Participants: Phil Mils, Don Mackintosh
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000037
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00:50 Hello and welcome to "Health for a Lifetime"
00:54 I'm your host Don Mackintosh, 00:56 and today we're delighted to have Dr. Phillip Mills 00:59 with us from Wichita, Kansas. 01:00 Dr. Mills is a specialist in physical medicine, 01:04 and today we're going to talk about joints... 01:07 the joints in the body. 01:09 Dr. Mills, what are the most common problems you see 01:13 dealing with joints? 01:14 Well actually, the MOST common problem... 01:16 Just about everybody sometime in their life has a problem 01:20 with the BACK joints, and yet because there are 01:25 various kinds of joint problems, a person might ask the 01:28 question, "Why did God give us 01:31 joints since we can have problems with joints?" 01:34 Actually, the question is not why we have so many problems 01:39 with joints, given the complexity of the body 01:43 and the joint, a better question would be... 01:45 "Why do we have so FEW problems with our joints?" 01:48 And every part of the joint is really quite interesting. 01:54 In fact, when you study the body 01:56 and I have a model of "Ernest" here... 02:00 Why do you call him "Ernest?" 02:02 Because when I'm studying him, I'm in dead earnest! 02:05 But when you look at the model of the body, 02:11 and you begin to discover the wisdom of the Creator, 02:16 every even bump on the bone tells an interesting story. 02:24 And many times, people think that their bones are just 02:27 sort of stationary; these are solid nothing changes. 02:31 But in actual fact, the bones of the body are constantly 02:35 being molded. 02:36 And if you look at the skeleton of somebody who is 02:40 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, 02:45 you can begin to see the story of their habitual 02:50 patterns of life, as well as some of the genetic aspects. 02:56 The joints are quite interesting. 03:00 If you want to have a lot of movement in a joint, 03:04 the problem with that, you can have a lot of 03:07 movement, but then you have difficulties with 03:10 stability of a joint. 03:12 On the other hand, if you need a stable joint, 03:16 then how do you have movement? 03:19 And God had to figure out ALL these problems. 03:22 And the result is this marvelous skeleton that He gave us 03:27 part of a human body. 03:29 Which one has the least amount 03:31 of stability, but the most movement? 03:32 The least amount of movement, I should say the least amount of 03:37 stability and greatest movement is in your shoulder. 03:39 And they probably have problems with that. 03:41 They do have a lot of problems with the shoulder, 03:43 although fewer than you would think. 03:45 It's VERY creative the way that God has done it, 03:48 but we'll look at some of those problems. 03:52 Another area that can develop problems for many people 03:55 is in the thumb. 03:57 This also has a great deal of movement. 03:59 The thumb is different from any other joint in the body. 04:03 And, in fact, your thumb is different from any other animal. 04:06 It's not only your brain that's different from the animals... 04:09 Even a monkey? It's different from any other primate. 04:11 You can do something that no other animal can do, 04:15 and that is, you have this type of pinch, that I'm doing here. 04:19 A monkey can do this maneuver, pinch like this, 04:22 but it cannot do this prehension pinch. 04:26 What do you call that? 04:28 The "prehension pinch. " Wow... Great! 04:34 Now, if you look at the elbow, 04:37 there's also some VERY interesting aspects of 04:40 movement of the elbow as well. 04:43 You look at the neck... 04:45 And here if you look at the neck you find that you have 04:50 greatest mobility up in the neck vertebrae. 04:56 They are also the smallest. 04:59 And so these are the weakest of your vertebral column. 05:03 If you look down at the very base of the back, 05:07 you find the biggest bones here. 05:10 You have the greatest strength, but you also have less movement. 05:15 So these are all part of this marvelous creation 05:20 of the vertebral column. 05:22 If you go down to the hip joints, 05:26 the hips are the equivalent in 05:29 the lower extremity of the shoulder. 05:31 However, because of the importance of stability, 05:34 they have much less movement than your shoulder joint, 05:37 but they also have much greater strength. 05:40 They kind of go in their little socket. Yes! 05:43 Then you come down to the knee and I think that the knee... 05:49 most interesting of all the joints. 05:52 And I'd like to tell you a little bit about the different 05:55 joints so that you can understand the knee. 05:56 If you look at the hinge of a door... 06:03 That is the type of joint in your fingers. 06:08 It can just go... You can move your fingers 06:12 down, up and down, no other movement... But not sideways. 06:17 You can't move the finger joints the proximal and distal 06:24 finger joints is what we call them... using a ten-dollar word. 06:28 You can't move them side ways in a normal joint. 06:31 You also have only 2 movements that is extension and flexion 06:39 in the knee. 06:40 However, the knee is not a hinged joint. 06:44 We use a big word for the knee joint. 06:47 It's called an "incongruous joint" 06:50 That is a big word, what does that mean? 06:51 Now, what is an incongruous joint? 06:53 If you look at the joint of the shoulder, 06:57 you find that the arm bone, 07:03 we call this the humerus bone, 07:06 goes into an area that is just designed for it. 07:11 If you look at the hip, it goes into a area, 07:15 a socket that's designed for it. 07:17 But in the knee joint, you have a joint that is 07:23 not exactly fitting; it doesn't fit. 07:27 It's called incongruous. 07:28 Is this the knee as well here? 07:31 This is another model of the knee, 07:34 and this has not just the bones, but it also has the ligaments, 07:43 and other aspects of the knee. 07:47 In fact, Don, if you would straighten you knee out, 07:50 you would see your toe tip in just a little bit. 07:56 What is happening is that the knee is not simply 08:01 going like a hinge up and down, 08:03 but it's actually locking into place... 08:06 And the way God designed the knee... is that at every 08:10 position, it has maximum surface area, 08:13 maximum stability, and he did that by inserting 08:17 between the bones, 2 meniscus that change shape 08:24 as your knee moves... 08:26 And so you have ALL the benefits of the congruous joint, 08:30 with ALL the benefits of an incongruous joint 08:33 because it's not simply bone on bone. 08:38 You're excited about this joint... 08:40 Is this the most exciting joint in the body to you? 08:42 Well it is right now, because just a week ago 08:45 we were climbing up in Rocky Mountain, 08:48 and my son, as we hit the summit, was struck by a 08:53 blast of wind up to approximately 90 miles an hour. 08:57 His foot was caught and it blew him over, 09:01 and tore his knee. 09:03 Now the reason that happens... 09:07 If the foot is fixed so that it cannot twist, 09:15 but your knee is bending, that's where you'll get 09:20 the meniscus caught, and other 09:23 aspects of the knee actually torn. 09:26 So it's very important if you're going to be moving 09:29 your knee back and forth, it's VERY important 09:32 for you to be able to have free mobility of the toes... 09:37 That's why a person should NEVER use cleats in sports 09:44 such as golf, baseball, or football 09:48 because the cleats keep the foot fixed. 09:52 And then when the knee is bending, it may not have 09:57 that little bit of play that's necessary, 10:00 and thus, the knee can become damaged. 10:03 So no cleats for even golf. 10:06 I wouldn't use anything that can fix my foot. 10:11 My son... he got into trouble because his foot 10:15 got caught in the rocks. 10:16 And that's where you get into knee problems. 10:19 If you can't move the foot while you're flexing the knee. 10:23 Are there any other joints on the body that people have 10:26 real problems with. 10:27 We talked about the vertebrae of the neck and of the back. 10:33 And we talked about the shoulder, 10:35 and we've talked about the knee, anything else? 10:38 Let me say a word about the shoulder. 10:40 If you look at my finger, you'll notice that it is 10:47 straight right now. 10:49 Now, if you look at the skin on the back of my finger 10:52 is there extra skin in play or is it just straight. 10:56 I hope that's not a trick question... It's not. 10:58 No, it looks like there's extra skin. 11:01 We call it redundant tissue. 11:02 Now if I bend my finger... 11:05 There goes the redundant tissue. 11:07 It stretches out and gets tight here, 11:09 but it's loose on this side. 11:13 Now in your shoulder, it has to move in many, many 11:17 different angles... 11:20 So that means the capsule has to 11:22 be able to allow for those movements... 11:25 That is... when I'm pulling it up, this would be called 11:30 abducting it, and that means it's being stretched underneath 11:36 and NOT on the top. 11:38 If I'm forward flexing it, it's being stretched from behind 11:43 but it's not from the front. 11:45 And so sometimes the capsule that covers the shoulder 11:50 can be contracted. 11:54 If I tightened up my skin muscle right here on my finger, 11:59 now I would have difficulty moving it, 12:03 and if that happens on your shoulder... 12:06 we call it a frozen shoulder, 12:08 and so then you have difficulty moving the shoulder. 12:11 So what can cause that? 12:13 What can cause a frozen shoulder ... That's kind of hard to say! 12:16 Well, there are several things that can cause it... 12:19 One, is just not using it sufficiently. 12:22 And in our society, we tend not to use our joints. 12:26 Every joint, every day, should have MANY times 12:31 the opportunity to go through its entire range of motion... 12:35 And because we DON'T do that, we try to avoid work 12:41 with our labor-saving devices... 12:42 We injure our joints because we don't put them through a 12:48 total range of motion. 12:49 So in our plan for our joint health, we should take 12:54 systematically, every joint of the body, every day, 12:57 and at least a couple of times, make sure they've gone through 13:00 EVERY range of motion in the shoulder... 13:03 That means putting them forward ALL the way to the top... 13:08 That means in the back, all the way to the back. 13:11 That means out to the side as far as you can UP 13:15 and that means out to the front as far as you can. 13:19 That means rotating them backward as far as you can, 13:23 and rotating this way as far as far as you can down, 13:26 internal rotation. 13:28 And so we need to go through ALL of those ranges of motion 13:31 in every joint if we want good joint health. 13:35 and protection of our joints. 13:37 Okay, so we've talked about the shoulder; 13:39 we've talked about the back; 13:40 we've talked about the neck; 13:42 and we've talked about the knee. 13:44 When we come back, I hope that you can share with us 13:48 some ways to keep those joints healthy... 13:50 you've started to talk about that already. 13:52 And, maybe we can have some practical pointers 13:55 on what to do to keep them in 13:56 optimal health that lasts for a lifetime! 13:59 We're glad that you've joined us. 14:00 We're talking to Dr. Phillip Mills 14:02 from Wichita, Kansas. 14:03 He's a specialist concerning the joints in physical medicine. 14:08 And when we come back, we'll learn more practical ways 14:11 to keep them in optimal health! 14:25 Have you found yourself wishing that you could shed a few pounds 14:28 Have you been on a diet for most of your life, 14:30 but not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 14:34 If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, 14:36 then we have a solution for you that works! 14:39 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 14:42 have written a marvelous booklet called... 14:44 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 14:46 and we'd like to send it to you FREE of charge. 14:49 Here's a medically sound approach successfully 14:52 used by thousands who are able to eat more, 14:54 and lose weight permanently without feeling guilty or hungry 14:58 through lifestyle medicine. 15:00 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been featured on 3ABN 15:03 and in this booklet, they present a sensible approach 15:06 to eating, nutrition, and lifestyle changes 15:09 that can help you prevent heart disease, diabetes, 15:11 and EVEN cancer. 15:13 Call or write today for your free copy of... 15:15 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 15:16 and you could be on your way to a healthier, happier YOU! 15:20 It's absolutely free of charge, so call or write today! 15:37 Welcome back, we've been talking with Dr. Phillip Mills 15:41 from Wichita, Kansas. 15:42 He's a specialist in physical medicine. 15:45 He's been talking with us today about JOINTS... 15:48 about how to keep them in health... 15:50 what to DO with them, what NOT to do with them, 15:53 and if you were with us during the first part of the program, 15:56 we had an anatomy lesson, 15:58 and a physiology lesson about how these things work. 16:01 And it's really wonderful to see how the Lord has designed 16:04 our bodies. 16:05 But Dr. Mills, I have some questions for you... 16:06 Let's just go through your skeleton again, 16:08 and I want to ask you some questions; 16:10 maybe we can just go back and forth. 16:12 When you're looking down here at the fingers, 16:14 what happens if, for instance, your finger locks up? 16:17 I've heard of people having their fingers lock up. 16:19 It's a common problem, Don, and we call it trigger finger... 16:23 and, often, if you feel in the palm of the person's hand, 16:28 you can feel a little nodule. 16:30 You see, joints don't exist independent of muscles, 16:34 and ligaments, and there are little pulleys... 16:36 the ligaments that go from the muscles into the fingers 16:39 and they run through protective tubes. 16:42 Now if this pulley, because a person has been using it 16:46 repeatedly... it get's a little irritated, it may develop 16:51 a swelling, and so it pops into that tube, and then it pops out, 16:57 and in that process, we call that a "trigger finger. " 17:01 The first thing you do is quit using that joint until 17:07 the swelling goes down. 17:08 And how do you know when that swelling is down? 17:10 Well, it will start working again. 17:12 But you do not want to exercise through that 17:15 because that will just make the swelling and problem worse. 17:19 If just stopping exercise though... 17:24 rest doesn't solve the problem. 17:26 Then you have a little injection of cortisone into that pulley. 17:33 And if that doesn't alleviate the problem, 17:37 in some cases there may need to be actually 17:41 a surgical procedure to take care of that nodule. 17:44 What's that called? Surgery... Surgery, okay. 17:49 Not a special name for that though... 17:50 Well yes, they have special names for everything. 17:53 But the point of it is, it is in virtually all cases, 17:58 a fixable problem, either by rest, by injection, 18:03 or by a surgical procedure. 18:05 What's carpal tunnel syndrome? 18:07 Carpal tunnel is not really part of the joint. 18:10 It is where the median nerve 18:13 is pinched there in the wrist. 18:17 But that's another whole topic. 18:20 All right, what about... moving up here... 18:21 What about elbow? 18:22 I might sound naive, but is 18:25 tennis elbow a problem you deal with? 18:26 The most common problem in the elbow is actually tennis elbow. 18:31 And tennis elbow is a degenerative type or 18:35 wear-and- tear kind of problem with the muscle insertion 18:41 into the bone... So where the muscle hooks into bone. 18:44 Yes, we call it a... we like those ten-dollar words. 18:48 "The Enthesitis" 18:49 "Enthesitis" Yes, but all it means is 18:52 there is a problem where the muscle becomes a tendon 18:56 and then hooks into the bone... 18:58 and it begins to pull away slightly. 19:01 And that's where the pain comes from; but it's not 19:03 really a joint problem then, is it? 19:05 Well, it's around the joint, and what you find is 19:08 that it may come on with a person that's 19:11 squeezing out a mop. 19:13 He may not be used to this, 19:15 or he may be doing it all the time, squeezing out a mop, 19:18 or squeezing out a dish rag, or screwing in a screw. 19:27 OR, it does happen with people playing tennis, 19:30 where they're gripping... they have the tight grip. 19:36 I've seen it also with surgeons that are having to have a 19:40 tight grip on instruments. 19:43 But the problem is the muscle is slightly pulling away. 19:47 So how do you treat it? What do you do for it? 19:48 Well, first there are a lot of different treatments for it, 19:52 and that means that none of the treatments are ideal. 19:54 The prevention is to be in just general better health, 19:58 and avoid the degenerative problems. 20:01 But the first thing that many do, and that I do 20:04 is I'll rest it for a very short time, 20:07 and then once it's pain-free, 20:10 then I try to get it in condition by appropriate 20:13 exercises through physical therapy. 20:16 And then, you go from there if 20:18 those simple treatments don't work. 20:20 Let's move up here next to the shoulder. 20:23 If you have a frozen shoulder, 20:24 and that's probably the only 20:25 thing that we'll talk about today. 20:28 But a frozen shoulder where your shoulder is pain-free, 20:34 except when you move it, and you move it into a 20:37 certain position, and then you have real pain... 20:40 And then as soon as you quit moving it, 20:43 the pain goes away. 20:45 Often that is frozen shoulder, and that is treated 20:52 very aggressively. 20:54 It can be cured by, surprisingly, stretching. 20:59 Now, a person does not hurt themselves. 21:02 If this hurts for an individual to move their arm 21:07 in this position, they won't do it. 21:09 And so, you have to have a therapist who really 21:12 understands, and a physician who will order it, 21:15 not once or twice, or even three times a week, 21:17 it needs to be EVERY DAY for a couple of weeks, 21:20 and within 2 weeks, you'll feel some significant improvement, 21:26 if it's truly a frozen shoulder, 21:27 and then you can go to a less vigorous treatment. 21:29 So what do you do? How do they move that shoulder? 21:31 And it's the physical therapist that does that, I assume. 21:34 Yes, you have to have somebody else do it because 21:37 you won't tolerate the pain yourself... 21:39 How do they move it, up and down anyplace? 21:41 Well, there are some specific important exercises... 21:47 Not something you should try and do on your own... 21:48 No... this is something that you have your physician 21:51 send you to a physical therapist and the physical therapist 21:54 stretches it out, and again they may even have to be 21:57 stretching out those adhesions that we talked about earlier 22:00 that may be present, and stretch the capsule, 22:04 and within a short time, you may have much improved 22:09 range of motion and much LESS pain. 22:12 So don't just give up on it, make sure and take care of it. 22:14 It can be treated, and it can be treated very effectively. 22:18 What about down here, we talked about the knee... 22:20 Well in the knee, the important part to remember about the knee 22:27 is that you not only need to have good strong ligament, 22:33 but you also need to have muscles that are strong 22:38 and not only on the top; we call those the "quads," 22:41 but also on the bottom; the hamstring muscles. 22:44 Both of those need to be in balance, 22:47 and in a good exercise program 22:49 where if you're having knee problems, 22:51 and you have an exercise program, 22:53 it is important for you NOT to just exercise one or the other, 22:57 but both of them need to be exercised and strong. 23:00 So by walking, by jogging... 23:01 Is there any harm in jogging, running... what should we do? 23:04 In a person who is otherwise healthy, under 40, 23:08 and has no arthritic problems, jogging is an EXCELLENT exercise 23:13 If a person is over 40 and doesn't have any 23:19 arthritic-type of problems, jogging may be 23:22 a good exercise program for them. 23:25 But walking is safe for everybody. 23:27 And so I can, without hesitation recommend a walking program. 23:31 Now many people are concerned that in jogging, 23:34 you're going to put stress on your knee. 23:36 But as long as a person is not fatigued when they're running... 23:40 In fact, you are hitting without the knee being extended, 23:47 you're hitting in a slightly bent position, 23:49 and the forces bypass the knee. 23:52 So it's not really affecting the knee at all 23:55 unless you're very tired, 23:56 and how do you know if you're very tired? 23:57 If you're fatigued, if you begin to start striking 24:01 with the knee extended, and that's horrible, 24:03 and you shouldn't be jogging in that case. 24:06 And if a person has an underlying arthritic problem, 24:10 they may need to avoid the jogging as well. 24:13 In the case of an arthritic problem, 24:15 a severe arthritic problem, 24:17 If they still need to exercise, 24:21 and in that case, they may need to exercise in a pool, 24:25 aquatic-type exercise. 24:26 The other thing that they can do is to use a cane 24:31 on the opposite side of the knee or hip problem. 24:38 So don't use the crutch or the cane on that side, 24:40 and maybe not a crutch at all on the OPPOSITE SIDE. YES! 24:43 And a physical therapist can get the cane at the 24:46 proper length, and can also 24:48 instruct in a proper walking style. 24:53 These have been very helpful tips, but I don't want you to 24:56 leave without addressing another thing. 24:58 I know that you're a physician and one of the reasons 25:02 you're a physician is because Christ is a physician. 25:05 What lessons have your learned in studying the bones, 25:08 and helping people with these joint types of problem? 25:11 What spiritual lessons can you share with us as we close out? 25:15 The first lesson is that we have a WONDERFUL Creator! 25:19 We are fearfully and wonderfully made... 25:21 And the more I study, the more I am impressed with how He... 25:27 every time I move my joint, I can be grateful to a God 25:33 who was so thoughtful to design it in such a useful way to me. 25:39 There's another lesson that I've learned, and it's found in 25:45 Galatians 6:1, and it says this... 25:53 Paul says, "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, 25:59 you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of 26:04 gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted. " 26:10 Now that word, "restore" actually means 26:14 to put it back in joint. 26:16 It's the orthopedic word in Greek for putting it in 26:21 proper position, reducing it. 26:26 If a person comes into the emergency room, 26:29 and he has just injured his shoulder. 26:34 Let's say it's been pulled out of joint. 26:36 No one stands around and criticizes that man, 26:40 and says, "Well you made your bed, you better go walk in it. " 26:43 What they do is immediately come to his aid, 26:46 and do for him what the person isn't able to do for himself. 26:50 They try to restore that joint. 26:52 And all around us, we see people who are out of joint. 26:56 ...Out of relationship with God and with their fellow man, 27:00 and our job is to be spiritual orthopedists 27:05 whatever our profession, and restore these people 27:08 as Paul says, "in a spirit of gentleness considering 27:13 yourself lest you also be tempted. " 27:15 What a practical lesson, and a spiritual lesson, 27:18 and I would like to hear more stories about patients 27:22 who you've been able to help in those situations. 27:26 We're thankful that you've joined us today. 27:28 We've been talking with Dr. Phillip Mills 27:30 from Wichita, Kansas. 27:32 He is a specialist in physical medicine, 27:36 and we've been talking about joint pain. 27:38 We've been talking about the things that many of us 27:40 will experience some time in our life. 27:42 We hope that as a result of today's program, 27:46 you've found information that can help you not only protect 27:51 these valuable assets, your joints, 27:53 but also can help you assist others in a 27:55 spirit of gentleness, so that YOU and THEY 27:58 can have health that lasts for a lifetime! |
Revised 2014-12-17