West Des Moines 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. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa has some new exercise tips and treatments our West Des Moines knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want to try for themselves.
KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS (KOA): What It Is and How Common It Is
Knee osteoarthritis is related to aging and everywhere! 86 million people around the world over 20 years old were diagnosed with it in 2020. Characteristically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers experience a loss of knee extensor strength, a greater severity of knee pain, and a decrease 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) Executive Chiropractic of Iowa sees new treatment ideas being studied a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your West Des Moines chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has shown promise. A trial of Cox® flexion distraction decompression principled treatment 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) Executive Chiropractic of Iowa can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our West Des Moines knee pain patient
Even though the benefits of exercise abound for KOA is well known, KOA sufferers are not known to keep doing their exercise routine. 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 reported satisfaction, pain reduction, and better 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 continued for 3 months. (1) Executive Chiropractic of Iowa is pretty confident a KOA sufferer will not care which knee is exercised as long as there is relief! A planned YOGA (YOGa and strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently described to see how yoga’s mind-body exercise format - recognized as improving flexibility, muscle strength, balance and fitness - might reduce 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 studied how blood flow restriction with low and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee impacted various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA and discovered that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were higher. (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 ailment.
CONTACT Executive Chiropractic of Iowa
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates relieving chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.
Make your West Des Moines chiropractic appointment today. Do you have knee osteoarthritis? Come in for a visit!
