Ashburn and Herndon Chiropractic Exercise Ideas for Knee Osteoarthritis Management

Numerous people have knee osteoarthritis in both or one knee. That doesn’t cause sufferers to feel any better about it. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn has some new exercise tips and treatments our Ashburn and Herndon knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients will want to attempt.

KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS (KOA): What It Is and How Common It Is

Knee osteoarthritis is related to aging and everywhere! 86 million people around the world over the age of 20 were diagnosed with it in 2020. Typically, knee osteoarthritis sufferers feel a loss of knee extensor strength, a greater severity of knee pain, and a drop 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 been shown to positively affect cartilage structure despite not yet knowing which exercise is best. (2) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn sees new treatment ideas being published a lot.

KOA TREATMENT:  Your Ashburn and Herndon chiropractor has it.

A chiropractic treatment approach has demonstrated promise. A trial of treatment based on principles of Cox® flexion distraction decompression for knee osteoarthritis – that is 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) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn can link this treatment (and even some cartilage-supportive nutrition!) with your home-exercise for relief.

KOA TREATMENT: YOU, our Ashburn and Herndon knee pain patient

Even though the benefits of exercise abound for KOA is well established, 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 described satisfaction, pain reduction, and better physical function. (4) One 4-week intervention of unilateral, 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 improved extensor strength and neuromuscular function of the knee with KOA lasted for 3 months. (1) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn is pretty confident 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 described to find out if yoga’s mind-body exercise format - known to enhance flexibility, muscle strength, balance and fitness - might decrease 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 studied how blood flow restriction with low and high load resistance exercise of the KOA-affected knee modified various blood tests in female patients with single-knee KOA and found that markers for skeletal muscle tissues were increased. (6) All these studies on various approaches to manage knee osteoarthritis may hopefully unearth a way to ease/prevent/better manage this common condition.

CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn

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 Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic appointment soon. Are you ready for some knee pain relief? Come see us!