More Americans Getting Knees Replaced, And at Younger Ages

The National Hospital Discharge Survey, shows that between 2000 and 2010, more than 5.2 million total knee replacements were performed in the United States. By 2010, the operation had become the leading inpatient surgery performed on adults aged 45 and over.

The rate at which middle-aged and older Americans got their knees replaced almost doubled over the years covered by the study, for men and women, the researchers found.

People aren’t putting off the procedure for as long, either. In 2000, the average knee replacement patient was about 69 years old, but by 2010 that age had dropped to just over 66, the finding showed.

“In the past, the tread amongst orthopedic surgeons was to delay performing a joint replacement on a patient until a person was so hindered by their joint pain that they were nearly incapacitated in their activities of daily living (ADL),” said Dr. Neil Roth, an orthopedic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

However, “that philosophy has evolved,” he said, so that nowadays surgeons “perform joint replacements sooner, to prevent physical deterioration and deconditioning, and to try to maintain activity levels.”

Why is the operation becoming more popular for both genders? According to Roth, aging boomers are demanding more mobility as they age. Joint replacements are getting better, too, he added.

“Technologically, the longevity of knee and hip implants has also improved, lasting sometimes up to 15 years or longer,” Roth said. “While that still may necessitate revision surgery for those patients in the younger age groups, 45 to 64, it may not require two revision surgeries.”

Wisdom Wednesday: Fitbit

My family got me a Fitbit Surge for my birthday in April. So this is a personal review after using this product for almost two months.

If you remember, I wrote a blog “Apple Watch Takes Tech Giant into New Territory” posted on September 19, 2014. The medical slant on this piece was that if the watch was not disease specific, few people would take advantage of the technology. Of course, I disagreed. General health is the goal and the parameters for this endeavor are not disease specific.

My Surge is designed to be worn 24/7, but needs to be recharged every 5 days or so. If I wear it at night, it will track my sleep habits. Good quality sleep is huge. It is a primary factor in AF and a host of other health issues. However, I find wearing a watch, or even my wedding band uncomfortable while sleeping. I have done it a couple of times and the data is very interesting. I seemed to have solved my sleep issues with my current nutritional/exercise regime so for the time being, no sleep data for me.

Activities of daily living (ADL) are also recorded. It will track how many steps you take, how many miles you walk, and how many flights of stairs you climb each day. It sends you a congratulatory email when you reach particular milestones. On our recent trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we stayed in a three story house for a week. I got the “hiker’s award” for climbing stairs that week and have exceeded 10,000 steps per day on several occasions.

My primary use for the Fitbit is tracking my exercise activity. It is great for cycling and running as it has a GPS link that accurately tracks your movement. It displays heart rate, mph, distance and time. When you link it to your computer it can display a map depicting your course, including elevation, speed, heart rate and caloric burn.

I can’t use it for swimming as the Surge is not waterproof. However, I can enter any exercise activity into the “dashboard” on the computer link and it will calculate caloric burn based on the activity and time entered.

Too Much Sitting Can Be Deadly – Even if You Exercise

Regular exercise doesn’t erase the higher risk of serious illness or premature death that comes from sitting too much each day, a new review reveals.

Combing through 47 prior studies, Canadian researchers found that prolonged daily sitting was linked to significantly higher odds of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dying.

Even if the study participants exercised regularly, the accumulated evidence still showed worse health outcomes for those who sat for long periods, the researchers said. However, those who did little or no exercise faced even higher health risks.

“We found the association relatively consistent across all diseases. A pretty strong case can be made that sedentary behavior and sitting is probably linked with these diseases,” said study author Aviroop Biswas, a PhD candidate at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University health Network.

“When we’re standing, certain muscles in our body are working very heard to keep us upright,” added Biswas, offering one theory about why sitting is detrimental. “Once we sit for a long time…our metabolism is not as functional, and the inactivity is associated with a lot of negative effects.”

The research was published January 19, in the online issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

About 3.2 million people die each year because they are not active enough, according to the World Health Organization, making physical inactivity the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide.

Among the studies reviewed by Biswas and his team, the definition of prolonged sitting ranged from 8 to 12 hours per day or more. Sitting, or sedentary activities ubiquitous with sitting such as driving, using the computer or watching TV, shouldn’t comprise more than 4-5 hours of a person’s day, Biswas said, citing guidelines issued by the Public Health Agency of Canada.