Knee pain…the likelihood that you have
or will have knee pain or know someone who
suffers with knee pain is above average. Knee pain caused
by osteoarthritis is a shared condition around
the world. Chiropractic Solutions promotes exercise to our our San Jose
chiropractic knee pain patients. We know we come
across sounding 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 studies tout a few new
treatment methods to try, too.
OSTEOARTHRITIS
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of degenerated cartilage or
wear and tear damage to cartilage resulting in
disability and other health problems impacting over 500 million
adults globally. Knee OA and Hip OA
are the leading types with knee OA being the most
common. The goal of treatment of OA is management and reduction
of symptoms, not cure. Drug approaches consist of NSAIDs while
non-drug approaches incorporate exercise (walking), aerobic
exercise, weight loss, diet, hot/cold therapy, electrotherapy to improve
muscle strength and lessen joint pain. Surgery
(arthroscopy and joint replacement therapy) was explained to be
a last treatment option. The authors of this report highlighted
that precautions to keep joints healthy and disease-free were advisable
and essential. (1) Those are hopeful
goals.
DESIRED RESULTS OF TREATMENT FOR KNEE OA
How do you determine if an intervention is helpful to your pain? Your hoped for outcome
is the most important. For osteoarthritis, one of the bigger
diseases that disables us humans, walking for pleasure was found
by data collected for the Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to be
statistically significant for addressing 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 see as
making the treatment worthwhile to have undergone. For patients
with osteoarthritis who went through non-surgical treatments,
the amount of knee flexion they could do after treatment was from
3.8 to 6.4 degrees. Other interesting information researchers found
from the 72 studies they analyzed was that a rise
in flexion was associated with decreased pain
and increased function. (3) These are positive outcomes!
…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 combos 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 weighed against exercise alone.
Actually, the exercise alone group outcomes were
clinically superior for function and health related quality of life. Even
though the PRP increased cost to the combined treatment, it didn’t show itself to be superior to
exercise alone either. The researchers concluded with
the statement that exercise alone was recommended to reduce pain
and improve function. (4) Certainly, more studies will continue
to document the impact of such treatments as PRP.
CONTACT Chiropractic Solutions
Listen to this PODCAST
on Osteoarthritis of the Knee with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he details the
effective gentle, adapted protocols of The Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the osteoarthritic knee! A
helpful, relieving treatment approach to include
along with exercise!
Make your San Jose chiropractic
appointment now. From what we read, it looks like
exercise is still ‘king’ when managing osteoarthritis of
the knee. We can help you find the right exercises and even integrate
some distraction to help your knee.