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If knee pain leaves you, don't assume surgery is mandatory. Physical therapy may be just that. Photo: iStock |
Physical therapy and weight reduction can relieve knee pain and protect your mobility.
Evidence
Safran-Norton is a physical therapist and strongly believes in trying physical therapy before resorting to knee surgery. There is science to back up this notion. For example, although Americans undergo 460,000 surgeries every year to trim torn men's cartilage, Safran-Norton and her colleagues wrote. New England Journal of Medicine that physical therapy was just as effective as surgery when it got here to improving knee function and reducing pain from a torn meniscus.
A study published last yr Arthritis and Rheumatology It found that about one-third of total knee replacements within the United States are inappropriate, suggesting that some people get knee replacements unnecessarily. About 700,000 total knee replacements are performed within the United States every year.
Stop surgery
Safran-Norton recommends that an individual with knee arthritis or a torn meniscus undergo at the least three months of physical therapy as the primary line of treatment. “There's a lot we can do with stretching and therapeutic exercise,” she says.
The first step is to start a series of exercises to strengthen the muscles that work with the knee, including the quadriceps and hamstrings within the thighs, the gluteal muscles within the buttocks, and the abdominal muscles. If these muscles are strong, they'll absorb more pressure in your knee, which can relieve pain.
The second step is to stretch the muscles that support the knee, akin to the hamstrings and calf muscles, in addition to the iliotibial band—a thick band of tissue that runs along the skin of your leg—to maintain them healthy. To keep flexible, and immune to injury. This style of strengthening and stretching program provides weeks of relief. “You'll notice a difference after going to physical therapy once or twice a week for two to four weeks,” says Safran-Norton.
Other treatments
Physical therapy may be complemented with other technique of pain relief:
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Weight loss. Losing kilos reduces the stress in your knees.
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The injection. Corticosteroid injections can temporarily reduce pain and swelling, making it less painful to take part in physical therapy.
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Acupuncture. Studies on whether acupuncture relieves knee pain are mixed, but Safran-Norton says the treatment is useful for some people.
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Supplements. Research is mixed on whether chondroitin and glucosamine supplements reduce pain, but Safran-Norton says some people find the pills make a difference.
Move of the Month: Squeeze Ball
Photo: Michael Carroll Photography. |
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This exercise works your abdominal muscles and inner thigh muscles, and may be done on a mat, bed or couch. |
Lie in your back together with your knees bent and feet flat. Place a small ball (about 12 inches) between your knees. Keep your arms at your sides. Tighten your abdominal muscles. Squeeze your knees together against the ball. Catch, then let go. Repeat eight times. |
