The Top Montreal Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment: Exercise
Knee pain…the chance that you have or will have knee pain or know someone suffering with knee pain is high. Knee pain caused by osteoarthritis is a common condition around the world. Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic promotes exercise to our our Montreal chiropractic knee pain patients. We know we sound like a broken record on 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 affecting over 500 million adults globally. Knee OA and Hip OA are two of the most common types with knee OA being the most common. The objective of treatment of OA is management and decline 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 decrease 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 necessary. (1) Those are wished for goals.
DESIRED RESULTS OF TREATMENT FOR KNEE OA
How do you determine if an intervention is of value to your pain? Your desired outcome rules. For osteoarthritis, one of the main 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 worthwhile. For patients with osteoarthritis who underwent non-surgical treatments, the amount of knee flexion they could do after treatment was from 3.8 to 6.4 degrees. Other pertinent information researchers found from the 72 studies they analyzed was that a rise in flexion was linked to 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 grown in availability 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 after treatments, the PRP didn’t impact pain in mild-to-mode knee OA patients weighed against exercise alone. As a matter of fact, 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 show itself to be superior to exercise alone either. The researchers ended their paper with the statement that exercise alone was recommended to decrease pain and improve function. (4) Certainly, more studies will continue to reveal the efficacy of such treatments as PRP.
CONTACT Dr. Hoang's 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 effectiveness of the gentle, adapted protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the osteoarthritic knee! A beneficial, relieving treatment approach to incorporate with exercise!
Schedule your Montreal chiropractic appointment soon. 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.
