Juneau Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Many people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That doesn’t make it any easier on its sufferers though. Aurora Chiropractic Center has some novel exercise tips and treatments our Juneau knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want to try for themselves.
KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS (KOA): What It Is and How Common It Is
Knee osteoarthritis is aging-related and oh so common! 86 million people around the globe over 20 years old were diagnosed with it in 2020. Typically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers feel 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 despite not yet knowing which exercise is best. (2) Aurora Chiropractic Center sees new treatment ideas being published a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Juneau chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated promise. A trial of treatment based on principles of Cox® flexion distraction decompression for knee osteoarthritis – that is distraction of the knee – reported 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) Aurora Chiropractic Center can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Juneau knee pain patient
Even though the benefits of exercise abound for KOA is well established, KOA sufferers don’t usually continue the exercise practice. One study set up 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 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 lasted for 3 months. (1) Aurora Chiropractic Center 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 improving 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 considered how blood flow restriction with low and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee influenced various blood tests in female patients with unilateral KOA and found that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were increased. (6) All these studies on a multitude of approaches to handle knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.
CONTACT Aurora 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.
Make your Juneau chiropractic appointment today. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come in for a visit!
