Manahawkin Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Countless people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That doesn’t make it any easier on its sufferers though. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center has some new exercise tips and treatments our Manahawkin knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want to attempt.
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 world over 20 years old were diagnosed with it in 2020. Characteristically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers feel 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 despite not yet knowing which exercise is best. (2) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center sees new treatment ideas being published a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Manahawkin chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated 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) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Manahawkin knee pain patient
Even though the benefits of exercise abound for KOA is well known, KOA sufferers are not known to stick to the exercise practice. One study made 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 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 improved extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA lasted for 3 months. (1) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center is pretty confident a KOA sufferer won’t care which knee is exercised as long as relief is forthcoming! A proposed YOGA (YOGa and strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently proposed to find out if yoga’s mind-body exercise format - known to enhance 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 found that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were higher. (6) All these studies on a variety of approaches to handle knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.
CONTACT Manahawkin Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes beneficial chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.
Schedule your Manahawkin chiropractic appointment soon. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come in for a visit!
