Scores of people have knee osteoarthritis in both or one knee. That doesn’t cause sufferers to feel any better about it. New Hampshire Spine and Sport has some novel exercise tips and treatments our Southern New Hampshire knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want to try for themselves.
KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS (KOA): What It Is and How Common It Is
Knee osteoarthritis is related to aging and everywhere! 86 million people globally over 20 years old were diagnosed with it in 2020. Typically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers have a loss of knee extensor strength, a greater severity of knee pain, and a decrease in functional performance. (1) Knee osteoarthritis is the degeneration of cartilage, part of the natural aging process whether we like it or not. Physical activity has been shown to positively affect cartilage structure despite not yet knowing which exercise is best. (2) New Hampshire Spine and Sport sees new treatment ideas being studied all the time.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Southern New Hampshire chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated potential. A trial of treatment based on principles of Cox® flexion distraction decompression for knee osteoarthritis – that is distraction of the knee – reported relief of patient-perceived pain from 7.7 (out of 10) to 1.8 in a mean of 5.3 visits in 3 weeks for 25 patients. (3) New Hampshire Spine and Sport can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Southern New Hampshire knee pain patient
Despite the benefits of exercise on KOA is well established, KOA sufferers do not very well stick to the exercise practice. One study set up an easy-to-follow video set and automated recording calendar of when they did each video that resulted in an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also described satisfaction, pain reduction, and better physical function. (4) One 4-week intervention of unilateral, non-KOA knee extensor strength training produced significant improvement in the knee extensor strength of the knee with KOA! This is called “cross education phenomenon.” The better extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA maintained itself for 3 months. (1) New Hampshire Spine and Sport is pretty confident a KOA sufferer will not care which knee is exercised as long as there is relief! A planned YOGA (YOGa and strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently proposed to see how yoga’s mind-body exercise format - recognized as enhancing flexibility, muscle strength, balance and fitness - might decrease the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis and even enhance other outcomes like pain, function, quality of life, gait speed, cost effectiveness, and others. (5) Another study looked into how blood flow restriction with low and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee influenced various blood tests in female patients with unilateral KOA and discovered that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were higher. (6) All these studies on various approaches to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common ailment.
CONTACT New Hampshire Spine and Sport
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates relieving chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.
Make your Southern New Hampshire chiropractic appointment soon. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come in for a visit!