Warning signs on working moms' joints

By Song Sang-ho

Even though people say that women’s status in their jobs or at home has improved a lot, most working moms are still complaining of hard work and weary lives. According to a survey of 1,000 working moms in their 30s and 40s, about 84 percent said it was hard for them to juggle between work and childrearing.

Apart from such mental stress, they also have a lot of physical stress including joint pain. A mom trying working and childrearing needs to keep in mind that the damage to her joints can progress more quickly.

While sitting in front of a computer all day in an office and then taking care of basic household affairs such as the laundry, washing dishes, and cleaning, working moms naturally use their wrists a lot, and it may lead to pain. When you have swollen fingers or pins and needles in your fingers, as a nerve in the wrist is damaged or pressed, you can suspect “carpal tunnel syndrome.” When these symptoms are serious, you can even feel numbness in your fingers.

Besides, as women have smaller knee joints and their muscles around the joints are weaker compared to men, women are more exposed to joint diseases. If you are a woman who spends a lot of time doing domestic chores while squatting, you should pay attention to “degenerative arthritis.” When you squat to wipe the floor or wash clothes with your hands, all your weight is concentrated on your knees and it may cause damage to cartilage around them.

Burdened with office work and housework, working moms often suffer joint pain.

In the early stages of arthritis when damage to cartilage, which protects the knee joints, is not serious, you may not feel significant pain. But, when the pain is enough to affect your daily life, it is possible you already have serious damage to the cartilages. Therefore, you should avoid putting pressure on your knees. If you feel pain or hear a sound while wiping the floor on your knees, you should visit a clinic and get help for an accurate diagnosis.

You also need to pay attention to the hip joint. Repeated and immoderate postures and overweight may lead to hip joint disease. Middle-aged females in particular are prone to the problem as they use their hip joints a lot by squatting while doing domestic chores. In the early stages of hip joint disease, physical therapy or medication is chosen for treatment. When the symptoms are serious, however, a patient can recover more quickly with a “total hip replacement with minimum incisions preserving muscles and tendons” operation.

The shoulder is one of the joints that can be easily damaged. You need to pay extra attention to your shoulders if you have children. When you carry a child in your arms, your shoulders as well as your knees and back get a lot of pressure. When you use a strap carrier around your shoulders, your shoulders have to support the weight of the child completely by themselves. And, when this kind of pressure continues, it can lead to shoulder diseases such as “shoulder impingement syndrome” or “frozen shoulder.” If you have a dull pain in your arms or it is difficult for you to raise your hands above your head, you need to check your shoulder.

As the gap between the acromion covering shoulders and arm bones narrows, rotator cuffs impinge against each other whenever they move, which causes pain. This condition is called “shoulder impingement syndrome.” When this syndrome is not treated, it can develop into a “rotator cuff tear” in which shoulder tendons are disconnected. When you have pain while raising your arms to put on clothes or tying your hair, you may have a rotator cuff tear. However, as most patients feel pain from time to time when they raise their arms, they regard it as simple myalgia and often miss the right timing for treatment.

Most patients aren’t willing to receive medical treatment because of the burden they feel regarding the operation, even though they have joint pain. However, they should keep in mind that joint diseases get worse when not treated properly and that they can be treated with medication or physical therapy in the early stages. Therefore, it is important to have an accurate medical examination and receive therapy that suits the relevant condition.

I hope that working moms will lead an energetic life both at work and at home with healthy joints. Many of them may have been busy taking care of their family and relatives in May, the month of the family in Korea. However, they shouldn’t forget that their health is the most important. Moms can take care of the people around them only when they are themselves healthy.

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