Getting my knees back to normal - and then keeping them that way!

Katiehound

Osteopath charges here are:
half hour with one of the associates- £35
at least an hour with the owner of the practice (she's very experienced) £55 - so actually she is cheaper overall.

When I couldn't find an osteopath in Eire I had a sports massage. She was good- E50 for an hour - so around £37.

Hope that gives you some idea of possible charges

moneyistooshorttomention

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Good idea to try yoga, but believe me half an hour with the right qualified person can get you to a point where you understand what the problem is - which makes remedying it much easier. yes there will be generic issues that a book can tackle, but there may also be issues unique to your physique or lifestyle that someone will be able to see in even one appointment. A good therapist of whatever sort won't push you into extra treatments you don't need. Worth an investment of £40 I'd say!

Oh yes - I certainly think its worth seeing a professional for at least an initial diagnosis and start-off and will be doing so. It'll obviously point me in the right direction as to which specific exercises are a good idea for me personally and any adaptations I personally need to make.

Thankfully - I've not got the hypermobility issue a previous poster mentioned she has. I do know my own personal thing is a pair of flat feet - which may be affecting things.

lessonlearned

Fallen arches etc are quite common as we age, so wearing good shoes with arch and ankle support will help.

Ask for a referral to a podiatrist for advice and possible even shoe inserts. It should make a real difference.

I went through a phase of plantar facisitis - very painful - but now with the right footwear I'm fine - apart from a hairline fracture on one of my metatarsals.

The podiatrist told me my arches had collapsed and told me off for wearing completely flat shoes - said they can lead to tightened hamstrings, which in turn leads to backache, poorly knees, hip stiffness etc. He says those ballet flats are the worst offenders.

His advice was not to wear the same types of shoe all the time, that constantly wearing flats was as bad as wearing heels all the time. He said you should ring the changes.

Perfect.....a great excuse for more shoes.......not that I need encouraging to buy shoes. :rotfl: it's just that I now have to buy the correct ones for me......

It really all does start with the feet, good shoes help with posture which in turn corrects body alignment, which can prevent a lot of joint problems, muscle strain etc.

A.Penny.Saved

I agree about first finding out where the problem lies because you cannot treat effectively until you know the cause. Guessing isn't going to help.

Some things to research:

Boron - this can really help bones and help keep them healthy. One form ie Borax has recently been banned due to the claim that it is highly poisonous/toxic. The cynical among us believe the banning was done to help maintain drug company profits as boron stood to cause a fairly significant improvement to health which drug companies do not want, they want sick people! News flash! there is something coming which will devastate their company profits and do far more than boron could ever hope to do. Something which they cannot stop and cannot get banned. Note that boron supplements are still legal and are available. Read about the incidence of disease in areas of low soil boron levels.

A few other things to read up on are glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane Note that this can be purchased fairly cheaply in granular form on the internet in 1Kg quantities which is likely to be cheaper than encapsulated forms. If you do it this way then make sure that you get a few 1ml measures at the same time as they tend to break after being used frequently). Turmeric is another one to look at but also check for improving the curcumin active constituents absorption as it can be quite poor.

Be aware that your problems might be being increased by poor protein absorption - you might be amino acid deficient due to that poor protein digestion as digestion requires strong stomach acid levels which are frequently low in older people. That might be worth investigating but ATM there is no published information on why this happens but there will be in the near future.

As to your heart disease risk, which I share as both my father and grandfather died of circulatory disorders and heart disease before they were 60. This can be caused by inadequate folic acid/folates or a genetic polymorphism which is fairly common and results in lower blood folate levels which can significantly increase a persons risk of circulatory disease. You probably should avoid folic acid, a synthetic form of natural folates, as it tends to be damaging to many people.

Nutrients which help lower homocysteine levels would be helpful.

If you have one or more genetic polymorphisms then it would be worth consuming foods/nutrients and/or supplements to counteract your risks in order to help lower homocysteine levels which you might be prone to increased levels.

Betaine (TMG/TriMethylGlycine) not betaine hydrochloride, this can be helpful. It might be worth searching for the best food sources of this nutrient. Beetroot is a pretty good source.
Folates which are contained in green vegetables also require vitamin B12 which can have absorption problems when stomach acid is compromised. 5mg Methylcobalamin tablets might be helpful. I do know a good MSE type source for this if you require it, far cheaper than anywhere else.

One last one is Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate( P-5-P) the active form of Vitamin B6 which is used to activate all the other B vitamins as well as an alternative pathway to remove homocysteine which is believed to a significant cause of circulatory disorders. It's probably a good idea to avoid the none active form of vitamin b6 often used in cheap supplements as it only adds to the burden as it all needs to be activated which without P-5-P is difficult.
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/92/10/2825.full