Men's Health

How I Avoided Knee Surgery

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I come from a small third world country, without the advanced medical facilities and prescription drugs available in the USA. Why am I saying this? Whenever I had a health problem the first, and probably second and third reaction was to find a “natural” way to address the situation. I have many instances where I was able to “cure” a situation by researching and experimenting, especially by diet or lifestyle elimination to uncover a root cause.

I am a male, in my 50s, 5’ 11”. 190 lbs (I will tell you why this information is important in due course).

As a teenager, I played quite a bit of soccer and represented my country as a sprinter. At about 14, my knees were in such bad shape that I went through the process of consulting an orthopedic surgeon to do some repairs. Fortunately, the medical system was so slow that it took several months to put things in motion. My neighbor, who was a retired professional, European soccer player showed me his scarred knees and urged me to reconsider as his knees had got worse with every surgery.

At that point, one of my few moments of common sense as a teenager jumped in and I told my parents “no surgery”. I then took up hiking and swimming to strengthen the muscles around my knees.

Although this helped considerably, my knees never fully recovered and I was known to use a cane during my bad days in my 20s. Exercise made the situation livable, however, with no major problems until about the time I hit 50 and I hurdled a barrier and landed with a twist on my left leg tearing the inner meniscus (did I mention I weighed about 230 at the time?)

The ensuing few months were extremely painful. The doctors recommendation was to take pain killing medication and live with it. I did so for about 2 weeks until the reality hit me. If I did this, within a few years I would have a messed up my knees, kidneys and liver from the medications. I took the arthroscopic surgery option and the results were successful.

About one year ago I lost my balance on a step ladder. Following a demonstration of senior acrobatics I felt a stinging in my right knee. I should add here that I was one of the 47 million Americans that had no health insurance because I could not afford it. I made the decision to see a doctor, my third visit in 20 years (I have been fortunate in this area, it also resulted in me not taking any antibiotics in more than 20 years).

My doctor did a complete physical examination. I weighed 245 lbs; my cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and AIC (diabetic measure) were all extremely elevated. I was also diagnosed with a torn meniscus; the only cure for which I was told would be surgery. Not having any insurance the thought of prescriptions for hypertension, cholesterol and diabetes, plus the cost of surgery were options that would not even start to consider.

I made the decision, to go the healthy and sensible way. I changed my eating habits using small portion therapy, foregoing red meat and in fact, adopting an almost vegetarian diet. In addition I walked for an hour each morning, covering 4 miles, resting every 3 days or so to give my knee a chance to recover. I noticed however that with each recovery it felt a bit better.

My further research suggested that as we get older, cartilage does not repair itself as the blood supply is reduced. The recommendation was for stretching exercises, using yoga. While I believe in yoga I never really had the proper techniques but gave it my best try anyway. The improvement was very noticeable but there was still enough pain that I could not yet jog on the treadmill.

My next phase was to supplement my diet with calcium and vitamin D as being lactose intolerant, I determined that not using dairy products meant I would need to supplement my diet with calcium. Vitamin D, because I was not getting sufficient sunlight in the winter months.

The results have been dramatic, for the first time last week I actually able to jog during my morning exercise with hardly any knee pain. Now I can hardly wait to get back on that treadmill and see how fast I can go.

Overall, I went from being obese, sometimes walking with a crutch, to jogging, and a much more acceptable weight (the process is ongoing). My cholesterol, AIC, blood pressure are all excellent. I took the Real Age test accessible from this site) and physically, I am 10 years younger than I was when I started this journey.

This site has been my resource for just about all the information I have used to change and extend my life, which is now a lot more fun.

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