Nashua Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management

Many people have knee osteoarthritis in one knee or both. That does not make it any easier on its sufferers though. Moriarty Chiropractic has some novel exercise tips and treatments our Nashua 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 the age of 20 were diagnosed with it in 2020. Characteristically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers experience a loss of knee extensor strength, an increase in the 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) Moriarty Chiropractic sees new treatment ideas being studied all the time.

KOA TREATMENT:  Your Nashua chiropractor has it.

A chiropractic treatment approach has shown promise. A trial of treatment based on principles of Cox® flexion distraction decompression for knee osteoarthritis – namely 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) Moriarty Chiropractic can partner this treatment (and even some cartilage-supporting nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.

KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Nashua knee pain patient

Even though the benefits of exercise abound for KOA is well known, KOA sufferers are not known to stick to the exercise practice. One study made an easy-to-follow video series and automated recording calendar of when they did each video that showed an 82.4% participation rate. Not bad! The patients also shared their noticed 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 enhanced extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA maintained itself for 3 months. (1) Moriarty Chiropractic knows a KOA sufferer won’t care which knee is exercised as long as relief is forthcoming! A planned YOGA (YOGa and strengthening exercise for knee osteoArthritis) study was recently proposed to find out if yoga’s mind-body exercise format - recognized as improving flexibility, muscle strength, balance and fitness - might reduce the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis and even improve 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 impacted various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA and discovered that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were increased. (6) All these studies on various approaches to handle knee osteoarthritis may hopefully find a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.

CONTACT Moriarty Chiropractic

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.

Schedule your Nashua chiropractic appointment today. Do you suffer with knee osteoarthritis? Come in for a visit!