There are two systems in our body which can totally throw us out of balance, and seriously affect our independence and quality of life. These are:
- Our heart
- Our knee joints
Statistically speaking, with a good healthy lifestyle, these two systems, our heart and knee joints are most important in maintaining our independence.
On the contrary these will have the most serious consequences to our health if anything goes wrong with them.
Heart: We use a term called ejection fraction (EF) which measures how well your heart is functioning/working. It shows how much blood your heart is ejecting or pumping out with each contraction.
For a healthy person, the ejection fraction is generally between 55% and 70%. EF of 70% means your heart is pumping out 70% of your blood with each heartbeat.
On the other hand, a low ejection fraction or low EF indicates that your heart is not functioning well. If at any time, it falls to 30% for any reason then you have a very high risk of heart failure or dying.
If your ejection fractions were to fall to 30%, then maybe you can sit in a chair and win a Nobel Prize, but you cannot walk from one room to another room without having oxygen cylinder attached to you.
The answer to this is the latest medical technology in cardiothoracic surgery. There are several kinds of diagnostic tests available today like cardiac catheterization, nuclear cardiology imaging, echocardiogram (or heart ultrasound), CT scan, MRI, and more.
Please read our book ‘3 Main Heart Tests to Add 30 More Years to Life’. It is available as e-book, audio book and video book in English, Hindi, and other Indian languages.
Knee joint: No other joint is as vulnerable as the knee joint because it constantly takes our weight everyday morning to evening, and it is a most complex and a most shallow joint in our body.
Our hip joints are very deep and well protected, and our shoulders do not take any weight as we walk on our feet, unlike animals in this world which use all four limbs to walk on.
You just have to talk to your parents and your grandparents, and it will become very obvious to you that the knees become more prone to arthritis as you gain years in our life, and if you do not take good care of our knees then you may have a difficult time getting up, sitting down, going up the stairs or going out with the family.
It happens so slowly that before you know about it, it seriously starts affecting your lifestyle.Believe it or not, you do not want to let your family members kind of drag you and you do not want to slow down your family members when going out to mall or for a movie or for a long outing.
I can say that, if pain in the knees comes to a point where you are not able to walk up and down the stairs and you pretty much end up staying at home then your lifespan may cut down to less than one to two years.
The answer is not to sit down.
The answer is to exercise your knees, do physiotherapy and pain management, and if required total knee replacement also.
Or, you will have a lifespan of just one to two years due to lack of mobility.
