The Top Augusta Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment: Exercise
Knee pain…the chance that you have or will have knee pain or know someone suffering with knee pain is above average. Knee pain caused by osteoarthritis is a shared condition around the world. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic encourages our Augusta chiropractic knee pain patients to exercise. We are well aware that we sound like a broken record when it comes to exercise, but exercise remains ‘king’ when it comes to knee pain care! And other new knee pain research touts a few new treatment approaches to try, too.
OSTEOARTHRITIS
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of degenerated cartilage or wear and tear harm to cartilage giving rise to disability and other health problems affecting over 500 million adults globally. Hip OA and knee OA are two of the most common types with knee OA being the most common. The objective of treatment of OA is management and decrease of symptoms, not cure. Drug approaches include NSAIDs while non-drug approaches incorporate exercise (walking), aerobic exercise, weight loss, diet, hot/cold therapy, electrotherapy to improve muscle strength and reduce joint pain. Surgery (arthroscopy and joint replacement therapy) was described as a last treatment option. The authors of this report highlighted that precautions to keep joints healthy and disease-free were suitable and necessary. (1) Those are hopeful goals.
DESIRED RESULTS OF TREATMENT FOR KNEE OA
How do you determine if an intervention is of value to your pain? Your hoped for outcome is the most important. For osteoarthritis, one of the foremost diseases that hinders us humans, walking for pleasure was found by data collected for the Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to be statistically significant for tackling knee osteoarthritis at the genetic level. (2) Today’s researchers are also establishing a definition of just what “minimal clinically important change” is, what the minimum improvement a patient like you would perceive or say made going through the treatment was of value. For patients with osteoarthritis who underwent non-surgical treatments, the amount of knee flexion they could perform after treatment was from 3.8 to 6.4 degrees. Other interesting information researchers uncovered from the 72 studies they analyzed was that an increase in flexion was associated with decreased pain and improved function. (3) These are positive findings!
…AND WHAT ABOUT PLASMA-RICH PLATELET THERAPY?
In the non-surgical realm of treatment for knee osteoarthritis, platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection has become more available alongside traditional exercise for knee OA pain. A randomized control trial contrasted three treatment combinations PRP injection alone (three weekly injections), exercise alone (6 weeks program/12 sessions of strengthening and functional exercise), and PRP with exercise. At 24 weeks post treatments, the PRP did not impact pain in mild-to-mode knee OA patients compared to exercise alone. Actually, the exercise alone group outcomes were clinically superior for function and health related quality of life. Even though the PRP added cost to the combined treatment, it didn’t prove to be better than exercise alone either. The researchers ended their paper with the statement that exercise alone was recommended to reduce pain and enhance function. (4) Certainly, more studies will continue to document the impact of such treatments as PRP.
CONTACT Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST on Osteoarthritis of the Knee with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares the effective gentle, adapted protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the osteoarthritic knee! A beneficial, relieving treatment approach to include along with exercise!
Schedule your Augusta chiropractic appointment today. From what we read, it looks like exercise is still ‘king’ in dealing with osteoarthritis of the knee. We can help you find the right exercises and even integrate some distraction to help your knee.
