Which Body Parts Wear Out Fastest

Joint Therapy

So where to begin? How about with my aching knees? They’ve bothered me ever since I fell off the parallel bars in high school. According to Dr. Allen Weiss, president and CEO of NCH Healthcare System, "joints wear out if they were damaged early in use. They don’t wear out if you don’t injure them. Normally, they survive really well." My problems then are likely traceable to that injury. That’s not very helpful news for me, but it could be for you if you’ve made it this far without injuring a joint. In that case, all you need do is follow the advice of nurse Suzanne Graziano, director of orthopedic nursing for NCH.

"It’s important to get the proper type of exercise," she says. "Cross-training is more beneficial than repetitive. And you want to try to take the stress off your knees, hips and shoulders. Yoga, tai chi and Pilates are all very effective. Our diets are another avenue to explore. Most of us are calcium-deprived. We need the proper nutrients to feed our bodies and bones. Hydration is also important for joints. Drink at least eight glasses of water a day."

Since I do yoga, drink lots of water, take calcium and eat well, my knees are hanging in there. It’s also reassuring to know that joint replacement has advanced tremendously in the last decade. "Initially, the life span of replacement joints was thought to be 10 to 15 years," Weiss reports. "Now, with better materials and implanting, over 90 percent of them never need to be replaced." Graziano adds that minimally invasive surgery has made rehabilitation much faster and easier. "When I started in nursing, patients stayed in bed for three days following the surgery," she says. "Now it’s three hours."

Back For the Future

I actually started yoga three decades ago, in an effort to ease my aching back, a move fully endorsed by chiropractic Dr. Douglas Dishauzi, owner of the Vanderbilt Chiropractic Clinic in Naples. "Stress is a leading risk factor for musculoskeletal problems such as back pain," he notes. "Yoga can reduce stress and relieve muscular tension by boosting range of motion and strength." For many of the same reasons, he, like Graziano, also recommends tai chi and Pilates.

Backs ache more as we age mostly because we become more sedentary, Dishauzi adds. "Sarcopenia, the gradual decrease in muscle tissue and the quality and number of muscle fibers, starts at around age 30," he says. "The average 30-year-old can expect to lose about 25 percent of muscle mass and strength by age 70."

It doesn’t have to be that way. Using muscles, particularly by doing strength or resistance exercises, keeps them flexible, strong and less susceptible to injury. As an added bonus, strong muscles better support our backs, help strengthen bones (delaying or preventing osteoporosis), boost our bodies’ natural painkillers, make us look better and even kick-start our metabolism, making weight loss easier.

"Regular exercise affects all the organ systems in the body, prevents a large number of diseases and reduces sleep problems," Weiss adds. "It’s been said that every hour of exercise adds an hour to your life."

So while yoga keeps me flexible, I apparently need to start doing some weight training, too.

Use It or Lose It

Those same benefits of exercise are equally applicable to mental flexibility and strength. Chances are, the reason I can’t quickly remember where I put my glasses is because I have too much else on my mind. I do tend to multi-task mentally, and that’s not such a bad thing.

Contrary to popular belief, "senior moments" aren’t a sign of advancing senility. Nor is senility a pre-determined fate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while one in four adults experiences cognitive decline, it is not a normal part of aging. It’s true that there are brain changes that normally occur with age, but they needn’t be cause for concern.

"IQ peaks at age 18 or something like that," Weiss explains. "So what happens is as you get older you may not learn quite as quickly. But experience plays into it, too, so you can learn as well."

And continuing to learn is key. While research has yet to discover a prevention or cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there are indications that general cognitive decline can be prevented through such simple and enjoyable activities as doing crossword puzzles, playing bridge or chess, and even taking foreign language lessons.

Eyes, Ears and Teeth

As for those reading glasses, well, I held out longer than most. Having one nearsighted eye helped me develop mono-vision as my other eye grew farsighted—the trick eye doctors try to achieve with differing contact lenses.

"With mono-vision, one eye is fully corrected for distance and one eye for near distances, using contact lenses," explains Dr. Jonathan Frantz, a LASIK and cataract surgeon with offices in Naples and Fort Myers. "It seems to work very well for some people. And the power of the lens can be replaced, which is good because we know the reading lenses have to get stronger over time."

Presbyopia (farsightedness, resulting from loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens), he adds, is "almost the Holy Grail of ophthalmology" because there appears no way to avoid it and all of us eventually develop it as we age. LASIK, which employs a laser to reshape the cornea, can offer some relief. But, as Frantz notes, continuing age may make reading glasses a necessity again.

A newer, better option is a lens implant, a procedure that accompanies cataract surgery. Cataracts are a clouding of the lens inside the eye, and, like presbyopia, tend to develop with age (although environmental factors, family history, smoking and some medications can hasten their arrival). Cataract surgery has advanced to the point that it’s now done on an outpatient basis, using eye-drop anesthesia, in a matter of 45 minutes. Since the lens is removed and replaced during this surgery, eye surgeons have found they can use that replacement to resolve vision problems. "For people wearing bifocals, we find that 80 percent of the time they don’t need glasses at all afterward," Frantz says.

He advises a healthy diet, a good multivitamin, sunglasses and an eye exam with a glaucoma test every couple of years after the age of 45.

Though I’ve noticed no problems, it’s probably also a good idea to get my hearing checked. "Hearing loss is part of the aging process," says audiologist Sylvia Horgan of Hearing in Paradise in Naples. "The cells in the cochlea wear out. Typically, if it’s truly age-related hearing loss, it starts around 60 or 65."

The problem, she adds, is that because hearing loss is silent, gradual and doesn’t hurt, many people don’t notice their hearing going. That’s what makes annual exams important. "Ears are our communication," Horgan says. "You can’t speak if you don’t hear." According to the Better Hearing Institute, studies have linked hearing loss to negative psychological effects including anger, stress, withdrawal, loneliness and overall diminished health.

Happily, the cure is simple: a hearing aid. "Hearing aids are so easy to wear, but they can change a person’s life," Horgan says. "And it’s amazing to me where the technology is now. There almost isn’t a hearing loss that can’t be fixed."

I wish it were so simple with teeth. Teeth may be the hardest surface in our bodies, but periodontal disease can cause the loss of even the best and best-cared-for of them. "With people over the age of 35, periodontal disease is the single biggest cause of tooth loss in the United States," says Dr. George Hoop, a dentist with offices in Fort Myers and Naples. "There are more than 400 species of bacteria in the mouth. A handful of them are thought to be responsible for causing gum disease."

The bacteria aren’t the sole players here. As Hoop explains, gum disease is a complex process that also involves a person’s individual immune system and how it interacts with the bacteria. "You can have the person who doesn’t take care of himself," Hoop says. "But with a good immune system, he doesn’t have much of a problem."

Then you can have people like me, who brush and floss and visit the dentist regularly but whose immune systems don’t seem up to the task. Although research continues into immune system responses, the best defense here is still a good offense. "It really boils down to finding an excellent dentist who knows to look for problems along with excellent home care," Hoop says.

He adds that baby boomers also need to be aware of ordinary wear and tear on their teeth, and particularly their old fillings. "Many of us had silver amalgam fillings done when we were kids," Hoop says. "For most of us, we’re beyond the expected lifetime of those fillings. We do have better materials now—they’re tooth-colored and better mechanically."

So now I’m thinking I need to get my fillings replaced, too. Ah well. I’m doing better than most in some areas, not so well in others. I guess that makes me average.

"Nobody wants to get old," Weiss acknowledges. But aging is a fact of life. The good news is that, with a little effort and knowledge, these truly can be our golden years.