By Christopher Arnone
Borough resident John Petrillo, who said he likes to play Bingo in Bayside, is one among scores of seniors who suffer from joint pain. “My joints are getting all stiff,” Petrillo said, adding he also has chronic back pain. “The older you get the worse you get,” he said. Petrillo said he has tried five or six different medications, but “it wasn't doing anything.” His pain gets so bad, he said, he can't exercise.Flushing resident Annabella, in her 50s, who wanted to be identified by her first name only, agreed, saying “it's harder in the winter.” However, the cold weather and joint pain has “not stopped” but “may impede” her exercising, she said, as she jogged around the Kissena Park lake. Annabella said, “I exercise everyday and take fluids.”Taking fluids, say doctors, is a very important ingredient in avoiding joint pain.Dr. Alex Kaminsky, a chiropractor at Daytop Chiropractic in Forest Hills, said the “body is 80 percent water” and in the winter the body is not as lubricated because the “cold dries people out.”Kaminsky said the older the person is, the greater the risk of joint pain, thus making joint pain in the winter “inevitable.” Kaminsky calls it a “vicious cycle” when elderly people start to experience joint pain and as a result move less, become immobile, and eventually have their joints stiffen up.Although Kaminsky said he doesn't normally recommend medication, he does encourage the elderly to drink lots of fluids and to “get healthy, get fit.” Kaminsky said people think they should drink extra fluids in the summer only, but that's a big mistake. They need to “lubricate the body” in the winter, too, he said, so “don't neglect your fluids.”Dr. Ezra Sharon, a general physician also at Forest Hills, warns patients to only seek medical attention if the joints “swell and become too painful to move.” Sharon recommends some medications and tells his patients to stay warm and exercise, another important way to deal with joint pain.”I alternate swimming, cardio and walking,” Annabella said. “This way it's not a constant attack on your joints.” Annabella does yoga and advises people to “do a lot of stretching so your joints don't hurt as much.” She also takes glucosamine and chondroitin, two dietary supplements used in the treatment of arthritis. These supplements help rebuild lost cartilage around the joints, which is what starts joint pain.For some, the aches strike late. Douglaston resident Ray Belfiore, 87, said he “never had joint pain.” Belfiore goes to the gym and walks on the treadmill and has lifted weights for over 20 years now. However, he recently had a setback when he was walking on the treadmill and said he felt like “somebody shot me in the knee.”He had sprained his knee and his doctor said it may be due to arthritis, Belfiore said. “I didn't even know I had arthritis.”So how can one deal with and avoid aching joints? Suggestions for short term relief from joint pain include taking pain relievers like Tylenol, maintaining a healthy diet, drinking lots of fluids, sleeping eight to 10 hours every night, talking to physical therapists about heat or cold to stem the pain, and exercising routinely.As Sharon said, “If you walk everyday, you will live a long life.”
