Welcome to "Living Healthy Chicago."
I'm Jane Clauss.
Let's start today's show off talking about our knees.
They do a lot for us and unfortunately,
knee pain can be all too common,
especially as we get older.
So today, I'm talking to an expert about what we
can all do to help our knees stay healthy.
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Joining me today is Dr. Kathy Weber
from Rush University Medical Center.
Now, Dr. Weber, so many people deal with knee pain
and other knee issues throughout their life
and especially as we age.
Is this common because the knee is the largest joint
and it does a lot of work for us?
- The knee is involved in a lot of activities
from walking and really from crawling onward.
And so, it gets a lot of use over the years.
It's also subject to trauma.
But the aging process itself can affect knees.
- Dr. Weber, what are some of the more common issues
that you see?
- Different ages, you see different knee issues.
As kids get into sports, we can see stress fractures
around the joint at times.
As we age, we see more of an arthritic knee.
So there's a variety of issues that can affect knees.
- Let's talk about footwear.
Is the right footwear important
to help prevent knee problems?
- Wearing proper shoes is important,
not only from a knee standpoint,
but for your foot and your limb in general.
People who have a super high arch,
they need a lot of cushion in their shoe.
People that are very flat need more rigidity.
I would tell people, work with somebody whose a professional
that understands the type of foot you have,
the type of activity that you are gonna do or engage in
and use their expertise to help you choose
the right shoe for your activity.
- All right, so no matter where anyone is in their stage
of life right now, what kind of preventative steps
can we take to preserve the knee as we get older?
- It's important to maintain good flexibility at the joint.
So doing stretching exercises, also strengthening.
So very important for all joints, but especially the knee,
which includes working on your glute muscles,
your hips, your hamstrings,
your quads, as well as your calf.
And maintaining proper body weight is crucial
for all joints that bear weight but especially
the knees because the higher impact
of the weight does affect the knee joint.
- As we get older, do we need to modify our workouts
or our daily life routines,
just to make sure we don't experience knee pain?
- So it kind of depends on how much you run,
how you've maintained your strengthening program.
I think trying to switch it up a little bit is healthy
for our joints in general.
But I have runners that are 70s and 80s that still run,
but they're slower than they used to be
and they take more time in doing
the strengthening stretching so they
can maintain a healthy joint.
- When we're experiencing knee pain,
when should we seek help and when should we go see a doctor?
- If you are experiencing swelling, pain with activity,
you have catching or locking sensation in your knee.
Those are things that you definitely need
to get in and see a doctor about.
If you have a traumatic event, you have a lot of swelling,
you can't place weight onto the extremity,
you have some instability of your joint,
those are times that you should seek medical attention
in a more urgent manner.
If you have a little bit of achiness,
I would tell you to try to, try some ice,
do some stretching, do some strengthening.
If it's not getting better, then you do need to seek help.
- I guess knowing how to best care for our knees
is a step in the right direction to living a healthy life.
- Yes, absolutely.
I would encourage people to make sure that they
are doing a balanced exercise program,
they're doing the strengthening and that
if you wanna have a happy knee life,
make sure that you are doing the right exercises
to maintain that health of the knee.
- Great information, Dr. Weber.
Thank you so much.
- Thank you for having me.
- Want even more healthy living advice?
Just head to our website, livinghealthytv.com.
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