By Dr. Kelli Pearson

How do we find ourselves suddenly so stiff, feeling old and helpless to change?

I enter the room to meet my new patient. A delightful 65-year-old woman sits in the chair next to my desk. (Given the COVID environment, I don’t get to grab her hand and connect, nor do I get to comprehend if she is smiling or looking nervous. It turns out the mouth is a powerful indicator of emotion.)

We begin talking about her life and why she decided to reach out for care. After a few short minutes, she has shared that her family of four had been her focus for three decades, but now all the kids have moved away, making it hard to spend time with her grandchildren.

Left in a relationship with a man of 40 years of marriage turns out is not so easy. She described him as impatient, unkind, and detached. Her eyes moisten a bit, knowing that she is stuck, and so is her body.

During the exam, it is clear that the stiff right hip has degenerated beyond just stiffness and is likely to require a hip replacement. The part that brings me the most sadness is this stiffness did not start last month or the year before, but ten years earlier.

The patient was surprised to see that she could not squat, bring her knee to her chest, or handle any passive rotation on my part. Had she never even tried to squat or lay on her back and get her knees to her chest?

When asked, she informed me that squatting started to be uncomfortable in her 40’s, so she stopped. Given her lack of intimacy with her husband, she never moved her hips outward. The bottom line, what you don’t use, you lose could never have been more accurate. (I know you have heard this before.)

Sometimes, I can get a hold of patients like this earlier in the line of degeneration and can improve the function of the hip, allowing them a happier body, a greater range of motion, and the ability to get down and up from the floor again.

These are fundamental ranges of motion if you want to remain independent.

Sometimes, folks wait so long, as they have put their health on a shelf for decades, and the best I can offer is a new hip with a few of my favorite orthopedic surgeons.

Thank God for that, but the frustrating part is the left knee, the right knee, and the left hip are also degenerating at the same speed due to lack of use, and over the next five years, they are likely to become more and more bionic.

Again, great news if you think replacements are the perfect answer. They are an answer but not an ideal solution. I can think of only a handful of patients who has a full and painless range of motion of their replaced hip or knee.

I can think of dozens who continue with some pain and stiffness, altering their gait, creating even more mechanical challenges on other joints down the road.

My bottom line:

1. Do not wait to secure treatment.
2. Pick up the phone.
3. Call your doctor to refer you to a good chiropractor who does soft tissue work and manipulation, a good physical therapist, a massage therapist, or an acupuncturist.
4. Never give up too soon, as your body does have the ability to shift and change.
5. It is critical you take your body through every range of motion that it has been designed to do. That means touching your toes, leaning back, reaching overhead from side to side, and reaching straight up and back with one arm at a time. Doing the same for the lower body is critical as if you never pull your knee up to your chest, your hips will get stiffer and your balance will become challenged.
6. Do some simple stretches designed to be done standing up with your clothes on that take 4 minutes or less.

Dr. Kelli Pearson is the author of Eight Minutes to Ageless. She has been a practicing chiropractor for over 40 years. She has been part of a large network of health care providers in Spokane, Washington, with the commitment of creating a larger village where patients can heal. For more information: 8 Minutes to Ageless.