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The Top Vancouver Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment: Exercise

Knee pain…the chance that you have or will have knee pain or know someone who suffers with knee pain is high. Knee pain due to osteoarthritis is a familiar condition around the world. Vancouver Disc Centers promotes exercise to our our Vancouver chiropractic knee pain patients. We know we come across sounding like a broken record when it comes to exercise, but exercise remains ‘king’ when it comes to knee pain care! And other new knee pain research touts a few new treatment approaches to try, too.

OSTEOARTHRITIS

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of degenerated cartilage or wear and tear damage to cartilage giving rise to disability and other health problems impacting over 500 million adults around the world. Knee OA and Hip OA are the leading types with knee OA being the most common. The objective of treatment of OA is management and decrease 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 described as a last treatment option. The authors of this report highlighted that precautions to keep joints healthy and disease-free were advisable and essential. (1) Those are wished for goals.

DESIRED RESULTS OF TREATMENT FOR KNEE OA

How do you determine if an intervention is helpful to your pain? Your hoped for outcome is the most important. For osteoarthritis, one of the bigger diseases that hinders us humans, walking for pleasure was documented by data collected for the Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to be statistically significant for addressing knee osteoarthritis at the genetic level. (2) Today’s researchers are also working to define just what “minimal clinically important change” is, what the minimum improvement a patient like you would see as making the treatment worthwhile to have undergone. For patients with osteoarthritis who went through 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 an increase in flexion was linked to decreased pain and improved function. (3) These are positive findings!

…AND WHAT ABOUT PLASMA-RICH PLATELET THERAPY?

In the non-surgical realm of treatment for knee osteoarthritis, platelet rich plasma (PRP)  injection has become more available alongside traditional exercise for knee OA pain. A randomized control trial contrasted three treatment combos 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 did not improve pain in mild-to-mode knee OA patients compared to exercise alone. Actually, the exercise alone group outcomes were clinically superior for function and health related quality of life. Even though the PRP increased cost to the combined treatment, it didn’t prove to be superior to exercise alone either. The researchers concluded with the statement that exercise alone was recommended to decrease pain and improve function. (4) Certainly, more studies will continue to document the impact of such treatments as PRP.

CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers

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 include along with exercise!

Schedule your Vancouver chiropractic appointment today. From what we read, it seems like exercise is still ‘king’ in dealing with osteoarthritis of the knee. We can help you find the right exercises and even integrate some distraction to help the knee.

 
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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."