Scores of people have knee
osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That doesn’t
cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. has some new exercise tips and
treatments our Auburn knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want
to attempt.
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. Typically,
knee osteoarthritis sufferers have 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) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. sees
new treatment ideas being published a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your
Auburn chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has shown
promise. A trial of treatment based on principles of Cox®
flexion distraction decompression for knee osteoarthritis – that is 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) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C.
can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting
nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Auburn knee pain patient
Despite
the benefits of exercise on KOA is well established, KOA
sufferers do not very well 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 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 continued for 3 months. (1) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. 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 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 studied 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 higher.
(6) All these studies on a multitude of approaches
to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a
way to ease/prevent/better manage this common ailment.
CONTACT Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C.
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he describes beneficial
chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain
Management for patients with KOA.
Schedule your Auburn chiropractic
appointment soon. Do you suffer with
knee osteoarthritis? Come in for
a visit!