How do you feel when you meet an elderly person with a cane on the street?Surely sympathy, and also confidence that you will definitely not become like that!
Not a single energetic young man imagines his old age with illnesses and lameness;rather, the imagination imagines a young, smiling pensioner traveling around the world with healthy legs and a snow-white smile, as in the photo in foreign magazines.
But disease is an insidious thing.And especially joint diseases.Going unnoticed, various conditions gradually destroy and deform the joints, manifesting themselves one fine morning with pain and an inability to move normally.
Among all joint pathologies, judging by the number of requests for medical help, the main one is osteoarthritis of the knee joint (gonarthrosis, arthrosis of the knee joint).According to statistics, every fifth inhabitant of the planet over the age of 40 suffers from knee osteoarthritis, and this disease “loves” women more than men.
What is knee osteoarthritis and can it be avoided?Let's start with the definition of disease.
Osteoarthritis of the knee joint (gonarthrosis, osteoarthritis of the knee joint) is a degenerative-dystrophic change in the articular cartilage.
It can be primary or secondary, that is, it occurs against the background of other diseases.
Causes of osteoarthritis of the knee joint
Most often, gonarthrosis occurs due to:
- Traumatic injuries of the knee joint.
- Excess body weight.
- Increased physical activity, including when playing professional sports.
- Pre-existing diseases (usually arthritis of various etiologies).
- Weak ligamentous apparatus.
- Metabolic disorders.
How does osteoarthritis develop?
Osteoarthritis of the knee joint is divided into grades 1, 2 and 3. Let's take a closer look at its distinctive features.
Symptoms of stage 1 osteoarthritis of the knee joint
Gonarthrosis first manifests itself by pain that occurs when climbing stairs.A person feels discomfort in the knee joint, pain that makes it difficult to go down stairs.In other situations, pain almost does not occur, and therefore the patient happily forgets about it or takes his own therapeutic measures, completely trusting the advice of friends who “had it too”.
It is the frequency of occurrence of pain that postpones a visit to the clinic until later, which leads to the transition of the disease to a more serious 2nd degree.
How does stage 2 disease manifest?
Stage 2 knee osteoarthritis is characterized not only by severe pain, but also by limited mobility of the joint.
Pain occurs more often, not only during exercise, but also at rest.
It becomes difficult for the patient to bend and straighten the knee, and a characteristic crunching sound is heard in the joint during movement.
On visual examination, there is swelling of the joint and slight deformity of the joint.
It is patients with stage 2 gonarthrosis who are patients in the clinic, unable to cope with excruciating pain on their own and, suffering from limited mobility, they turn to a doctor.
Is grade 3 osteoarthritis synonymous with disability?
Stage 3 osteoarthritis of the knee joint is characterized by severe, constant pain in the joint and loss of mobility.X-ray examination shows dystrophic changes in cartilaginous tissue and severe deformation of the joint.So-called deforming osteoarthritis develops.
Arthritis pain tends to intensify at night and becomes more intense early in the morning.
A patient with grade 3 osteoarthritis can only walk with the help of a cane, remember our old man from the introduction?It's exactly him.
Tactics for treating osteoarthritis of the knee joint
The process of treating osteoarthritis is a long process and requires perseverance and patience from the patient.The basic principles of treatment of gonarthrosis can be called:
- Systematicity.
- An integrated approach.
Treatment of osteoarthritis should be carried out under the guidance of a doctor.It is he who must give you recommendations on how and how to treat the disease, which must be followed very carefully.You can also add traditional methods to your medical prescriptions, but only after having them approved by your treating doctor.
The beginning of treatment for gonarthrosis, like any other disease, begins with the organization of a gentle diet.With gonarthrosis, a gentle diet is created for the diseased joint.Physical activity and prolonged walking are excluded as much as possible.In your diet, you should limit the consumption of salt, sweets and fatty foods, and include more fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins in your diet.
Drug treatment
- To relieve pain, drugs from the group of analgesics and antispasmodics are prescribed.
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are very popular.Medicines of this group are not prescribed for prolonged courses due to the abundance of side effects.Therefore, long-acting tablets or injections and injections are more often used for treatment.NSAIDs relieve the condition of patients, but do not eliminate the causes of gonarthrosis.This mission has been entrusted by medical science to another group of drugs: chondroprotectors.
- The effect of chondroprotective drugs is based on the restoration of normal production of synovial fluid and damaged cartilage tissue.The drugs are very effective in the treatment of grade 1 and 2 knee osteoarthritis.
- Therapeutic ointments, gels, creams.They are applied locally, used in friction and compresses.The pharmacy chain offers a huge range of drugs from this group;when buying, you should not be guided by the advertising popularity of a particular ointment, but by the recommendations of a specialist.
- In case of exacerbation of the disease, not only exercise, but also massage and physiotherapy are excluded.They cannot be used in the acute period due to increased pain.As soon as the pain subsides, massage, exercise therapy and physiotherapeutic methods should be added to the drug treatment.The following procedures have proven themselves effective for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis:
- Laser.
- SMT.
- Electrophoresis.
- Magnetotherapy.
- Ozokerite.
Unfortunately, at stage 3 of the disease, treatment with chondroprotectors has no effect.
Traditional medicine and gonarthrosis
In traditional medicine, there are a large number of different recipes for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint.
Decoctions of medicinal herbs:
- lingonberries,
- cranberries,
- thyme,
- corn silk,
- golden mustache
Taken orally and used for compresses.There are also methods using alcohol tinctures for rubbing:
- bitter pepper tincture,
- fly agaric tincture,
- woodlice tincture.
Compresses with medical bile, apple cider vinegar, cabbage and honey compresses are also used in folk medicine.There is even a method to treat painful joints using raw fish, which is attached to the sore spot overnight!But we don't think there will be many fans of this recipe.
Important!Whatever folk remedies you choose, be sure to discuss the advisability of their use with your doctor!
How to prevent the development of gonarthrosis - preventive measures
Preventing the onset of osteoarthritis of the knee joint is not difficult if you think about it from an early age.How are prevention rules formed?Very simple.Read the causes of the disease and do everything to avoid them, namely:
- Do not overeat, stick to a gentle diet and the principles of good nutrition.
- We distribute physical activity wisely.
- Don't be too cold.
- Treat any illness in a timely manner.
- Avoid injury.
- Do gymnastics.
- Contact a specialist in a timely manner.
At first glance, the recommendations are quite simple.And if you follow them, gonarthrosis will not threaten you.And you don't have to worry about age - after all, at the beginning of the article we agreed to travel around the world on our own!