Sure it can hurt to work out, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop exercising if you feel a little pain. If you rest too long, you can get out of condition and start hurting more, warns a feature in the September issue of the Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.
So how do you know when it’s best to keep going because you’ve simply overused your muscles or better to stop because you have an injury? Follow these guidelines:
Exercise carefully if:
– Your muscles are sore and achy.
– Your doctor has examined you and given you the OK to exercise.
Don’t exercise if:
– There’s swelling around your joint and it’s red and warm.
– The joint pain worsens with exercise.
– You have a fever but not a specific illness.
– You can’t bear weight on a limb without pain that causes limping.
– Your joint motion feels blocked (as when your knee locks).
– The pain gets worse after exercise.
Body repair
If you’re relatively healthy, your body can regenerate some damaged parts, says David L. Slocum, a regenesis researcher and dean of the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. The tissues that regenerate best are the skin, arteries, brain, liver and lungs, Slocum says in the September issue of Men’s Health.
But it’s not enough to sit back and wait for it to happen. There are steps you can take to optimize your body’s repair station. Arteries, for example, can self-enlarge through angiogenesis. That won’t happen, though, if the cells in the blood vessels are blocked by cholesterol. The lesson: Keep your cholesterol low and stay active to keep the blood pumping.
Broken bones repair themselves through a healing response generated by living parts of the bone, says Dr. Sherwin S.W. Ho, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Chicago. To kick up the process, fill up with vitamin K through spinach, broccoli, avocados and tomatoes.
Drug guinea pigs
Those who take newly released prescription drugs may be serving as guinea pigs, says Dr. Jay S. Cohen, adjunct associate professor at the University of California at San Diego and the author of “Over Dose” (Penguin Putnam, $24.95), which examines unsafe prescription drug practices.
Though new drugs are run through clinical trials, one major study showed that 51 percent of all new drugs “have serious side effects that were not recognized prior to approval,” says Cohen in the September issue of More magazine. Most problems occur because the dosages are too high.
Women are particularly at risk for greater side effects, he says. Of the 11 drugs withdrawn by the FDA since 1997, eight had greater adverse effects in women; among them, Redux, an anti-obesity drug, and the antihistamine Seldane. Because dosages are based on what works for men, women often are prescribed too strong a dosage, especially arthritis drugs, antidepressants, painkillers, sleep medications and drugs for cholesterol and high blood pressure.
To prevent problems with drugs, ask your doctor to start you at the lowest possible dose and discuss adverse reactions you’ve had to other medications. In addition, seek out research on the drugs you’ve been prescribed at www.medicationsense.com.
Another specialist issuing warnings on prescription drugs is Dr. Marcia Angell, senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and author of the new book “The Truth About the Drug Companies” (Random House, $24.95). Speaking in the September issue of Glamour, Angell not only warns about side effects but also says new drugs often don’t work any better than the older, less costly medications available.
