Auburn Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management

Countless people have knee osteoarthritis in both or one knee. That does not make it any easier on its sufferers though. 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 everywhere! 86 million people around the globe over the age of 20 were diagnosed with it in 2020. Characteristically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers have 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 been shown to positively affect cartilage structure despite not yet knowing which exercise is best. (2) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. sees new treatment ideas being studied a lot.

KOA TREATMENT:  Your Auburn 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) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.

KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Auburn knee pain patient

Even though the benefits of exercise abound for KOA is well known, KOA sufferers are not known to continue the 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 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 enhanced extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA lasted for 3 months. (1) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. is pretty confident a KOA sufferer won’t 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 find out if 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 modified various blood tests in female patients with unilateral KOA and found that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were higher. (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 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 illustrates relieving chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.

Make your Auburn chiropractic appointment today. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come see us!