Fort Wayne Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Many people have knee osteoarthritis in both or one knee. That doesn’t make it any easier on its sufferers though. Aaron Chiropractic Clinic has some novel exercise tips and treatments our Fort Wayne knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want to attempt.
KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS (KOA): What It Is and How Common It Is
Knee osteoarthritis is aging-related and oh so common! 86 million people globally over the age of 20 were diagnosed with it in 2020. Typically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers experience 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 demonstrated a positive effect on cartilage structure despite not yet knowing which exercise is best. (2) Aaron Chiropractic Clinic sees new treatment ideas being published all the time.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Fort Wayne 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 – 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) Aaron Chiropractic Clinic can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Fort Wayne 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 series and calendar system that automatically noted when their did the exercises that resulted in an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also described 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 continued for 3 months. (1) Aaron Chiropractic Clinic is pretty confident a KOA sufferer will not care which knee is exercised as long as there is relief! A planned YOGA (YOGa and strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently 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 improve 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 changed various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA and discovered that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were increased. (6) All these studies on a multitude of approaches to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully unearth a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.
CONTACT Aaron Chiropractic Clinic
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 Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment now. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come in for a visit!
