Check joints of your parents

By Song Sang-ho

Parent’s Day has just gone by and it was reported that travel agencies were busy answering inquiries about tour packages for parents from “good sons and daughters.” However, these efforts are useless if parents refuse to accept the heartfelt gift, saying they would rather stay home than get exhausted in a big crowd. If you want to know why your parents keep avoiding outdoor activities, I suggest you take a look at their joints.

In particular, if both you and your spouse are working and your parents are taking care of your children, you should take them to a clinic to have their joints examined. Their joints, having already degenerated and become fragile due to their age, are very much likely to be damaged more rapidly while they look after their grandchildren.

Taking care of an infant, often described as a “battle,” is considered one of the severest physical labors in the world. You have to hug a baby, change diapers and wash the baby, and while you do all those things, your joints suffer from pressure. As you bend and stretch your legs continuously while looking after a baby, the cartilage that protects the joints gets damaged. If you don’t take care of the damaged cartilage immediately, you might get degenerative arthritis.

You should be careful about your waist too. A one-year-old baby weighs about 10 kilograms on average, and when you are on your feet with the baby in your arms, your body bends backwards naturally, putting pressure on the backbone and giving pains. As your body keeps bending like a bow, you will very much likely get “lumbar disc disease” or “spinal canal stenosis.” If you feel a terrible pain in the back or numbness in legs, it is strongly recommended that you get examined in a clinic.

In addition, even if your parents are not taking care of your grandchildren, there is still the possibility of them exposed to joint diseases if they usually spend time on the floor, not in a chair. When you sit directly on the floor, you kneel very frequently before you know it and that could cause cartilage degeneration. When you sit crossed-legged, eat on the floor or unfold blankets onto the floor, you are bending your knees more than 90 degree. The more you bend, the more your cartilage gets damaged. In the case of housewives, they may mop the floor and manually wash clothes on their knees, and that puts pressure on their joints. It is reported that joints suffer from pressure seven to eight times greater than the body weight when you squat down.

The easiest way to find out whether your parents have a problem with their joints is to take a careful look at if their legs are bent in the shape of an “O.” In Asia, we have more O-shaped legs than in the West. We often sit on our knees or crossed-legged, putting weight on loosened knee ligaments. Such an action bends the legs in an “O” by causing the knee joints to turn. With the O-formed legs, your cartilage can become more damaged and worn-out, narrowing the gap of the joints. Moreover, the pressure on the cartilage increases, worsening any degenerative arthritis.

In addition, with bent legs, they may have problems walking since balance in the ligaments has been damaged. It could be even worse when women with O-formed legs suddenly realize how awkwardly they walk. Then they would not only avoid going out but also suffer depression in severe cases.

Other than those mentioned above, if they find it difficult to stand up without assistance or if they have joint pain when they get up from a seat, they should take a joint examination.

Sometimes, I find patients at two extremes. One group think there is no solution other than surgery for joint disease while the other believes that they should bear it. However, in the case of knee arthritis, the progress of the disease is categorized into three phases — the beginning, middle and terminal stage — and each requires a different treatment. Even for pain in the back or shoulder joints, pain can be eased with simple physical therapy or drug treatment if it is determined to be in the primary stage.

Parents always say that they are feeling good and there is nothing to worry about. They say so as they do not want to worry their children. However, keep in mind that parents’ joint disease is not something that they deserve just because they are old. They might have degenerative symptoms as they age but still, they can enjoy a healthy life if they are looked after properly.

As you all know, your parents put you first before anything else in the world, and it will be good if you show them your consideration as a gift for this spring. Call your parents right now. Your voice over the phone will certainly make them smile.

The writer is the president of Wellton Bone & Joint Hospital.