Sitka Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Many people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That doesn’t cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka has some new exercise tips and treatments our Sitka 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 around the globe over the age of 20 were diagnosed with it in 2020. Typically, 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) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka sees new treatment ideas being published all the time.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Sitka 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 – 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) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Sitka knee pain patient
Despite the benefits of exercise on KOA is well known, KOA sufferers are not known to continue the exercise practice. One study made an easy-to-follow video series and calendar system that automatically noted when their did the exercises that demonstrated an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also shared their noticed satisfaction, pain reduction, and better physical function. (4) One 4-week 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 lasted for 3 months. (1) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is pretty confident a KOA sufferer will not care which knee is exercised as long as relief is forthcoming! A planned YOGA (YOGa and strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently described to find out if yoga’s mind-body exercise format - recognized as enhancing flexibility, muscle strength, balance and fitness - might decrease 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 looked into 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 increased. (6) All these studies on various approaches to handle knee osteoarthritis may hopefully unearth a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates relieving chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.
Make your Sitka chiropractic appointment soon. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come see us!
