term of that if we don't take 03:14 really good care of hydration 03:16 and we don't get really good nourishment, 03:18 if we don't listen to our bodies, 03:19 we can wear out those joints as well. 03:21 Yeah. 03:23 And it's a balance, Nick, because exercise is good, 03:25 it brings nutrition to the joint, 03:27 it brings oxygen to the joint, 03:28 it helps keep the muscle and other functions well, 03:31 but you can literally wear out a joint if you overdo it. 03:34 So I think that's a very important 03:36 both for the young as you think 03:37 about this as you get older and also... 03:41 I have problems with my feet joints, okay. 03:43 And I know if I do too much, guess what's going to happen? 03:47 I'm going to be out of it for long time on a boot, 03:49 I mean, because I've lot of inflammation 03:51 plantar fasciitis. 03:53 So I've learned to be smart about that 03:54 so I can do the basics. 03:56 Right, yeah. 03:57 And like for instance 03:58 last night I was doing some exercise. 04:01 Well, rather than running on my joints 04:03 I decided to sit and do a bicycle 04:06 where I didn't put as much pressure. 04:07 Where I might swim you know, 04:09 that's being intelligent about taking care of your joints 04:12 because you don't want to wear them out. 04:14 That's right. 04:15 And that's something I had to do recently too, I used to, 04:17 you know, the decade ago I was doing activities 04:18 that were much more high impact on my knees and what not, 04:20 but I've to eliminate those because I've decided you know, 04:22 it's just really not worth in. 04:23 Yeah, it's not worth in. Let's do some questions. 04:25 Yeah, let's get in some questions. 04:26 And if you have some questions, please visit the website 04:28 heartwiseministries.org 04:30 and we'd love to hear from you. 04:32 Hear what you're going through 04:33 and see if we can provide some easy advice for you 04:36 to help make those situations better. 04:38 And it's free. 04:39 And it's free, we're not charging anything for it. 04:41 We just want to help people live more in harmony 04:43 with the way God designed us. 04:44 But you know occasionally I have to consult 04:46 someone else to help me answer questions. 04:47 That's right, we can't know everything. 04:49 That's why we have a lot of different volunteer doctors 04:52 that have given their expertise to us about it so I can't, 04:55 if joint problems I frequently ask an orthopedic. 04:57 But a lot of the joint problems if it's not common sense, 05:00 they have to really see a physician. 05:02 Yeah. 05:03 An orthopedic doctor. All right. 05:04 Well, our first viewer writes in and asks 05:06 what is the most common cause of joint problem? 05:08 Okay, I think we've covered that pretty much all ready. 05:11 Trauma, overuse, 05:15 here is one that we don't like to talk about too much, 05:17 if you carry too much weight on the body, 05:19 it wears out the joints sooner. 05:21 Right. 05:22 So just getting down to ideal body weight. 05:24 I mean other cause of joint problems is inactivity, 05:26 not using the joint, 05:28 if you don't use it, you lose it, 05:30 and lack of stretching. 05:31 People don't warm up 05:33 before they get the joint moving, 05:35 especially as we age we need more stretching, 05:38 more moving of the joints on a regular basis, 05:40 we have to protect it more, 05:41 but those are the most common causes of joint. 05:43 Trauma, too much weight, 05:45 not moving and not stretching enough. 05:47 All right, we got another question here. 05:49 What is the difference between 05:51 osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis? 05:53 You touched on that earlier but... 05:54 Now, arthritis just means inflammation of a joint. 05:58 So anything that can have inflammation of a joint 06:01 is a cut off, right, sometimes it can be bones, 06:03 sometimes it could be connective tissue, 06:05 different things have inflammation of the joint. 06:07 Right. 06:09 Osteoarthritis is just usually from the wear and tear, okay. 06:13 And we do that with the history, 06:15 we can actually take x-rays and we look at the x-rays 06:19 and they can, here we can notice 06:20 that the joints space is becoming less, 06:22 we look for things called osteophytes on the bones, 06:27 different bone cyst, different things like that. 06:29 Very common to have osteoarthritis in the fingers, 06:33 knees, hips and spines. 06:35 We have pain and stiffness, decrease range of motion. 06:40 Morning stiffness are very common. 06:43 Now rheumatoid arthritis is when the body attack itself. 06:48 And usually you can have some of the same type of symptoms 06:51 but you also notice 06:52 that when you look at the blood, 06:54 you notice some inflammatory markers 06:55 where the body is actually attacking itself. 06:58 So it can have some of the similar symptoms of it 07:01 but the cause of it is different. 07:02 One is the body's wearing out, 07:04 the other one's the body is actually attacking itself. 07:07 So what causes the body to attack itself 07:08 as in the case of rheumatoid arthritis? 07:10 It can be lots of things 07:11 and lot of times we don't even know, 07:13 if we know what was causing rheumatoid arthritis 07:15 we would treat it, but it's my theory 07:17 that lot of these things 07:18 when the body attacks itself is its genetics 07:21 or we bring in some type of antigen 07:23 in the body 07:25 that the body doesn't know what to do with it. 07:26 And certain bodies say, I don't know, what is this? 07:29 And then it attacks the joint, it attacks what's there, 07:33 and it does run in families, arthritis does. 07:35 All right, let's talk about another issue. 07:38 Where is the place for physical therapy 07:40 when it comes to joint pain? 07:41 I mean, I know I've visited a physical therapist 07:43 for a lot of different pains 07:44 and it's been very beneficial... 07:46 Yeah. 07:47 Does it help with joints? Yes, it helps with joint pains. 07:49 It's something that I would recommend, 07:50 you see a physical therapist 07:52 because they help correct posturing, 07:54 You might not be moving correctly, 07:56 it's not uncommon 07:57 if you're favoring one part that has a problem 08:00 that the muscles on the other side overdo it. 08:02 Muscle imbalance. Yes, muscle imbalances. 08:04 The physical therapist can train you 08:06 to do specific exercises 08:08 that helps specific muscle groups. 08:10 Right. 08:11 Now I know you can go to the gym and do exercises 08:13 but sometimes those exercises might not be effective 08:16 where you might need more time on this than that, 08:18 because remember we're not trying to just get strong, 08:20 we're trying to treat a joint problem. 08:22 You can make the muscle imbalance worse 08:23 rather than equalizing it I guess. 08:25 Yeah, I think physical therapist are... 08:27 If you're having joint problems, 08:29 I think everyone should see a good physical therapist 08:31 and get evaluated and see the things 08:33 that they can do 'cause you know, 08:34 most of the things that they do, 08:35 they don't have lots of side effects, 08:37 they get to causes or problems and help your body heal itself. 08:40 Yeah, and a good physical therapist, 08:42 they will work with you for a number of weeks 08:43 and then say, you know what, 08:45 if we're not seeing an improvement, 08:46 you know, we need to send you on to someone else, right? 08:48 Yeah, exactly. They know what to do. 08:50 All right, 08:51 so we talked a little bit about this already, 08:53 but how do we prevent joint problems? 08:55 Well, that's a great question. 08:56 I guess one of the most common things is stretching. 09:00 If you sit at a desk every hour move it, 09:03 move every part every hour. 09:04 You know, we should get up and move everything every hour. 09:07 You know, if you don't use it, you'll lose it. 09:08 Right. 09:10 If you don't use it, the parts can get stiff, 09:12 especially if the parts been damaged before. 09:15 So damage part gets stiff a lot quicker 09:17 when you don't move and that can be very painful, 09:20 when they don't move enough. 09:21 So that will help it but what moving does it, 09:23 guess what moving does? 09:24 It brings a new blood supply into the area, 09:26 gets more oxygen to the joints gets, 09:28 you know, some of these joints 09:30 don't have a very big blood supply, 09:33 so just moving increases the blood supply. 09:36 Other things to prevent joint problems 09:38 if you have a weak joint you might want supports. 09:41 Some people wear braces, if it's a foot you know, 09:44 some people wear supportive shoes, 09:47 on the knees you can have braces, 09:49 on the hips you can move with walkers or pads, 09:53 of course we have braces for the joints here, the elbow. 09:58 And these braces are usually just for a short term... 10:00 Hopefully. Right? 10:01 But sometimes people have to wear them long term 10:03 if the joint is irreparably damaged. 10:05 Of course, hydration is so important, 10:08 good nutrition is important and also eating healthy foods, 10:12 you know, healthy food 10:13 is important to how the whole body works, 10:15 so these are some of few things 10:16 that people can do to prevent joint problems. 10:19 Now what about medications? 10:21 So there are medications that can damage the joints 10:22 or there are some that could help? 10:24 Well, you know, it's a query, if you have a joint... 10:27 Certain medications can cause 10:28 side effects to the joints, okay. 10:30 It sort of rare but it could be. 10:33 But certain medications help with joint, 10:35 of course if it's infections you need antibiotics, 10:37 if it's a bacterial infection, if there is inflammation, 10:41 sometimes you need a short course of medicines 10:43 to settle down the inflammation to give the joint time to heal. 10:46 Okay, right. 10:48 So sometimes there is a need for that 10:49 as long as a risk that will worth the benefit. 10:51 And then like we talk today 10:53 surgery is usually sort of a last resort. 10:56 Right, right. 10:57 Now here is an easy one for you. 10:59 You've had a situation similar to this I think, 11:00 how do you know if you have a rotator cuff problem? 11:04 Yeah, well, you know, 11:05 there is lots of tendons up here the supraspinatus, 11:08 the bicipital and they all have poor blood supply. 11:12 Sometimes insertions become frayed 11:14 and overtime it becomes the problem. 11:16 But one of the big things 11:18 is if you can't raise it very high, 11:21 and like I said and there could be 11:22 so many causes of it. 11:24 And what you need to do really if you have you it, 11:27 you can't raise it very high, it hurts a lot, 11:29 it doesn't go away fairly quick, 11:30 you need to see your physician, 11:32 get some imaging done 11:33 'cause there are so many parts in that joint. 11:36 There is tendons, there is ligaments, 11:37 there is glenoid, there is joint itself. 11:40 Any of that could be affected, if it happens right away, 11:42 that's usually trauma, 11:44 and if the trauma doesn't go away 11:45 then that could be a serious problem. 11:47 Needs to see your doctor, 11:48 do some imaging to see exactly 11:50 where the physical therapy needs to be done 11:52 with special exercises 11:54 or if you might even need surgery. 11:56 All right, well, Dr. Marcum, thank you for those insights. 11:58 And thank you viewers for joining us today 12:00 as we've talked about joint pain. 12:02 There is a lot more we can talk about 12:03 but if you're experiencing pain, 12:05 see your physician. 12:06 Thanks for watching 12:07 and Dr. Marcum will close in just a moment 12:09 with prayer. 12:17 I hope everyone has learned something useful today 12:21 about joint pains. 12:23 We all have joints 12:24 and unfortunately through the years 12:26 they wear out. 12:27 I know I've had problems with my own joints. 12:30 If you're having a joint problem, 12:31 we want you to see help about it, get some help, 12:34 especially see a physical therapist, 12:36 your doctor they might be able to figure out 12:38 what to do so you don't have any more joint problems. 12:41 If you're older you might want to make sure 12:42 you protect your joints, 12:44 don't be too proud to move around 12:45 with the walker or some other device 12:47 that helps protect your joints. 12:50 I like to have a prayer 12:52 for all of those with joint pains 12:53 and other pains at this time. 12:55 Let's bow our heads. 12:57 Heavenly Father, we know you're the great physician, 12:59 and you know you've promised to heal us in your time. 13:02 Those are out there with joints pains 13:04 and pains anywhere in the body, Father, 13:06 we want to pray for them 13:08 that you help them to be relieved of their suffering. 13:12 Thank you for the opportunity 13:13 we have to serve you and please be with us 13:16 as we move forward in our lives 13:18 and we look so much forward to your second coming 13:21 when there will be no pain is our prayer, amen. 13:25 If you have questions, 13:26 I want you to go to our website, 13:28 that's heartwiseministries.org. |
Revised 2017-01-05