Originally Posted by
John_V
I'm a few years older than the OP (1946) and put in a lot of annual miles (between 9,000 and 11,000) a year. Up until 2006 (at 60), I only had a GP which I saw once a year for a physical. That year, I was diagnosed with a chronic type of leukemia which now has me seeing an array of doctors for other parts of my body. Never had or even seen a cardiologist until last year and he's only treating me for my blood pressure. Every doc that I have has told me the same thing and that is not to stop riding. I too, have thought about other types of exercise in conjunction with cycling but their answers were almost the same.Their concern was more with the cardiovascular aspect that with anything else. Since we're all different and have different medical and physical issues, I can only speak for myself as to where I'm directing my fitness efforts. However, I think that at the OP's age, if my doctor told me that riding was working for me, I would definitely take my doctor's advise and stick with what works.
Along similar lines to the above (I am the OP in this thread, BTW) I also regularly see an orthopedic surgeon. I have osteoarthritis in both knees and need periodic hyaluronic acid injections to keep me going. Even considering that cycling is not an impact thing, you would not think that LOTS of riding would be good for such a condition. He is adamant that it is good for my knees. And that more is better (I assume that there is a point, but it apparently is not one that I have hit yet).
What is interesting here is that if you look at X-Rays of my knees, my left knee (which has been something of an issue all my life) looks like something that is a horrible mistake. Adjacent bones don't fit together properly, nothing is parallel, etc. My right knee does not look like a huge construction error. I get injections in both knees and my doc tells me that he has seen X-Rays like my left knee on folks who could not walk across a room.
I also wear a very expensive, custom knee brace and I could not do long rides without it. And (surprise, surprise) it is the 'good knee' (per the X-Ray) that needs the additional support of the brace. Don't need one on the 'construction disaster'. I still remember my first visit with the doc (2016) which he asked me twice to verify that it is the right knee that hurts.
I am guessing that this knee has been a mess since childhood and my body has found ways to compensate for that. The right knee degradation would be more recent. So I have a 'good bad knee' and a 'bad good knee'.
dave