Joint disease is not new to us – or even familiar – because there are so many people who suffer from it that almost every one of us can find a family member or friend with a major or minor joint ailment. How should we take care of our joints? Unlike other medical experts, Professor Wen Lixing is talkative, lively and has a distinctive personality: “Who says climbing stairs is the best way to exercise? Stair climbing is the most damaging to the knee joint! I don’t climb stairs when I have an elevator to take!” The tone of his voice was both angry at the spread of such irresponsible claims, and his eyes could not hide a touch of concern for the common people who do not know much about joints. Bad legs in jeans? Maybe it’s a sign of unhealthiness! There is a concept of “force line” in medicine. What exactly is a force line? Professor Wen Licheng: The force line in orthopedic science refers to the mechanical transmission line when the limb is under weight. The lower limb force line is the line from the center of the femoral head to the center of the knee joint and the center of the ankle joint, called the FTA angle, which is the “ruler” to determine the inversion or valgus of the knee joint. Is it possible to detect joint disease at a young age? Professor Wen Licheng: Some girls come to the orthopedic department because they feel they don’t look good in jeans or skirts – the knee or ankle joints of the legs don’t come together, leaving a large gap between the calves. This is because when the pants are tight on the legs, the force line of the legs can easily expose the deficiency if they are not perfect. These girls may come to the hospital simply for the sake of beauty and seek medical attention to correct the force line; however, in fact, this correction is necessary for the long-term health of the body. When a person is young, although a slightly abnormal angle of the force line does not affect health or walking, the knee joint can suffer from uneven forces on the joint surface due to the angle of the force line, causing increased stress on the corresponding joint surface and resulting in wear and tear. As we age, this effect becomes more and more severe due to time and weight, and can lead to joint pathology. So, how do you determine if your force lines are normal? Prof. Lixing Wen: It’s very simple: if the legs are together and if the knee and ankle joints don’t come together at the same time, then it’s probably a sign of a problem with the force line of the legs. But the problem is that many people don’t realize that the knee and ankle joints are able to come together under normal circumstances. Often it is a chance occasion that reveals that there seems to be a problem with the line of one’s legs, but often it is not noticed. This is what should be the most alarming. Mild deformities of the lower extremities, high body weight, and trauma are all predisposing factors for joint disease Who are the people with the highest incidence of joint disease? Prof. Lixing Wen: Generally speaking, the following three groups of people are at high risk of joint diseases: people with insufficient force lines (mild X-leg or O-leg): due to insufficient force lines, the joint surfaces are subjected to uneven forces. Some scholars believe that this is an important causative factor. Weight and exercise factors: People with high body weight have somewhat higher joint wear because many people, especially women, who tend to be lighter in weight when they are younger, gain more weight as they enter middle age, which naturally increases the forces on the joints. Therefore, in the same age group, the prevalence of joint diseases is relatively higher in people with high body weight; the sports factor means that the more the joints are used, the greater the wear and tear of the joints. Joint trauma: External factors cause cartilage damage, resulting in a high prevalence of joint disease. Many joint diseases can be treated by joint replacement. So, what can joint replacement do? Is there a life span for the replacement joint? Prof. Lixing Wen: The most important role of joint replacement is to relieve pain and improve function. Knee replacement is a very mature technology that functions almost as well as your original joint. In the United States, nearly 500,000 people undergo joint replacement surgery each year, and in our country, as people’s lives continue to improve and their quality of life increases, a large number of patients have undergone joint replacement surgery in recent years, which has improved their quality of life. The life span of a specific replacement joint varies for each individual. Statistics show that after 15 years, more than 90 percent of the replacements are still in use. 3 questions about joint disease Is there a relationship between osteoporosis and joint disease? Prof. Li-Cheng Wen: There is no direct correlation between osteoporosis and joint disease. However, there is an indirect relationship because the reduced density of bone leads to a decrease in bone strength, which can also lead to minor trauma, which can indirectly lead to joint disease. Is there a scientific basis for leg binding in children? Can it lead to poor blood circulation? Prof. Wen Licheng: Some people believe that the low incidence of O-leg in northerners is related to the leg-binding of northerners in infancy and childhood. This is because infants and children with mild force line deformity can benefit the development of joints if the force line is corrected in a physical way. Is “cold leg” arthritis? Professor Wen Licheng: There are many kinds of joint diseases, the most common one is osteoarthritis, which doctors call osteoarthrosis, including osteophytes, synovial lesions, joint effusion, cartilage lesions and so on. The “old cold leg” is actually “senile degenerative osteoarthritis”. Why is it called “old cold leg”? Because it shows symptoms of pain and fear of cold. This is an image of the old people’s term for senile osteoarthritis. All patients with joint disease are very sensitive to temperature, but it is difficult to say exactly why. All people who have had joint injuries and surgeries are sensitive to the weather, and they may know in advance that the weather is changing before the weather forecast is even released, for the same reason. There is a long-standing saying that “climbing more buildings and hills will help you get fit”. Is there any scientific justification for this method? Professor Wen Lixing: “climbing more buildings and hills can be fit” is wrong for the joints. This is because it is not in line with the principles of human mechanics. Some elderly patients with bone spurs and osteophytes think that climbing more hills can wear out the bone spurs, which is also impossible. It is not the bone spur or osteophyte that causes the joint disease; it is the spur that grows after the joint is damaged, and the spur does not grow in the middle of the joint in contact with the joint. For example, the head of a hammer is often rolled up and burred, and these “rolls” and “burrs” are “bone spurs”. We call them labral hyperplasia. These burrs do not grow on the surfaces where the joints meet, but on the edges, so it is never possible to rub the joint surfaces against each other to wear away the bone spurs. People of any age should not choose to climb stairs for exercise. This is especially true for those who are relatively obese. By choosing this type of exercise, you risk setting yourself up for future health problems, as climbing stairs can be very damaging to the knee joint. There are other options for exercise, such as walking and swimming, that are good for middle-aged and older people, or you can go to the gym and ask a fitness instructor to help you choose. Another long-standing saying is that more exercise can help you lose weight. So are these common exercises, such as skiing in winter, good for the joints? Professor Wen Lixing: More exercise may indeed achieve the purpose of weight loss. But all competitive sports are harmful to the human body, especially for the joints. This includes skiing, skating and so on. It can be said that as long as the movement may have injury. So professional athletes are generally “left hand holding the brilliance, right hand holding the injury”, this is a lot of famous athletes have experience. Therefore, sports should also be appropriate to stop. We should also try to do some non-competitive sports in our daily lives, and not too intense. Different age groups should choose different sports that suit them. Wear less high heels, less taijiquan, joints also need to “save” For the office population, how to prevent cervical and lumbar spine disease? Professor Wen Licheng: These diseases are commonly referred to as office diseases abroad. Because with the development of technology, a large number of electronic products into people’s lives and work, such as computers, although it frees people from the tedious clerical work, but the long-term application of computers, but also make people vulnerable to cervical spine disease and “Mouse disease”, these are related to the fatigue of the joints. The cervical and lumbar spine are the two important axes of the spine, so they are more vulnerable to injury. To avoid increasing fatigue in the cervical and lumbar spine, it is important to move the cervical and lumbar spine every once in a while in all directions to relax the joints and muscles. What advice do you have for the general population on joint health? Prof. Wen Licheng: There is a report in the UK that all women who wore high heels for a long time when they were young had a much greater degree of joint strain in old age than women who wore them infrequently, or even did not wear high heels. This is because the pressure on the knee joint is much greater when wearing high heels than when not wearing high heels. Therefore, I recommend that young women do not wear high heels every day for the sake of beauty, in order to prevent the chances of developing joint disease in old age. At the same time, avoid climbing and descending stairs for long periods of time, and older people should not overdo taijiquan (horse riding crotch squatting). Joints should also be “used sparingly”. All exercises that put the knee in a flexed position may cause joint damage. Don’t climb too often, especially for middle-aged and elderly people. This is because the joints are under extra stress when going downhill. Other sports, such as jumping rope, dancing, etc., all of these sports may also lead to joint diseases, and different people must choose different kinds of sports that are suitable for them. Middle-aged and elderly friends, in the process of activities must be based on their own conditions to choose the right way to exercise. For example, walking, because in the process of walking, the force on the joints is not very large. In addition, you can choose to swim, swimming is a rare full-body exercise among all forms of exercise, not only exercise the cervical spine, but also exercise the pectoral muscles, abdominal muscles and upper arm and leg muscles. In addition, middle-aged and elderly people must choose aerobic exercise, and do not choose strenuous forms of exercise.