Baby Boomers : Medical Problems Waiting To Happen

By Dr. W. Gifford Jones

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

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Dr. Nicholas DiNubile, a Philadelphia orthopedic surgeon, has added a new word to the English language. Baby boomers, he said, are the first generation to preach the virtues of staying active and also to practice what they preach. But being obsessed with exercise has come at a price. Large numbers have developed "Boomeritis". They've become banged up baby boomers.

The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics reports that baby boomer injuries provided 488 million hours of work for health practitioners in 2005. During that year they suffered over one million injuries, made 365,000 visits to hospital emergencies at a cost of 19 billion dollars.

There are now 76 million adults in the U.S. between 41 and 60 years of age. Dr. DiNubile says they're trying to be, at 50 years of age, what they were at 25. And by pushing their bodies too hard they've developed tendonitis, bursitis, arthritic hips and knees and a host of other traumatic conditions.

It used to be that the common cold was the number one reason for visiting a doctor's office. Now it's been replaced by wear-and-tear sports injuries.

In Canada between 1995 and 2000 knee replacements increased by 45 percent. But the number performed depended on where you lived. In Saskatchewan the increase was only 3.6 percent, Alberta 25 per cent and Nova Scotia and Ontario 50 percent.

It's a sign of the times that the government of Alberta has allocated 20 million dollars to streamline hip and knee replacements. It has established regional centers in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer to determine who does and does not require a replacement. It hopes this assembly-line approach will decrease the waiting time for surgery.

I see many cases of boomeritis in my office. One of my patients at 50 years has been running several kilometers every day for years. But now she's had knee replacements for both knees. Statistics say she has 30 more years to live. Yet her knee replacements won't last that long so she faces repeat operations x years from now. Besides, she's no longer able to run even a hundred yards a day. She's paying a huge personal price and she's costing taxpayers.

So can you avoid becoming a victim of boomeritis? I think the first rule is to choose the right exercise. Advocates of jogging will want to hang me from the nearest tree for being critical of this activity. But I'm skeptical that jogging is the way to longevity. It appears to me to be a huge overuse of joints compared to walking, swimming and other less impact activities.

Besides I've seen hundreds of joggers and never a happy one. So if their agonized expression is the same as the pain experienced by their joints, small wonder hips and knees give out at a young age. Jogging is frequently a disaster waiting to happen as it involves intense pressure, particularly on the knee.

Nevertheless I also don't agree with Mark Twain's facetious remark that he had been at the funerals of many friends who believed in exercise more than he did. In spite of this attitude he lived to 75 years of age. But his advice is hardly sound since we know the many benefits of exercise.

Aristotle's counsel makes mores sense. He preached moderation in all things, not too much and not too little. This means listening to your body when it starts to hurt. It's telling you to ease off a bit.

I also believe many joints are injured due to a lack of vitamin C as humans, unlike animals, do not manufacture C. This vitamin is needed to build healthy collagen, a main component of cartilage. And when cartilage weakens and bones grind on bones, jogging days are over.

Exercise daily, but don't take a pounding.

My pounding from joggers is probably about to begin!

W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com

My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:

Giff Holdings, 525 Balliol St, Unit # 6,Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E1

Pre-2008 articles by Gifford Jones

Canada Free Press, CFP Editor Judi McLeod