Active lifestyle, good diet can help beat joint pains

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Joints deterioration, generally observed among sexagenarians, may begin 30 years earlier and one of its causes is obesity or overweight. So a noted knee-and-joint surgeon in the region has offered tips to “beat the pain of ageing joints.”

“Usually, the average is above 60 years. However, I have seen young patients at 30 years old (wherein) their joints have been totally destroyed, secondary to trauma or secondary to inflammatory disease,” said Dr Samih Tarabichi.

Tarabichi of the Al Zahra Hospital-Dubai is responsible for the establishment of the first knee-and-joints registry system in the Middle East and North Africa in 1999. The registry has helped build scientific evidence that counter the crippling effects of the degeneration of bones and joints that come with inevitable ageing, leading to quality productive lives.

“Joint deterioration is more than a disease. It happens because our cartilage tissue does not regenerate as our skin. So as we lose cartilage with age, we develop osteoarthritis,” he said.

Osteoarthritis is the wear-and-tear of the bones, joints and cartilages that affects mobility since the severely affected body parts are the hands, hips, knees and spine.

Tarabichi said osteoarthritis “accelerates” due to overweight, lack of exercises, trauma and rheumatoid conditions.

He said more women are more prone to the debilitating joints diseases: “These can be attributed to them stressing their joints during pregnancy. Their body mass is also generally higher than men.

Primary tip of Tarabichi who has so far performed a minimum of 30,000 joints surgeries, is keeping one’s self in motion.

Move a lot: In two features from the WebMD site, being in motion-whether during and post-pandemics-could be enjoyed even inside homes.

Being in motion means going for more than 5,000 steps a day. Being in motion is engaging in house chores with the following, if completed in average 30 minutes a day, results in slashed unwanted calories and weight: cooking (92 calories); vacuuming (123 calories); laundry/ironing clothes (133 calories); walking the dog, raking and bagging leaves (149 calories each ); gardening, lawn mowing and car washing (167 calories each); and playing with kids (between 149 and 186 calories).

Additionally, short breaks for walking and cycling maintain healthy joints.

Tarabichi said increasing one’s range of motion which is “how far your joints can move in different directions” would lessen the occurrence of joints-related injuries.