Vienna (OTS) – As part of the current ORF initiative “Consciously healthy – stay active!” (details below https://presse.ORF.at), “Stöckl live” on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at 8:15 p.m. on ORF 2 will deal with the topic of “healthy joints” – and thus with mobility into old age. This is not something that comes naturally to many people. Every second person in Austria complains of back pain, and knee, shoulder or hip problems are also part of everyday life as we get older. Obesity and illnesses such as rheumatism are already putting strain on the joints of younger generations.
Barbara Stöckl explores the following questions in the show: How can we keep our joints healthy? What role do diet and exercise play in this? What treatment methods and medications are there? And when is an artificial joint necessary? Guests like Chris Lohner and Christian Neureuther share personal experiences, experts like ORF health expert Siegfried Meryn, orthopedist Thomas Müllner and nutritionist Ursula Vybiral give insights and tips, and audience favorite Philipp Jelinek shows exercises for more mobility live in the studio.
Brilliantly flawed design – why evolution is also to blame for our joint problems
It may not necessarily be the crown of creation, but it is certainly a special model – the human body. From an evolutionary perspective, it is an exceptional case and this fact also affects the joints. Walking upright keeps our hands free for activities and tools and enables us to balance the large brain on the skeleton. Due to the relatively large brain mass, our skull would simply be too heavy to carry it through the world on all fours; the cervical spine would not be able to withstand it. Humans have conquered the world on two legs, but at the price of problems in the knee and hip joints and the spine. In addition, even without medical care, humans get older than most other mammals on land, which leads to increased wear and tear on the joints. Around a third of the Austrian population suffers from arthritic joint damage over the course of their life. Our ancestors already suffered from this. Anthropologist Doris Pany-Kucera has also found such bone changes in skeletons from the Hallstatt period that are around 3,000 years old. Evolution has tried two-legged locomotion several times over the course of millions of years, always with the same result: the species is extinct. The dinosaur skeletons in the Natural History Museum are evidence of this.
Joint replacement – better than ever thanks to computers, robots and artificial intelligence
At least 40,000 endoprostheses, i.e. replacement joints, are implanted in Austria every year, which is more than 100 per day. This puts Austria in the top international field. Some experts are critical of this, especially since some of the operations do not produce satisfactory results for those affected. Medicine is therefore constantly working to improve surgical methods and materials. One of the most recent developments is a robotic arm that assists surgeons in the implantation of knee endoprostheses, enabling a level of accuracy that a human cannot achieve. For patients, this means faster mobilization, rapid relief from pain and greater durability of the joints. A team from “Stöckl live” was present at one of the first such operations in the Protestant hospital and accompanied the patient on a (long) walk a few days after the operation. But artificial joints in the spine, shoulder joints and ankle joints can now also be used much more successfully than before thanks to high technology. Chris Lohner, for example, has had two artificial hip and knee joints over the past few years. “Stöckl live” accompanied her to her first tennis lesson after her recent knee operation and in the studio, together with surgeon Thomas Müllner, she reported on her – quite mixed – experiences with the implantation of endoprostheses.
Joint killer rheumatism
Anyone who has ever seen the hands of people with rheumatoid arthritis can probably appreciate what rheumatism can do to joints. The autoimmune disease, the cause of which is not yet fully understood, can affect not only the finger joints, but almost all joints in the body. In “Stöckl live” two people affected talk about their lives with the disease: a Styrian woman whose life has been shaped by the disease for 40 years, and a young Lower Austrian who can no longer leave his bed because of his first attack of rheumatism at the age of just nine could. The two reports not only describe how to deal with the disease, but also show the advances in modern medicine and pharmacology. Joint destruction caused by rheumatism is no longer an inevitable fate; that is the good news for the approximately two million Austrians who suffer from one of the numerous forms of rheumatism.
Turning point – joint problems after menopause
Joint pain is one of the most common symptoms among women during menopause. Many suffer from pain in their finger joints, shoulders or knees. The cause is often a lack of estrogen. In addition to hereditary predisposition, this is also the main cause of the development of osteoporosis. Women can lose 40 percent of their internal bone in the ten years after menopause. The period of menopause is a critical turning point for female bone and joint health. However, very few women are aware of this. When the first symptoms appear, valuable time has already passed because osteoporosis develops very slowly. This gives those affected, like Johanna Coulin, the opportunity to do something about it. The diagnosis came as a complete surprise to her after her early menopause. In “Stöckl live”, osteoporosis specialist Lea Verner and gynecologist Claudia Oesterreicher explain what women can do to keep their bone density and thus their joints healthy for as long as possible.
Relief – losing weight for the joints
Overweight and obesity are becoming an increasingly serious health problem worldwide. In addition to the known risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, joint problems are also a common consequence. Because more weight means more stress on the joints, which can lead to pain, inflammation, increased wear and tear and long-term damage. Every additional kilo of body weight puts multiple strain on the knees and increases the risk of osteoarthritis and other degenerative joint diseases. This not only affects older people, but also younger generations. “Stöckl live” shows the story of a woman who was about to have gastric bypass surgery, but then lost around 60 kilos with exercise, a change in diet and mental support in order to remain mobile.