WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT KNEE ARTHRITIS -SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES

 What You Need To Know About Knee Arthritis - Symptoms And Causes

 

Do you have knee arthritis? Do you hesitate to get out of bed every day because your knees are stiff and sore every morning when you walk? Learn all about knee osteoarthritis in today's video.

There are different types of arthritis, but osteoarthritis is the most common one that people struggle with. Let's talk about the causes of knee arthritis. What symptoms should you have to make sure you have it? Treatments for knee arthritis are available. My name is Dr. David Minkoff and I am a physical therapist specializing in manual physical therapy in El Paso.

 What's more, It is committed to assisting individuals with remaining solid, dynamic, and portable while keeping away from pointless medical procedures, injections, and prescriptions. The big question is how does osteoarthritis of the knee happen? I have a picture to show you to help explain

And to give a literal definition of osteoarthritis, bone means joint and that means swelling, so if we're talking about osteoarthritis closely, it's swelling of the bony joints of the knee, but I'll use arthritis for short. As arthritis when dealing with psoriatic arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis

If you have any problems, you may want to find another video to learn more about these issues. Since this is going to be entirely about osteoarthritis of the knee joint, my pictures here show how knee arthritis can happen here. Here's a picture of the front of the knee, the patella is in the black spot, you can't see it there.

And I'm going to highlight the purple and orange parts. The purple is the knee cartilage at the end of the femur. This is a side view of the knee joint. This is the front patella of the femur. The femur is here and the tibia is the tibia.

The orange color here is the meniscus on top of the tibia and the purple covering on the right is the cartilage of the knee joint, so what's happening here in red is the muscle here, this is the front of the thigh. Thighs here, quadriceps, and hamstrings on the back of the thigh. I want to emphasize that

What I wrote in red is that the quadriceps and hamstrings put a lot of pressure on the knee joint, and when these two muscles meet, they put pressure on the knee joint and cause irritation and inflammation of the knee joint. Over time, it causes problems in cartilage and meniscus.

Excessive compression is unacceptable. You can take it for short periods like a day or a few weeks, but within a few months, it really starts to irritate and damage the meniscus, which is a type of cartilage. If this doesn't pan out, I'll do a little analogy so you can see what it's like over time.

Arthritis actually progresses over time. This should make more sense if you've ever worked with your hands and had blisters or calluses on your skin. This is the same concept that happens inside the knee joint with the meniscus.

Blisters occur when you lift weights with your hands. If left untreated, the blister may break open and bleed. Too much pressure on the cartilage can cause it to bleed, just like putting too much pressure on the cartilage. If you continue, your skin may become inflamed and tear and break, just like a callus

Applying proper force to the skin and giving it time to rest and recover will thicken the skin and prepare it for gardening and exercising again in the future. The same can be said about the cartilage of the knee joint and the meniscus, as well as blisters and skin cuts that bleed.

Gradual loading over time actually makes it more dense and able to withstand the loading force. The problem is that if the pressure on the knee joint is always high and you don't give it a chance to rest, the cartilage and meniscus of the knee joint don't get a chance to fully heal and can become thicker.

Because of its high density, it can withstand the forces you wear without becoming damaged or inflamed over time. If this continues over the years, it can lead to holes in the cartilage and a bone-to-bone condition. Now there are situations where the bone beneath the cartilage is exposed or the bone itself begins to change and even create osteophytes, which are lumps.

The basic structure of the bone changes to the bone visible on X-rays. Doctors may tell you it shouldn't be there. There is a big bump on the bone. The reason this happens is that the bone is subjected to a lot of force and it thickens in response to that force.

Excessive force puts pressure on the meniscus, the inner cushion of the knee joint between the femur and lower leg, and if the pressure continues over time, it can compress the meniscus to prevent further damage to that area. This is why joint space reduction can be seen on x-rays, which are usually measured for diagnosis.

For knee arthritis, let's talk about the signs and symptoms of knee arthritis. To find out if you have it, lift your feet off the bed and if your legs and knees are stiff and painful, start putting weight on them.

Stiffness is a big sign that a knee arthritis problem is developing or already very developed. Another common symptom is age over 50, but it is sometimes seen in people under 50 in their 40s. Knee osteoarthritis is usually treated by people in their 50s and 60s because it becomes more common with age.

In the case of knee osteoarthritis, that's what we tell people is that osteoarthritis is an age-related disease because we have people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. I don't have arthritis and I can't say it's because of my age.

The knee joint is equivalent to the beginning of arthritis. Some people get it in their 40s. Because the thigh muscles have grown so much that they put a lot of pressure on the knee joint. their age, but the amount of pressure for how long they maintain that pressure.

The older you live, the more likely you are to develop arthritis problems, especially if your knee joints are overstressed by muscles. What I talk about at the end of the video is that when it comes to stress on the knee joint, it can be reversed.

It can greatly reduce arthritis problems regardless of age. Another common sign or symptom is thigh muscle stiffness. The same muscles I mentioned. Knee problems can cause pain because they tend to change the way you walk.

It affects the joints that go up the body's articular chain. Another big symptom of knee arthritis is that it hurts when you do too much. Doing too much with the knee can exacerbate knee problems because it increases the stress on the knee.

Joints If you move an already overstressed knee joint, it's time for it to become more irritated.

A meniscus tear or partial meniscus injury, caused by the same underlying problem as excessive pressure on the knee joint that compresses the meniscus, usually occurs in knee arthritis. Let's talk about the treatment options available. Try to be less active. Stop doing this or that exercise. Stop running. Stop lifting weights.

Things like that, they say, really reduce inflammation in the short term and tend to make knee joints a little happier and simple movements like getting out of bed a little easier, but it's short-sighted and doesn't give people a chance to process. . Muscle imbalances that put too much pressure on the knee joint, but may help in the short term.

They take less medicine and visit the doctor more often. They also give injections and cortisone injections for knee pain.

For knee arthritis, it is designed to reduce inflammation and pain in the knee joint, but of course, this is also short-term and does not solve the problem of pressure in the knee joint. Broken or severely damaged chondrocytes do this

With other therapies like stem cells and platelet-rich plasma infusions, it's really interesting and we're excited to see where the field goes, but it still solves the problem of too much pressure. no In the knee joint treatment that I have seen, some people have improved by injecting platelet-rich plasma and stem cells into the knee joint.

To be honest, some didn't change. I haven't seen anyone get worse, but I still don't know if they have muscle imbalances, or too much pressure on the knee joint. If you spend a lot of money on reconstructive medicine, it won't be covered by your insurance.

They have long been concerned with correcting the underlying problem to ensure long-term improvement in knee arthritis problems. The first type of knee arthritis is arthroscopic surgery, where a small incision is made.

They enter around the knee joint with a camera and several instruments and perform various tasks. You may repair your meniscus. You may clean your knee joint. It is called knee arthroplasty or knee replacement because it is commonly known that the less common surgery is cartilage grafting.

And that means taking a piece of cartilage from anywhere in the body or from a dead body and putting it in your knee to fill a hole in the cartilage. But as professional physiotherapists, we understand people with knee arthritis problems. we do. Time and we help them get much better naturally without surgery.

I know that injections and painkillers or in other words helping someone with knee arthritis won't cure arthritis, but losing joint space in the knee and x-rays will show the problem. Get treated and go there at the end of the treatment

Their x-rays are probably the same as they were originally, but the differences include mobility, range of motion, feeling in the knees, and often the ability to get up and do life's tasks. I woke up in the morning with less stiffness, I woke up easier, I no longer hesitated to wake up in the morning, and I resumed exercise

If you're looking for exercises and natural ways to improve knee arthritis problems, even weighted squats like running can help people with knee arthritis go up and down stairs without pain. May. We provide free exercises to help you from the video linked in the description below

There is also a 28-day knee health and wellness program for knee arthritis problems. The link is in the description below. It's a comprehensive 28-day, completely online, on-demand program to get you started. Improves knee joint health so you can regain an active and healthy range of motion.