How to Protect Your Knee to Avoid Arthritic Conditions
Working as an Physical therapy Assistant in Southwest Florida, I see my share of arthritic conditions in the lower extremities. Most of the arthritic conditions I see are osteoarthritis of the knees. This is a major cause of knee pain in the United states due to obesity and lack of exercise. There are some cases of traumatic osteoarthritis that for the most part cannot be helped because if a joint has been previously injured the chances of osteoarthritis setting in later on are very good.
When discussing knee pain due to arthritis, generally you find an individual is overweight and, they have lost quadricep strength in the affected leg or legs as well. If you lack the proper strength in your thigh muscles for instance, then your body weight is driven directly through the knee rather then the muscle absorbing your weight with each step you take. Poor muscle strength and atrophy of the legs themselves are one of the biggest problems that older adults will confront. By building a strong pair of legs you place the burden of the workload on the muscles instead of the knee joint itself.
In regards to obesity as you get older, you loose muscle and your metabolism slows down. You in turn start to gain weight which again, in our society we have been lead to believe that is the way it is. That cannot be further from the truth.
By getting resistance exercise started and cleaning up your overall diet, you begin to put on some lean muscle which in turn burns calories. When you burn calories you loose weight. When you loose the weight your knees then do not have to take the pounding every day that they do when you are carrying excess weight.
Though this may seem rather simplistic I can assure you it works. Exercise and diet is your answer in regards to prevention of arthritis. Now if you already have an arthritic joint then range of motion and exercising the muscles around the joint is your main objective to prolong the life of the joint.
Get busy today in defeating this chronic condition that pervades our society. You will be glad you did.