Easley Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Countless people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That does not cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Young Chiropractic has some novel exercise tips and treatments our Easley 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 world over the age of 20 were diagnosed with it in 2020. Characteristically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers have a loss of knee extensor strength, a greater severity of knee pain, and a decrease 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 determined. (2) Young Chiropractic sees new treatment ideas being studied all the time.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Easley 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 – 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) Young Chiropractic can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Easley 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 set up an easy-to-follow video set and automated recording calendar of when they did each video that showed an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also reported satisfaction, pain reduction, and better physical function. (4) One month-long intervention of unilateral, 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 continued for 3 months. (1) Young 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 - recognized as improving 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 considered 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 increased. (6) All these studies on various approaches to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully unearth a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common ailment.
CONTACT Young Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates beneficial chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.
Schedule your Easley chiropractic appointment today. Do you experience knee osteoarthritis? Come in for a visit!
