Tag: knee health

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Knee Osteoarthritis

Natural Pain Relief Through Exercise

Studies have found that exercise can be as beneficial to reducing knee pain as over-the-counter pain relievers. However, the idea of starting an exercise routine may sound daunting, or even crazy. 

Exercise can be as beneficial to reducing knee pain as over-the-counter pain relievers.

Yet the idea of exercising to reduce knee pain for those of us with osteoarthritis might sound a little crazy.

However, it’s not. And studies such as this one, prove it.

Land-based exercises such as walking, moderate cycling, and strength training can reduce knee pain by 10 to 15%, if not more.

Even better, people who exercise need less pain medication than those that do not exercise. And, in some cases, people who exercised regularly, didn’t need to take any pain medication at all.

Exercise can reduce knee pain by strengthening the muscles that surround the knee, thus making it more stable. Exercise that strengthens the quads and hamstrings, can not only result in reduced joint pain but can help keep the knee more stable.

This stability and increase in muscle can also decrease the impact on the knees, which as a result, reduced knee pain as well.  and help the knee to become more stable. It will also experience less impact, which as a result, reduces pain.

Another highly recommended, and research-backed exercise for those of us with knee osteoarthritis, is swimming.

Swimming is a wonderful low-impact exercise. And, just like land-based exercises, swimming can also lead to the release of a little something called endorphins.

Endorphins are natural feel-good painkillers that are released during exercise.

These neurotransmitters, which are also sometimes referred to as hormones, can not only decrease pain but can increase feelings of happiness and well-being.

So exercise can reduce knee pain, increase knee mobility, and triggers the release of chemicals that reduce pain and make us feel happier all around?

Yes.

However, when it comes to exercising with knee osteoarthritis, not all exercises are created equal. Therefore, it’s important to check with your doctor before starting any exercise plan.

Chances are, they will recommend that you practice low-impact exercises, such as stretching, walking on the treadmill, swimming, or yoga, to name a few.

Once you get the green light to start exercising, the next step is to…start.

However, you might be thinking “Easier said than done”.

Maybe, but trust us, it can be done.

In our next article, we will take a look at a few tips on how to get started and make exercise a part of your daily life.

 

Categories
Knee Osteoarthritis

Building an Exercise Habit

The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision but as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger.

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision but as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.”

James Clear, Atomic Habits

In order to get in better shape and meet any necessary weight loss goals, it’s all about developing new habits. And, as the above quote from the New York Times Best Selling book Atomic Habits states, it’s all done, one day at a time.

If you are new to working out, a good start is to set goals that you will be able to meet without a ton of effort and motivation ( which is something that needs to be developed over time).

One of the easiest ways to start exercising is to take your exercise goals and break them into small exercise segments that you are likely to do. Then you can build up a longer exercise plan over time.

Author James Clear writes about this concept in Atomic Habits. Clear writes that it’s important to split your exercise plan into easily obtainable chunks because when something is easy, we’re more likely to do it. And, by doing the exercise daily, no matter how little at a time, we will begin to build new habits.

So what does breaking a workout into segments look like?

It could look different depending on what it is you ultimately want to achieve. For example, if you want to start walking on the treadmill regularly, rather than plan to walk for 30 minutes a day, five days a week- change it to “I’m going to walk on the treadmill for 5 minutes.”

Then you can build from there.

Maybe the next day you will walk on the treadmill for 2 sets of 5 minutes, with a little break in between. Then 3 sets of 5 minutes, 4 sets of 5 minutes, until you reach your 30-minute goal.

If you need to, you can even make your daily goal smaller.

Whatever it is, just make the goal something that you will actually do.

You might be thinking, ” Why should I develop an exercise plan, especially when I’m dealing with the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis?”

That’s a great question, and to better answer it, you may want to check out studies like this one.

Studies have shown that people who regularly participate in land-based exercises such as walking, rate their knee pain to be 10 to 15% less than people who do not exercise. Even more, it has been discovered that those who exercised regularly need less pain medication, and in many cases, none at all.

In our next article, we will take a look at some of the exercises that can benefit your knee health. And, we will offer some suggestions as to how it can be developed into an exercise habit. A habit that will benefit your body, your mind, and of course, your knees.

 

Categories
Knee Osteoarthritis

Side Effects and Risks of Corticosteroid Injections

Corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid injections can help to relieve osteoarthritis knee pain, however, it is temporary.

Corticosteroid or hyaluronic acid injections can help to relieve knee pain, however, it is temporary.

Not only is the relief temporary but there is ample evidence to support that exercise can be just as effective, and so can a simple injection with plain old saline solution (which is often used as the placebo in clinical trials).

Again and again, exercise, in order to treat knee osteoarthritis pain, is recommended over knee injections. One reason is that knee injections come with many more risks than exercise.

One of the biggest risks of knee injections is infections of the knee joint. This is especially true of corticosteroids.

If there are germs on the needle that is used for corticosteroid injections, an infection can happen.

Though joint infections are rare, they do happen. And when they do, they can cause serious problems. Therefore it is critical that these knee injections and performed by experienced doctors that follow hygiene standards such as properly disinfecting the skin before the injection.

The risk of infection is slightly higher with corticosteroid injections than with hyaluronic acid, because of the effect that steroids can have on the immune response of the joint.

In fact, repeated steroid injections over a long period of time can weaken the joint cartilage as well, furthering this risk.

Other possible side effects of steroid knee injections include pain and swelling at the injection site. This is especially true in the days after treatment when the muscles and ligaments may be slightly weakened.

There is also the risk that, for those getting treated with multiple steroid injections, the skin at the injection sight can become permanently discolored.

Some of the other potential side effects of steroid knee injections are:

–  osteoporosis of nearby bone tissue

–  osteonecrosis, which is the death of bone tissue

–  a temporary flare of pain and inflammation in the joint

–  joint infection

–  nerve damage

–  thinning or lightening of the skin and soft tissue around the injection site

–  allergic reaction

–  elevated blood sugar levels in some people with diabetes

 

There is also evidence to suggest that cortisone injections come with not only the risk of infection post-injection but that when administered in the time period before knee surgery, these injections can lead to a much greater post-surgical infection risk.

Even when corticosteroids are effective, according to a research study published by an independent group of scientists from the Cochrane Collaboration, these injections might reduce osteoarthritis symptoms for several weeks in roughly 10 out of 100 people.

 

The Bottom Line: Though there was a time when corticosteroid injections were considered to be some sort of miracle cure for knee pain, in more recent years, research has shown that this isn’t entirely true.

In fact, several studies have found that corticosteroid knee injections provided no significant pain relief after two years. And, some studies have even shown that cortisone can make the situation worse by thinning out the meniscus, causing more bone on bone in the knee.

In our next article, we will take a look at the effectiveness of hyaluronic acid injections, as well as the potential side effects and risks.