Originally Posted by
DaveLeeNC
I am hardly new to BF, but new to this thread (DOB 1949). I am posting this in the category of "how I dealt with some cycling specific, age related pains" (in case it is helpful to others). For reference I ride anywhere from 120 to 240 miles per week (roadie, but not a racer).
1) I have osteoarthritis in both knees, although the left knee is far worse on X-Ray/MRI. Oddly it is the right knee that back in 2016 started to ache about an hour into a long ride. I ended up with one of those high end lateral stability braces (complicated plastic and metal with hinges, etc). And I started getting hyaluronic acid injections (once every 6 to 12 months). I am pretty close to knee pain free when I ride (and I now get injections in both knees). My ortho doc is adamant about me keeping my activity level up, but not running on hard surfaces. He also said that he has seen X-Rays not as bad as my left knee (the less problematic one in my case) who literally could not walk up stairs. You never know about this stuff. He also said that hyaluronic acid has, in his experience, a success rate of around 60%.
2) I was getting a relatively severe pain in my right wrist, to the point that after an hour of riding I had trouble shifting. I could not believe this worked, but this went away completely when I changed to riding gloves with really good padding and got off my Gatorskin tires and dropped my air pressure a bit (unfortunately 23/25 mm is all the room I have in my bike).
In case this helps anyone.
dave
Dave, glad you wrote that. We are about the same age. I was also born in 1949. I had arthroscopic on my right knee about 30 years ago. Basically I've got about 1/3 of the cartilage left in that knee. All these years I've babyed that knee, never running due to the "pounding" that produces. I alway keep the exercise to a Nordictrack or rowing machine or simply doing squat type exercise for the legs. That knee has given me problems off and on for years. So far a hydrocortisone injection keeps thing nice for several months. Thing is you can't have those every month as it would end up causing more damage if done too frequently. I've always wondered if hyaluronic acid would help. Unlike cortisone, repeated injections won't further degrade things. Problems are now starting to show up in my left knee as well. Gettin' old ain't for sissies.
Also I'd like to add something that I'm experimenting with on myself now. I started taking low dose lovastatin (10 mg) about a year ago. About 2 or 3 months later I noticed my knee (even my left one to a lesser degree) were significantly more achy which progressed to down right painful. At the time I thought they (knees) were simply getting worse due to more use and the resulting wear and tare of time. I've long suspected that the lovastatin was adding to the pain problem. Not necessarily the root cause but significantly exacerbating it. About 6 weeks ago I stopped taking lovastatin. About 3 weeks after stopping the lovastatin the knees felt significantly better. Not like when I was 20 but significantly better. Thing is I don't know if stopping the lovastatin and the knees feeling better was/is "cause and effect" or coincidence. So, as part of the experiment, I'm going to go back on the lovastatin. If the more severe pain comes back, I don't think that would be coincidence. But then if the more severe pain comes back then I'm in a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" situation!