Numerous people have knee
osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That doesn’t
cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Amelia Chiropractic Clinic has some new exercise tips and
treatments our Fernandina Beach 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 around the world
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 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) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic sees
new treatment ideas being studied all the time.
KOA TREATMENT: Your
Fernandina Beach 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 – namely 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) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic
can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting
nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Fernandina Beach knee pain patient
Despite
the benefits of exercise on KOA is well known, KOA
sufferers do not very well stick to the exercise practice. One study made an easy-to-follow video series and automated recording calendar
of when they did each video that demonstrated an
82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also described 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 improved
extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA continued for 3 months. (1) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic is pretty confident
a KOA sufferer won’t 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 find out if yoga’s mind-body exercise format - known to improve 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 studied how blood flow restriction with low
and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee modified
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 variety of approaches
to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a
way to ease/prevent/better manage this common ailment.
CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he describes relieving
chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain
Management for patients with KOA.
Schedule your Fernandina Beach chiropractic
appointment now. Do you have
knee osteoarthritis? Come in for
a visit!