I am constantly surprised when I talk to people and they dismiss many of their problems as “just because of old age”. recently as I was checking someones spine they said just that as I found a very tender spot. I immediately went a few inches higher and pressed on that area asking them to compare, the new area did not hurt so I asked, Is the spot that hurt any older than this one? Of course the answer was no. And that generally gets people thinking more clearly on the validity of that statement “it’s just my age”.
Often it’s not even their fault, some doctor may have told them that after looking at some x-rays. I run across the same thing with spine x-rays as one spinal disc may show some advanced wear and tear (arthritis). Almost without fail there will be a perfectly healthy disc within one or two levels of the wore out one and again my question is, “is the wore out disc any older than the good one?” Again the answere is no and they see this in a new light.
The best analogy I like to give is comparing our joints to the tires in your car. If the front end is out of alignment the tires will wear unevenly and prematurely, the same applies to any of our joints. If they are out of alignment, jammed up or restricted due to scar tissue from previous injuries, they will wear out prematurely and unevenly (arthritis).
So anytime you or your doctor want to blame something on old age, ask yourself, is it on one side and not another, is there another identical joint elsewhere that is not affected? If so, there may be more to the problem than just age and perhaps it’s not to late to do something about it.
Dr. Miguel Cruz
