Knee pain is one of the most common complaint that brings people to their doctor. The acute knee pain, known as knee osteoarthritis, is a painful disease of the knee joint, in which both the bone and the elastic part of the joint called cartilage may break down.
Unfortunately, once the disease has progressed, there’s no way to reverse the joint damage, which is why it’s so important to prevent it in the first place. Also, it needs to be understood that such disease symptoms tend to develop slowly over time.
In fact, the likelihood of developing knee osteoarthritis symptoms increases with each decade of your life, especially between the ages of 55 and 64.
Your knees may hurt while you move them and may feel tender when you apply even light pressure to them. If you’ve been inactive for a period of time, your knees might start to feel stiff, or you might not be able to move your knees through their full range of motion. You may even feel or hear a grating sensation when you move your knees. These symptoms occur because of changes to cartilage, the firm tissue between your joints that helps with motion. When the cartilage becomes rough completely, this causes bone to rub on bone.
Despite certain advices to the patients who suffers knee osteoarthritis, still ignoring that overweight, or previous injuries or even infection that affect the knee joints were risk factors in developing knee osteoarthritis, besides illness like diabetes, hypothyroidism and others.
On the other hand, those patients who try to ignore the importance of diet in controlling such illness, studies have revealed that people can reduce their pain with a change in diet, especially with a low carbohydrate diet and that believe or not would help in reducing the use of pain relievers and improve general health. You may also try to cut extra calories, eat more fruits and veggies, add omega-3 fatty acid and get enough vitamin C for instance.
It is well-known clinically, that for knee osteoarthritis, there are varieties of treatment, ranging from non-pharmacological including the exercise, to pharmacological management, which includes as well various procedure like intra-articular hyaluronic acid, ending with total joint replacement surgery upon osteoarthritis stage where patients have reached.
At the end, I do believe that the treatment is different with every individual and also every pound you lose, there is four pounds less pressure and stress on your knees with every step specially if you are in mild to moderate stage of osteoarthritis.
I always suggest the patient who has a high level of knee pain that makes movement difficult, to begin with lower-impact activities that place less stress on your knees. For instance, swimming and other forms of water aerobics, so there is less impact on your knees. Also, don’t be afraid to participate in higher-impact weight-bearing activities that require constant movement, like walking, running, and recreational sports.
You need to be proactive when it comes to protecting your knees from osteoarthritis, so do not avoid activity.
Dr Yousuf Ali Al Mulla, MD, Ministry of Health. He is a medical innovator and educator. For any queries regarding the content of the column, he can be contacted at: dryusufalmulla@gmail.com
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