Scores of people have knee
osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That doesn’t
cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Apple Country Chiropractic has some novel exercise tips and
treatments our Williamson knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want
to try for themselves.
KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS (KOA): What It Is and How Common It Is
Knee osteoarthritis is aging-related
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, an increase in the severity of knee pain,
and a decline 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) Apple Country Chiropractic sees
new treatment ideas being published all the time.
KOA TREATMENT: Your
Williamson chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated
promise. A trial of Cox® flexion distraction decompression
principled treatment 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) Apple Country Chiropractic
can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive
nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Williamson knee pain patient
Despite
the benefits of exercise on KOA is well established, KOA
sufferers are not known to keep doing
their exercise practice. One study set
up an easy-to-follow video series and automated recording calendar
of when they did each video that showed an
82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also shared their
noticed satisfaction, pain reduction, and better
physical function. (4) One month-long intervention of unilateral, 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 lasted for 3 months. (1) Apple Country Chiropractic 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 just described
to see how yoga’s mind-body exercise format - known to enhance flexibility, muscle
strength, balance and fitness - might reduce 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 modified
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 condition.
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
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 Williamson chiropractic
appointment soon. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come see us!