Osteoarthritis Treatment - Self Help

Various ways you can look after your knee joint in a non-drug way.

Your knee joints can become a source of great discomfort and pain when dealing with the degenerative condition called osteoarthritis of the knees.

Walking up and down stairs becomes pretty difficult, getting up after having a nap may prove impossible but there are ways you can help yourself feel better.

Osteoarthritis of the Knee

Management

The aims of management are:

to maintain full function and use of your knee joints
to relieve any pain
to prevent further degeneration of the bones in the knee joint
to enable you to live without any mental health issue as you learn to deal with the pain
to improve your quality of life.

Osteoarthritis Treatment

Living with osteoarthritis does not automatically mean your life is over. There are ways to manage your discomfort so as not to impact your normal life greatly and also to slow down the progression of the disease.

Simple things like regular exercise, protecting the joints from further injury and maintaining an ideal weight can work wonders for you.

Physical therapy

You need to maintain muscle strength as this takes some of the pressure off of the joints. A physiotherapist can help you decide what exercises will be most effective at building up muscle. An occupational therapist can help you figure out how to do the normal everyday things that may now be causing you discomfort like walking up stairs, getting into and out of a car etc.

Exercise

You may be in pain and believe that exercise is not something you want to take up, you may be surprised at how effective it can be (in moderation) in improving the discomfort you are feeling. There does need to be a balance between rest and exercise.

Things like range of movement exercises should be done in order to relieve any stiffness you might feel. This involves taking your knee forwards and backwards through its normal full movement and then going a little further to give it a bit of a stretch. This should be smooth and gentle.

Strengthening exercises, as mentioned above are essential as well.

Hydrotherapy is another option for exercise; Gentle exercises are done in a warm water container. The water carries a lot of your weight so you are able to do more when immersed in water. Swimming is another great exercise.

Other ways to manage osteoarthritis of the knee

Maintain an ideal weight or reduce to an ideal weight
There is more and more evidence that people who are overweight and obese are more likely to suffer from this condition. It can also make the prognosis of your case worse as you are placing your joints under further duress by the weight you are carrying as excess. Did you know that for every pound lost, you are reducing the weight on the knee by four pounds?
Apply warmth or cold to your knee
Use a hot water bottle or an ice pack to do this. It will soothe the immediate discomfort, though needless to say, this is a fairly temporary measure.

Knee Braces
Knee braces are becoming more popular as more evidence to support their use for osteoarthritis is becoming available. There are several types that can help to stabilise the kneecap and make it move correctly. These can be obtained online or by speaking with your physician
Vibration Therapy
Kneease is a groundbreaking new treatment that is helping people get their knees back. It is FDA and EU approved and has been proving very effective in providing drug free pain relief. It is definitely becoming an international brand as it has been sold as far as Japan and Australia as the only item on the international market to provide such effective relief.
Supplements
Glucosamine & Chondroitin is used by a lot of people who say it helps their knees be a lot more flexible. Fish Oil capsules are also another set of supplements that improve flexibility of the knee joint even if it does not help with pain, it increases your mobility.