Knee Osteoarthritis Exercises and Physiotherapy for Knee Pain

Now a days knee osteoarthritis is the most common and challenging issue. I'm recommeding the exercises and physiotherapies that can strenghten your knee. Also explaining common risk factors and symptoms of this painful condition.

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Have you heard of osteoarthritis of the knee joint?
In layman term - it simply means wear and tear and the loss of suspension of the knee joint. What are the causes of it? How do you know if you are suffering from it? What is the treatment for this condition. So Watch till the end to learn about it.
Now let's take a look at the knee joint anatomy.In a young normal knee, there is a flexible, slippery material that protects bones from joint friction and impact. In knee osteoarthritis, the cartilage wears away and in severe cases of osteoarthritis knee, the bones may rub directly against each other with minimal lubrication, leading to pain and disability.

Diagnosis of osteoarthritis of knee is achieved usually with a typical medical history and confirmed by an X-ray of the knee.
Some of the classical features you see on Xray includes
- reduced joint space
- irregularity of the bone, which we commonly call spikes or osteophytes
- and knee joint deformities.

The Risk factors of getting osteoarthritis of knee includes
1) previous knee injury like meniscal tear or ligamental tears or even fractures.
2) excessive wear and tear of knee joints from high-impact activities
3) increasing age : Osteoarthritis occurs more commonly in patients 50 years and older but it can also occur sometimes in younger patients.
4) overweight : patients who are overweight are almost twice as likely to develop osteoarthritis of the knee

The common symptoms are
- gradual onset knee pain that develops over months to years
- worse on walking and squatting or climbing of stairs
- early morning stiffness
- reduced range of motion
- crackling sounds when you bend and extend the knees
- in acute flares , patients can even have severe pain and redness and swelling of the knee joint.

What are the main modalities of treatment then, once diagnosis has been achieved?
1)LLifestyle changes
A) reduce high impact activities like jumping and jogging to low impact activities like swimming and cycling. As much as possible, try to still maintain an active lifestyle.
B) minimise activities that may aggravate the condition like climbing of stairs or prolonged standing
C) lose weight - many patients ask me how they can lose weight if they are not supposed to do high impact activities? Well like I’ve always said 70% of weight loss comes from diet! - please click the link on the top right to access the top 10 food to lose belly fat.
D) Wear shoes with good sole support - I cannot emphasise this enough. Wearing of shoes that have poor support may add further stress to the knee joint. Invest in a good pair of shoes now.

2) Exercise and physiotherapies
The knee joint is a very large joint that is stabilised by ligaments and muscles around it.
Exercises that strengthen the muscles around the knee joint helps in managing the pain and helps in stabilising the joint.
At the end of this video, we will be showing you some exercises that you can do to help in managing your osteoarthritis - so watch till the end!

3) Medical treatment
There are medications to treat osteoarthritis.
A) glucosamine and chondroitin may help in some patients in reducing knee pain. However it may not work for everyone. In general, I may start a patient on it for 3-4 months and will continue them on this supplements if it helps in reducing their knee pain.
B) pain medications
There is an array of pain medications that can help to reduce their discomfort such as Panadol, NSAIDS, Cox-2 inhibitors, opioids.
These are medications that you take when required, I would advise patients not to be dependant on pain medications.
C) knee joint injections.
Well , in my practise there are two types of knee joint injections that I do.
The first would be steroid injections -these injections helps to reduce inflammation and helps in acute severe pain where patients may not be able to walk.
However, there are side effects to steroid injections and if done too frequently may worsen the osteoarthritis in the long run. Please consult your doctor in detail about it.
Secondly would be hyaluronic acid viscosupplementation. These are injections of hyaluronic acid into the knee joint to replace the cartilage that has worn out. These gel like materials will act as suspension and provide lubrication at the same time.
D) Finally when all else fails surgeons may recommend surgical knee joint replacements.
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