It seems like Drinking wine causes my severely arthritic knees to be more painful.
I am an 83 year old Tennis player with severely arthritic knees.
I play practice singles Tennis for 1 hour or doubles tennis for 1.5 hours 3 or 4 times a week @ the North Shore Racquet Club in Northbrook, Il.
MY ACHING KNEES PRODUCE THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMS:
1. I have to sit down after 2 games of Tennis and rest for a few minutes.
2. I cannot standup more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time before I start looking for a chair.
3. When I go into a store (like Costco), and walk to the end of the store, I cannot wait to walk back to the beginning, so I can rest in a chair.
4. Sleeping @ bedtime is quite difficult.
Every 20 minutes I have to change sleeping positions, because my knees are paining me.
I feel like I am 150 years old when I get out of bed in the
morning.
5. I feel like I am 150 years old when I get out of a chair that I was sitting in for an hour.
6. I have a lot of knee pain when I walk up and down the stairs.
7. I cannot walk more than a block before I have to sit down.
I told my orthopedic doctor that I need a knee replacement on both knees. He finally agreed after I told him about the 7 knee problems above. I would have the right knee replacement in June. The left knee replaced approximately 3 months later.
I had been drinking two 10 ounce glasses of wine each day for years. That’s five standard 4 ounce glasses of wine. I decided to reduce my wine intake by one glass of wine. That means that I am now drinking 2 1/2 standard 4 ounce glasses of wine. I made this change, 3 days prior to playing doubles tennis 6:30 through 8:00 am on thanksgiving day Nov 24, 2011.
I discovered that I could play Tennis for 1 set (consists of a minimum of 6 games & a typical maximum of 12 games) instead of 2 games, before sitting down for a few minutes. I also was able to play the second set without sitting down after 2 games.
My knee pain had decreasesed approximately between 85 and 90%.
I came to the conclusion that decreasing my wine intake from two glasses to one glass of wine did the trick.
I stopped drinking wine on thanksgiving day. I have substituted 2 % , reduced fat milk for wine. I pour one cup of milk into my wine glass and then add an ice cube (Now I have a healthy white wine).
I played doubles Tennis, Fri 11/25/11 and Mon 11/28/11, 6:30>8:00 am, and was able to play each set without sitting down for a rest after two games.
I played practice singles Tennis for one hour on Tues 11/29/11 and I was able to play the entire hour (6:30>7:30 am) without sitting down. I believe my pain reduction has now increased from [85 to 90%] to approximately 90%.
I will continue not drinking wine or beer to see if I can reduce my remaining 10% of pain to 5% or less.
All the 7 items under MY ACHING KNEES PRODUCE THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMS: have been eliminated by the 90% pain reduction.
I believe my arthritic knees were the result of jogging 1.6 miles/day on hard streets for 26 years.
I stopped jogging and started to workout on the Treadmill machine but that also caused knee pain. I then worked out on the Elliptical Trainer machine which was supposed to eliminate impact on the knees, but that also caused knee pain,.
I now started exercising @ 3:30 am in the morning, using 10 lb weights and stretching and massaging exercises including the Health rider machine which does not cause knee problems.
I take 15 mg of Mobic (anti-inflammatory prescription drug) and Prilosec (anti-acid drug to prevent ulcers from forming from mobic).
I take 18 vitamins/day.
I diet Sunday thru Thursday.
1. I have a bowl full of various fruits & cottage cheese Monday through Thursday @ 10:00 am in the morning.
2. I have a bowl full of various vegetables Monday & Wednesday @ 10:00 am in the morning.
3. I have a bowl full of cheerios and 2% milk, Tues and Thursday, @ 10:00 am in the morning.
4. I have two handfuls of Almonds & two cups of 2% reduced fat milk (in a wine glass with an ice cube), Monday thru Thursday, @ 4:00 pm in the evening.
I eat what ever I want on Friday & Saturday, parties or special events.
Sandy Hanberg
Saving 
