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It's laziness! What it is is that a lot of U.S. Americans are obese. They are overweight and this weight puts pressure on their knees. Because of this, climbing stairs is a challenge for many. A lot of people don't like to walk. They don't want to do any exercises and with muscle/bones, you use it or you lose it. When I don't go walking for days and sit down a lot, I feel it. I wonder...what did I do to feel this way. Answer: You haven't been exercising. Even now...what am I doing? I'm sitting on my a** typing on city data forum when I could be out exercising. I haven't done much all day and should be exercising but instead I'm choosing to procrastinate. Thank you for this article. I will go exercise now.
Planning for a secure, safe living space as one ages is hardly being lazy. On the contrary, it's an intentional, well-crafted decision as we transition from one stage of life to another.
You are, obviously, uninformed about what causes joints, knees and muscles to weaken over time, and you have, clearly, not read through this thread. Your post comes off as arrogant and self-righteous.
I'll admit I didn't read all 13 pages of this thread, but thought I'd share anyway. My mother's in her 60s and had been having a lot of pain in her right knee for over a year while living in a place she didn't have to manage stairs. Going up and down stairs was painful, so she avoided it. Then she moved into this three-story house with me, and within a month her knee pain was 90% gone.
Also, I'm only 30, but had been having some stiffness in my knees before I moved here (again had been living in a place without regular stairs). That vanished and I also lost 15lbs just from going up and down so many flights of stairs every day. Stairs are awesome.
I don't know a single person who has had a knee replacement in their 40s or 50s. Much less a hip replacement. I have a colleague who used to play semi professional sports and is having knee surgery at 61. But that is me.
Well, lucky you to have such resplendently healthy friends and acquaintances! In my family, however, bad knees runs on the female side: my niece had one knee replaced at age 50; my sister had both replaced in her 60s, and my late Mom had one knee replaced at age 89m which subsequently led to her sliding into dementia and then Alzheimers. I began having trouble with me knees at age 32 due to Cushing's disease, which weakens the joints, and have developed arthritis in both knees as well since then. However, I have not had any replacement and do not intend to do so. I am able to live alone and maintain my extensive garden largely because I have a one story house. I know that stairs puts unbelievable strain on my knees - they crack and grind audibly. I hope to live in my house at least until it is over 100 and I am over 80, which is only another decade off. One story living may indeed make that future possible.
One person's experience proves nothing, but here is mine anyway:
Early 50's. Out of town with no bicycle. So I did some jogging instead. One knee was hurting after about 10 minutes on day one, so I stopped jogging and walked. But I just kept on jogging, every other day, pushing gently into the pain, then stopping (no heroics). Sure enough, after four or five days there was no more knee pain! It was a question of use it or lose it.
Fast forward a decade or so. Had let things go. Same experience: knee pain went away after a week or two of continuing to jog. It was a question of use it or lose it.
Two years ago, age 71. Had let things go once again. Walked four miles to an art house cinema, which I had been in the habit of doing. Watched the film. Started for home, and one knee was painful. Took a bus most of the way home. It was really bad. But the next day, there was no trouble with the knee! I had simply pushed beyond what I was used to. Still planning to work up gradually to walking to that cinema then walking home after seeing the film. I normally walk, quite briskly, a mile or two each day - now I need to increase the distance.
Use it or lose it. I live in a townhouse on four levels. Glad of it. I take stairs in public whenever possible.
I have no issues with older people thinking about "aging in place." I only find it strange when healthy 20- and 30-somethings, who typically are not yet living in their "forever home," have such a strong antipathy to stairs.
Some of the responses in the last few pages seem to be nudging us toward the conclusion that since injury or illness can strike at any age, no smart person would ever, under any circumstances, live in anything but a single-story, handicapped-accessible building.
However, the new construction in my area consists mainly of thousands of two- and three-story apartments, condos and townhouses. Young people in the LA metro area had either be prepared to climb some stairs, or have extremely fat wallets to buy or rent a single-story residence.
One person's experience proves nothing, but here is mine anyway:
Early 50's. Out of town with no bicycle. So I did some jogging instead. One knee was hurting after about 10 minutes on day one, so I stopped jogging and walked. But I just kept on jogging, every other day, pushing gently into the pain, then stopping (no heroics). Sure enough, after four or five days there was no more knee pain! It was a question of use it or lose it.
Fast forward a decade or so. Had let things go. Same experience: knee pain went away after a week or two of continuing to jog. It was a question of use it or lose it.
Two years ago, age 71. Had let things go once again. Walked four miles to an art house cinema, which I had been in the habit of doing. Watched the film. Started for home, and one knee was painful. Took a bus most of the way home. It was really bad. But the next day, there was no trouble with the knee! I had simply pushed beyond what I was used to. Still planning to work up gradually to walking to that cinema then walking home after seeing the film. I normally walk, quite briskly, a mile or two each day - now I need to increase the distance.
Use it or lose it. I live in a townhouse on four levels. Glad of it. I take stairs in public whenever possible.
Maybe you underestimate people. Do you think everyone gives up after the first twinge and stops walking and buys a one story? No, most keep trying...then maybe go to a doctor to find a remedy. Sometimes that is to keep trying or go to physical therapy but not for others.
I'm just trying to picture a 4 story house with 3700 sq ft, that must be a house with a small, narrow footprint bc our home is 3700 with two stories and it's not overwhelmingly large
A four level home, has lots of foot print. It is not a small 3 story home with a basement as you apparently imagine. There is a garden level with a large family room, and a small veranda off of it, with large bedroom suite above it with a luxury bath, and a balcony. The center part (Main Floor) all one story in the living room area with soaring window wall going up 25 feet, an open plan kitchen, dining area and family room combo, plus a 1/2 bath, and a small office area off the entry. It also houses the stair configuration to the other 3 floors. The 4th level has 2 bedrooms and a full bath, plus our large media room along with a loft, that looks over the living room on one side, and the entry way on the other where we keep our exercise equipment. You can use the treadmill and other equipment, while looking out over the Rockies in the distance.
The home is very contemporary in design, and stands out more than any other home in our town. People ask where we live, and when we tell them they all seem to say the same thing, "I always wondered who owned that home". Out in the hills around our area, there are some very huge homes/mansions, many of them being summer/vacation homes for well known A-list people, that make this house look like just a small everyday house.
Exploring the psychological dimensions of this issue:
Over the years there have been a number of discussions in the Retirement Forum about stairs and one-level versus multi-level houses and condos. Not surprisingly, this new thread in the Health Forum reprises many if not most of the points which I remember being made in the Retirement Forum.
One's attitude toward certain things and one's self-image play an important role in these discussions. I have always been puzzled by how ready many folks seem to be to acquiese in being disabled, to plan for it well in advance even though not everybody becomes disabled, as if they KNOW they will become disabled.
Yes, I am aware that I could be in an accident and be disabled before the sun comes up tomorrow morning. I had an uncle who was in an automobile accident when he was in his forties; he never walked again and was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
I believe that most of us have a self-image which is quite deeply engrained. My self-imagine is (among many, many other things) of a person who can go up and down stairs without giving it a second thought. If I couldn't go up and down stairs, my life would be over, in a certain sense. I just can't imagine myself being disabled to that severe extent. I don't mean that there would no longer be any sources of pleasure in life, but that it would be a totally different life and I would have to become a totally different person.
Given my attitude as described in the previous paragraph, my approach to the whole stairs debate follows a predictable course. I regret that there has been so much nastiness in this thread. There is nothing wrong with living in a one-level house. I bought a four-level house (counting the garage) as a retirement home 16 years ago at age 57 without even being conscious of the existence of an issue regarding stairs. It was just a place that suited me, at the right price at that time. I was not ruling out a one-level house - it just didn't occur to me to consider such a thing as the number of levels. And now, at age 73, I don't think I made a mistake.
We all have different points of view, different perspectives.
A four level home, has lots of foot print. It is not a small 3 story home with a basement as you apparently imagine. There is a garden level with a large family room, and a small veranda off of it, with large bedroom suite above it with a luxury bath, and a balcony. The center part (Main Floor) all one story in the living room area with soaring window wall going up 25 feet, an open plan kitchen, dining area and family room combo, plus a 1/2 bath, and a small office area off the entry. It also houses the stair configuration to the other 3 floors. The 4th level has 2 bedrooms and a full bath, plus our large media room along with a loft, that looks over the living room on one side, and the entry way on the other where we keep our exercise equipment. You can use the treadmill and other equipment, while looking out over the Rockies in the distance.
The home is very contemporary in design, and stands out more than any other home in our town. People ask where we live, and when we tell them they all seem to say the same thing, "I always wondered who owned that home". Out in the hills around our area, there are some very huge homes/mansions, many of them being summer/vacation homes for well known A-list people, that make this house look like just a small everyday house.
LOL you're just bragging and you know it. You don't need to, though. I was just making a statement. We own a two story, 3700 sq ft house (first floor 1800 sq ft, second floor 1903 sq ft). It's good sized, but definitely not overwhelmingly large. If our house were four stories, it would look like a row house, very rectangular with much of the space vertical rather than horizontal (hence why I wondered whether it had a small footprint because a stacked house would take up less space). The rooms wouldn't be that big at all. Anyway we're going offtopic. I was just trying to picture this four story house that, as described, would be larger than 3700 sq ft.
You know what's sad? When you're YOUNG and you're stuck with knee problems. At one point I was taking 2400 mg of ibuprofen a day. Even now, as fit as I am, I can't do a lot of stairs some days. I have a steep set of stairs in my home that can be hard on my knees. I purchased this house before I was diagnosed with OA. If I had the diagnosis before I'd probably look for a one story. Interestingly, I can handle stairclimbing and elliptical machines at the gym because the stair isn't that steep.
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In my family, however, bad knees runs on the female side: my niece had one knee replaced at age 50; my sister had both replaced in her 60s, and my late Mom had one knee replaced at age 89m which subsequently led to her sliding into dementia and then Alzheimers. I began having trouble with me knees at age 32 due to Cushing's disease, which weakens the joints, and have developed arthritis in both knees as well since then. However, I have not had any replacement and do not intend to do so. I am able to live alone and maintain my extensive garden largely because I have a one story house. I know that stairs puts unbelievable strain on my knees - they crack and grind audibly. I hope to live in my house at least until it is over 100 and I am over 80, which is only another decade off. One story living may indeed make that future possible.
