San Jose Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Countless people have knee osteoarthritis in both or one knee. That doesn’t cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Chiropractic Solutions has some novel exercise tips and treatments our San Jose 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 globally over 20 years old were diagnosed with it in 2020. Characteristically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers have a loss of knee extensor strength, an increase in the 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) Chiropractic Solutions sees new treatment ideas being studied a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your San Jose 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) Chiropractic Solutions can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our San Jose 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 made an easy-to-follow video series and automated recording calendar of when they did each video that demonstrated an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also described satisfaction, pain reduction, and improved physical function. (4) One month-long intervention of unilateral, non-KOA knee extensor strength training resulted in 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 maintained itself for 3 months. (1) Chiropractic Solutions knows 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 proposed to see how yoga’s mind-body exercise format - known to improve 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 studied how blood flow restriction with low and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee modified various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA and discovered that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were increased. (6) All these studies on a variety of approaches to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common ailment.
CONTACT Chiropractic Solutions
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 San Jose chiropractic appointment today. Do you suffer with knee osteoarthritis? Come see us!
