Many people have knee
osteoarthritis in both or one knee. That doesn’t
cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Layden Chiropractic has some new exercise tips and
treatments our Plainville knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want
to try for themselves.
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 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 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 demonstrated a
positive effect on cartilage structure even though just which physical activity
is best has yet to be decided. (2) Layden Chiropractic sees
new treatment ideas being studied a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your
Plainville 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) Layden Chiropractic
can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive
nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Plainville knee pain patient
Despite
the benefits of exercise on KOA is well established, KOA
sufferers don’t usually keep doing
their exercise practice. One study set
up an easy-to-follow video set and calendar system that
automatically noted when their did the exercises that showed 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 enhanced
extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA continued for 3 months. (1) Layden Chiropractic knows
a KOA sufferer won’t care which knee is exercised as long as there is relief! A planned YOGA (YOGa and
strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently proposed
to see how 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 altered
various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA
and found that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were higher.
(6) All these studies on a variety of approaches
to handle knee osteoarthritis may hopefully unearth a
way to ease/prevent/better manage this common ailment.
CONTACT Layden 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.
Make your Plainville chiropractic
appointment soon. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come see us!