Montreal Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Scores of people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That does not make it any easier on its sufferers though. Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic has some new exercise tips and treatments our Montreal 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 everywhere! 86 million people around the globe 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 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 been shown to positively affect cartilage structure even though just which physical activity is best has yet to be determined. (2) Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic sees new treatment ideas being published a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Montreal chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated potential. A trial of Cox® flexion distraction decompression principled treatment for knee osteoarthritis – that is 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) Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Montreal knee pain patient
Even though the benefits of exercise abound for KOA is well known, KOA sufferers don’t usually continue the exercise practice. One study set up an easy-to-follow video set and calendar system that automatically noted when their did the exercises that demonstrated an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also reported satisfaction, pain reduction, and improved physical function. (4) One month-long 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 better extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA maintained itself for 3 months. (1) Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic is pretty confident 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 described to see how yoga’s mind-body exercise format - known to enhance 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 changed various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA and discovered that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were higher. (6) All these studies on various approaches to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.
CONTACT Dr. Hoang's 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 Montreal chiropractic appointment soon. Do you experience knee osteoarthritis? Come see us!
