Start Doing This Today to Keep Your Hip Healthy for the Long Haul

Surgical hip replacement is a standard procedure. While it can improve your quality of life and mobility after hip damage or wear-and-tear, wouldn’t it be better for your hips to stay healthy as you age?

At Twin Palm Orthopedics, we can help you replace worn or damaged hips and provide strategies, tips, and tricks to keep your hip joints moving smoothly. Dr. Derek Farr and the team at our Ocala, Florida, location have the orthopedic expertise you can rely on for hip health!

Keeping your hips healthy

Your hip joints take a lot of wear-and-tear over your life. To keep your hips healthy as you age, reduce the stress and pressure you put on this crucial part of your body, and strengthen the muscles that support it.

Diet and weight

One way to do that is to maintain a healthy weight. Every added pound of unnecessary weight puts more pressure on your lower body joints. 

You may need to make dietary or lifestyle changes to encourage healthy weight loss and take pressure off your hips, especially if you’re noticing the signs of problems like arthritis in your hip joints.

Changing your diet can also help your hip health in other ways. For example, did you know you rely on Vitamin C for collagen formation? Collagen protects and cushions your joints. 

Getting plenty of calcium in your diet also supports your bone health. And if you’re dealing with inflammatory issues, anti-inflammatory foods like dark leafy greens can reduce inflammation in your body.

Exercise and strength-building

While exercise is essential to maintaining long-term hip health, how you get and stay active makes a difference. You don’t want to over-stress your hip joints and end up with an injury or worsened pain and dysfunction.

When you work out for hip health, focus on stretching before and after activity. Build core strength to protect yourself from falls. If you’re concerned about hip pain, choose low-impact exercise like swimming.

With the proper steps, you can keep your hips healthy for years.

When you experience hip dysfunction

Sometimes, hip pain or dysfunction is an unavoidable reality. At that point, you need to shift your strategy.

Where your hips are concerned, listening to your body’s needs and the information your body gives you in the form of pain or dysfunction is vital. If exercise is painful, don’t keep pushing forward. And, if you notice that your hips don’t work as smoothly as they used to, contact our team.

At Twin Palm Orthopedics, we help you revise your plan for keeping your hips healthy and functional as you age. We suggest exercises, lifestyle changes, or physical therapy to help your hips.

And if degeneration and dysfunction restrict your motion and comfort, you have surgical options to keep you active, independent, and pain-free.

To learn more about life-long hip health, contact Dr. Farr and the team at Twin Palm Orthopedics online or over the phone and schedule your appointment today.