Of Athletes and Old Folks and the Stiffness They Share

      I am grateful, at times, for health problems. I have chance to consider on my body, and wonder what is going on, and -- who knows -- maybe figure it out. 

    So, let me tell you of my morning, and of getting out of bed, and my legs stiffening up. I once told a doctor about this, questioning with him why our muscles are stiffer in the morning, He said his bones aren't. He awakes, and gets out of bed, and all is fine.

    I should have suggested to him that when he works out -- as surely he must -- it is then that you have morning stiffness. 

   So, this morning, I awake as usual. I'm fine while laying in bed. No stiffness. But, as I get up, there it is again, like it has been for my last thousand times of getting out of bed. So, I've had occasion to think on what might be going on, and have come to some conclusions in the past, but have never thought it out as well as I did this morning. 

   The lymphatic system. My understanding is that while the heart is a pump for blood, and pushes the blood through the vessels and veins, there is no such pump to push the fluid through the tiny vessels and veins (if we can still call them that) of the lymphatic system. It takes movement. The movement of the body is the pump. I told my doctor that since the body doesn't much much at night, perhaps the fluid in the lymph veins does not circulate. He assured me that we toss and turn enough at night, that the lymphatic system continues to do its work.

    I'm not so sure. At any rate, I thought on it this morning. When I stand up, suddenly there is weight on my body, on my legs. That means pressure. That means that if there are any cavities where muscles and meat are not present, then they will be compressed. I speak of empty lymph veins. If they have drained during the night, the weight collapses them. If a person has worked out the day before, and expanded his or her muscles, that means those muscles are requiring more room in the body. Until the covering of the body also expands, the expanded muscles are cramped. Well, anyway, in the morning when a person gets out of bed, if fluid has remained in those lymph veins, then there is no stiffness. But, as we get older, the fluid tends to drain out during the night. So when old folks get up, they can be stiff. 

  And, athletes? I wonder the expanded muscles, when compacted in the morning as they stand up, press against the lymph veins with such force as to force the fluid out and compress or collapse a portion of the vein, leaving a stiffness. In addition, are the expanded muscles, themselves, contorted as weight is placed on them? 

  I also had thoughts this morning about the attachment of the ends of the lymph veins. I try to remember those thoughts. I am not remembering well enough, and this blog is longer than you want to read, anyway. It is also not on an issue you are used to reading from me. I will only say, I feel these thoughts are important. Learning what is going on in the body could help us avoid unnecessary surgery. They want me to have a hip replacement. I don't want to. Once the bone is gone, it is not coming back. I wonder if there are other solutions, such as finding a way to keep the lymph veins open. We put in stents to keep our blood vessels open, why can we not do this for lymph vessels? My doctor tells me, the vessels in our lymphatic system are too tiny for stents. 

   How, then, do we figure it out? What is the solution? Perhaps I will think more on this tonight.