How to treat knee arthrosis to be effective? You need to help your body, reduce stress, normalize your metabolism, improve your bowel function, make it easier for your kidneys and liver. That is, to reduce excess weight, start eating right, reduce the amount of animal fats, meats, and easily digestible carbohydrates. Include vegetable-based dishes, fermented dairy products, rye bread, bran or wholemeal flour on the menu.
Correct diagnosis is the key to treatment. Joint injuries are a symptom of many diseases with different treatment regimes. Therefore, a diagnostic error, and even more an independent diagnosis, can be very expensive for the patient.
The question of how to treat knee joint arthrosis is not a new one for modern medicine. For its treatment, there are now several methods, both therapeutic and surgical. Since resorting to surgical methods is always the last resort, consider therapeutic methods.
Medicines
The effectiveness of the treatment depends on the stage of destruction of the joint, its opportunity. It usually starts with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
They have no direct effect on the cause of the disease and do not prevent the destruction of the joint, their effect is only in reducing the main symptoms. The signs of inflammation decrease, the swelling decreases, the pain disappears or becomes much less.
With the help of anti-inflammatories, intense pain is relieved, which allows a gradual change to other treatment methods, for example, massage, which would be contraindicated due to pain and inflammation.
But prolonged use of these drugs is undesirable, as it masks the manifestations of the disease, creating a picture of complete cure, but in fact the disease can progress. In addition, side effects can further increase cartilage destruction processes. Therefore, if there is doubt about the need for prolonged use of drugs in this group, preference should be given to selective anti-inflammatory drugs.
If the diagnosis is established - arthrosis of the knee joint, vasodilators are prescribed: strengthening the cartilage nutrition, the synovial membrane of the joint stops the destruction and increases the recovery processes. To reduce the allergic component, desensitizing drugs are prescribed.
Chondroprotectors in the treatment of knee arthrosis
How to treat arthrosis of the knee joint without trying to restore the structure of the cartilage damaged by the disease?
For this, a group of drugs called chondroprotectors is used.
Not only act on individual symptoms, but affect the cause of the disease, helping to improve the condition of the cartilaginous surface, improving the production of joint fluid and its lubricating properties.
They improve the production of synovial fluid, improve its properties and restore the cartilage substance. The only thing to remember is that you can only restore what is still there, but if the cartilage is completely absent, destroyed, there is marginal bone growth, these drugs will not help.
Therefore, the best result of using chondroprotectors will be if you start using them early, not after I or II degree of arthrosis of the knee joints and, in long strokes, several times a year.
Unfortunately, these tools are far from instant. Sometimes, it takes 2-3 treatment cycles to get the result, and it takes from six months to a year and a half. And the drugs in this group are completely ineffective in the third stage of the disease, when the cartilage is already completely destroyed. But even so, of all the drugs used for osteoarthritis, chondroprotectors are the most useful for the patient, in addition, they have almost no contraindications and side effects.
Joint injection
Intra-articular drug injections have a good effect, however, it should be borne in mind that the procedure itself can injure the capsule tissue and cause infection of the joint cavity. As a rule, corticosteroid drugs are injected into the joint. For long-term action, steroid hormones are used (if necessary to relieve severe inflammation).
This procedure is usually performed to provide emergency care to a patient. This provides quick relief from pain and inflammation. But it is undesirable, for a number of reasons, to inject into the same knee more than once every 2 weeks.
If the joint is calmer, there are no obvious signs of inflammation, chondroprotectors can be injected directly into the joint, they quickly reach the target and have a positive effect.
Significantly improves the sliding of the articular ends of the bone in relation to each other and reduces the load on the injections of hyaluronic acid in the cartilage. Of course, these drugs are highly effective if there is no pronounced destruction of the cartilage.
External installations
Patients often wonder how to treat knee arthrosis with external means. After all, the first thing you want to do with your knee pain is to rub it and wrap it very hot.
Unfortunately, neither ointments, creams, nor all types of friction can cure arthrosis. But they can relieve the patient's condition, reducing pain and not acting irritatingly in the gastrointestinal tract, such as anti-inflammatories. Heating ointments are used, as well as ointments based on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The skin absorbs only 5-7% of the active substance, so the effect of these ointments is not as effective as we would like.
But arthrosis compresses for the knee joint are more effective. For them, medical bile can be recommended. They alleviate inflammation directly in its focus, have analgesic and resolving effects.
Massage and physiotherapy
Physiotherapy for osteoarthritis also has a positive effect. Procedures such as ultrasound, laser, magnetotherapy, phonophoresis are used. Thanks to them, the sensitivity to pain in the joints decreases, the inflammatory processes in them decrease and the swelling is removed.
You can use radon, salt baths, apply bile compresses.
If possible, you can take a course in manual therapy, traction. In this case, the tips of the bones move away from each other and the load on them decreases. Only handling must be carried out with great care and by a qualified specialist. Manual therapy and massage of the knee joint also give good results, improving blood circulation in the diseased joint, interrupting the development of destructive processes and restoring its function as far as possible.
Massage is especially effective in the early stages of the disease, when it has not yet had its full destructive effect. It is good to do this after corrective gymnastics. Taking a hot bath or being in a steam sauna is a good preparation step for a massage. After that, the muscles are heated and the massage has a deeper healing effect. In the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint, sanatoriums also have a beneficial effect. Therapeutic mud improves the course of regenerative processes in the cartilage, improves the supply of nutrients to the joints and the blood supply to them.
If the joint is completely destroyed, only surgical treatment can help - replacing it with an artificial one.
Preventive measures: reduce the destruction process
The prevention of arthrosis results from the causes of its occurrence, the main ones being: overweight, trauma and low physical activity. Physical education, performing viable physical exercises, strengthens the muscles around the joints. Thanks to this, the load on the cartilage decreases. Morning walks and swimming are helpful.
At the same time, it is important to observe the alternation of load and rest and due safety during exercise. Injuries and overloads must be avoided in every way possible. After all, injuries are a major cause of osteoarthritis. The appearance of micro-cracks determines the presence of initial foci of inflammation. Therefore, for athletes and sports enthusiasts, one should not forget about protective equipment such as knee pads.
The prevention of knee joint arthrosis also implies adherence to the diet. Every extra pound of weight puts additional pressure on your leg joints. You need to eat less sweet and starchy foods, fruits and vegetables - as much as possible. Studies show that vegetarians are much less likely to develop osteoarthritis. Coffee and strong tea have a negative effect on the joints, they eliminate calcium from the bones, but natural dairy products help replenish their reserves.