Sunday 26 July 2009

Osteoarthritis

Posted by speedygeoff on Sunday, July 26, 2009 with
"Come on, you know what I'm talking about ...
"It's the first thing that jumps into my mind every time I develop severe pain in my knees or hips. Even though I know osteoarthritis is more about genetics that athletics. Even though Stanford just released a study telling all us runners how healthy our bones and joints are compared to non-active people. Even though I've suffered through various bouts of hip and knee pain my entire life without it leading to chronic disability.
"Still, I'm 47. And it seems like this condition starts to appear in our 40s and 50s. We all know runners who've lost all the cartilage in their knees, their knee caps replaced with puffy softballs. Or who walk like they're treading barefoot over broken glass, their hip joints creaking like rusted hinges in a B-horror movie.
"Running careers come to a sudden end.
"And those glorious two-hour Sunday forays up mountain trails become long bike rides and sessions with a physical therapist".
...

The rest of this wonderful article is at http://petemagill.blogspot.com/2009/04/morning-read-hip-hip-hooray-for-hip.html. With exercises to do. With pictures. I am going to follow this advice, because my right hip is often quite painful.

And congratulations to Peter Hogan for placing second in today's 3.5k walk handicap event.