Treat Your Own Knee Arthritis

Download or read book Treat Your Own Knee Arthritis written by Jim Johnson (Physical therapist) and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2010-12 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you're looking down at your arthritic knee and seeing only a worn-out joint with eroding cartilage, you're thinking about your knee the wrong way. There are two problems with this line of thinking. First of all, the structural changes that commonly take place in arthritis, things such as cartilage loss, meniscus tears, and bone spurs, can all be found in people with no knee pain. Consider the study that looked at 319 subjects between the ages of 25 and 74 with knee arthritis on x-ray - and found that only 47% had knee pain. Put another way, 53% of these people were walking around with knee arthritis and no pain. Yet another study looked at 49 subjects over the age of 45 with no knee pain or arthritis, and found that 76% of them had meniscus tears The second problem with focusing on the structural changes in knee arthritis is trying to figure out what's causing your pain. Most of the numerous structures in your knee have nerve pain fibers going to them, so good luck trying to pinpoint which one(s) are the exact source of your pain. In fact, about the only knee structure we can safely rule out is the articular cartilage that can be seen wearing out on x-rays Knee cartilage itself actually has no pain fibers going to it, and therefore cannot produce any pain. So what now? Treat Your Own Knee Arthritis takes a new approach to an old problem. Instead of worrying about structural problems (that studies show people can live just fine with) you will learn how to fix the functional problems found in knees with arthritis. And as the research shows again and again, if you improve functions such as the strength and proprioception of your knee, the pain goes away. Based entirely on randomized controlled trials, Treat Your Own Knee Arthritis is a simple, yet effective program that can be done in the privacy of your home with minimal cost or equipment. Exercise sheets are also provided to help guide you step-by-step through a six-week program.