“How can I deal with arthritis knee pain?”

Hi, please check out my social media posts on Facebook. YouTube or Instagram. There are exercises specifically for knee arthritis as well as an anti-inflammatory diet. If you need further help or advise you can schedule an appointment on my website www.chronicpainrescue.com

In general, people who have knee pain should start with a good stretching and strengthening program, guided by a good physical evaluation. Physical therapy is a great start, seeing a physiatrist or non-surgical sports medicine doctor is always a good place to start, too.

The first thing would be to do some strengthening and stability exercises. Glucosamine/ Chondroitin can help also. If that doesn’t help, I would recommend possibly trying PRP.

Arthritis is a type of inflammation at your joint. Specifically, your knee joint does get a lot of wear and tear and depending on how active you are during the day, your arthritis can get exacerbated. Although, arthritis is not fully curable, alleviating the pain through treating the inflammation with cryotherapy, NSAIDs, bracing, therapeutic taping, and strengthening the surrounding muscles can help. Ask your doctor for a referral to see a physical therapist to start you on a plan of care that can help alleviate the arthritis symptoms.

The best thing for arthritis is movement. Physical therapy can teach you how to strengthen the structures around the trouble area. It can also teach you how to effectively stretch.

Although there are a lot of things that can help in my experience the best long term help short of a knee replacement is to address the mechanics of your knee. Are you overweight? There is a lot of pressure placed mechanically on the knee and every pound you weigh exerts up to 8 x more force mechanically at the knee! Even losing a few pounds might help. Exercise to strengthen the muscles around the knee is also very helpful. P.T.'s are experts at helping you learn a few basic stretches and exercises that can help significantly. You can even find simple exercises posted on line for knee strengthening. Often the hip muscles are also weak which can contribute to poor mechanical control at the knee and a P.T. can evaluate you for that as well. I recommend avoiding impact exercise such as jogging, treadmill or any jumping because of the pressure this places on the knee. Water exercise is perfect because you get to strengthen without the impact.. If that is not available anything that keeps your feet inn contact with the floor or exercise surface such as an elliptical is easier on the knees. Additionally use of heat for brief periods, ice, TENS unit (can now be purchased online), and topical anti-inflammatory such as aspercream can help. If none of these things is working adequately a physical medicine specialist such as myself or an orthopedic specialist can offer you more treatment options.