Numerous people have knee
osteoarthritis in both or one knee. That doesn’t
cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office has some new exercise tips and
treatments our Groton 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 oh so common! 86 million people around the world
over the age of 20 were diagnosed with it in 2020. Typically,
knee osteoarthritis sufferers experience a loss of knee
extensor strength, an increase in the severity of knee pain,
and a drop 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 demonstrated a
positive effect on cartilage structure even though just which physical activity
is best has yet to be determined. (2) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office sees
new treatment ideas being studied a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your
Groton chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated
promise. 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) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting
nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Groton knee pain patient
Despite
the benefits of exercise on KOA is well established, KOA
sufferers don’t usually keep doing
their exercise practice. One study made 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 shared their
noticed satisfaction, pain reduction, and better
physical function. (4) One 4-week intervention of single
knee, non-KOA knee extensor strength training resulted
in significant improvement in the knee extensor strength of the knee with
KOA! This is called “cross education phenomenon.” The enhanced
extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA continued for 3 months. (1) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office is pretty confident
a KOA sufferer will not care which knee is exercised as long as relief
is forthcoming! A proposed YOGA (YOGa and
strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently described
to see how yoga’s mind-body exercise format - recognized as enhancing flexibility, muscle
strength, balance and fitness - might reduce the symptoms of knee
osteoarthritis and even improve other outcomes like pain,
function, quality of life, gait speed, cost effectiveness, and others. (5) Another
study considered how blood flow restriction with low
and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee changed
various blood tests in female patients with unilateral KOA
and found that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were increased.
(6) All these studies on a variety of approaches
to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a
way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he illustrates beneficial
chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain
Management for patients with KOA.
Schedule your Groton chiropractic
appointment soon. Do you have
knee osteoarthritis? Come in for
a visit!