Toronto Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management
Many people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That doesn’t cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre has some novel exercise tips and treatments our Toronto 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 globally over 20 years old were diagnosed with it in 2020. Typically, 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) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre sees new treatment ideas being published a lot.
KOA TREATMENT: Your Toronto chiropractor has it.
A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated promise. A trial of Cox® flexion distraction decompression principled treatment for knee osteoarthritis – that is 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) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.
KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Toronto knee pain patient
Despite the benefits of exercise on KOA is well established, KOA sufferers do not very well continue the exercise practice. One study set up an easy-to-follow video series and automated recording calendar of when they did each video that resulted in an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also reported satisfaction, pain reduction, and improved physical function. (4) One 4-week intervention of single knee, 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 better extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA continued for 3 months. (1) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre 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 described 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 enhance other outcomes like pain, function, quality of life, gait speed, cost effectiveness, and others. (5) Another study looked into how blood flow restriction with low and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee altered 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 manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.
CONTACT Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes relieving chiropractic knee treatment via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for patients with KOA.
Make your Toronto chiropractic appointment now. Do you experience knee osteoarthritis? Come in for a visit!
