Groton Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Numerous people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That does not 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 globally over 20 years old were diagnosed with it in 2020. Characteristically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers feel a loss of knee extensor strength, a greater 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 been shown to positively affect cartilage structure even though just which physical activity is best has yet to be decided. (2) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office sees new treatment ideas being studied all the time.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Groton chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has shown potential. A trial of treatment based on principles of Cox® flexion distraction decompression for knee osteoarthritis – namely distraction of the knee – resulted in 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 partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Groton knee pain patient
Despite the benefits of exercise on KOA is well known, KOA sufferers don’t usually stick to the exercise routine. One study set up an easy-to-follow video set and calendar system that automatically noted when their did the exercises that demonstrated an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also described satisfaction, pain reduction, and better physical function. (4) One 4-week intervention of single knee, 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 improved extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA lasted 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 there is relief! 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 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 considered how blood flow restriction with low and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee impacted various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA and discovered that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were increased. (6) All these studies on various approaches to handle 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 relieving chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.
Schedule your Groton chiropractic appointment now. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come in for a visit!
