WHY DO MY JOINTS HURT? SOMETIMES WE DON'T KNOW AND THAT IS OKAY

Who doesn't experience foot, knee or shoulder pain once in a while? Even without a specific injury, this type of pain is widespread. You may have read about such things as meniscus tears and rotator cuff tears, and everyone says that you need surgery. Not to mention an MRI.

An MRI shows structures such and ligaments, tendon and bones, but cannot show us what hurts. Most people, including some doctors, do not understand that there are normal age-appropriate changes on an MRI.

If you're over 50 and have no pain, here are a few MRI findings you may have:

*A 20% chance of having an abnormal meniscus

*An 80% chance of some 'abnormality" in your knee

*An 80% chance of having a disc bulge in your back or neck

*A 10-15% or higher chance of having a rotator cuff tear

Changes naturally occur due to aging. The need for glasses, gray hair, balding and other issues are commonly ignored every day. Surely we can't expect the insides of our joints to be the same as when we were 16 years old?

Your risk of dying from some of the predictable causes of death is decreased significantly by moving and exercising. Don't increase your risk of dying prematurely because you think your saving your joints.

We can run with meniscus tears. We can run with osteoarthritis. Running does not cause osteoarthritis or cause osteoarthritis to worsen.

It's not unusual to underestimate the time it takes for discomfort, swelling, etc., to resolve. Overuse injuries such as rotator-cuff related pain, achilles tendon pain, tennis elbow and hamstring issues can take up to a year or more to resolve.

The best you can do is avoid overuse injuries by training properly.

Sometimes joints can hurt and if we wait long enough and let things calm down, it usually feels better.

Some of the information above is from the excellent blog by Dr. Howard J. Luks:

www.howardluksmd.com/blog/

His book "Longevity Simplified - Living a Longer, Healthier Life Shouldn't Be Complicated", is definitely worth your time.