If you’ve been reading my articles for some time, you know how I get when a doctor tells one of my clients that there’s nothing that can be done for their pain. Just the other day one of my Pilates students told me that her doctor said there’s nothing that can be done for knee arthritis. Well, that’s not exactly true.
While there’s currently no cure for osteoarthritis, there is much that can be done to reduce your pain and help you prevent further disability.
Exercise is the top way to manage arthritis pain, yet nearly one third of patients with arthritis don’t take advantage of this tool. Mostly because for people with painful joints, exercise is the last thing they want to do.
Most doctors and physical therapists agree that exercise is the best way to manage osteoarthritis. There is much evidence that exercise can help reduce pain and improve physical function in both hip and knee osteoarthritis. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, physical activity can decrease pain and improve function 40% in adults with arthritis.
Exercise also plays a large role in preventing disability by improving joint range of motion and maintaining the muscle mass that supports your joints.
In another recent study, exercise was shown to have a structural benefit to osteoarthritic joints. In a study of about 1200 people with knee osteoarthritis, those who walked for exercise not only reduced the frequency of their knee pain, compared with non-walkers, but they were 20% less likely to see continued deterioration and narrowing of the joint space! Cool!
Beyond symptom and impairment improvements, exercise can also play a role in reducing additional chronic diseases linked to osteoarthritis, such as cardiovascular disease. Physical activity and exercise “are effective in preventing at least 35 chronic conditions and treating at least 26 chronic conditions, with one of the potential working mechanisms being exercise-induced anti-inflammatory effects,” wrote the authors of a commentary in the Journal of Orthopedic.
The known mental health benefits of exercise can also be beneficial for reducing depression and anxiety, which is often higher in people with arthritis. Certainly, anyone with chronic pain deals with a great deal of stress just managing to get through each day.
Guidelines which recommend that adults should get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week are being changed due to recent studies showing the benefits of much less than that. For people with chronic pain, anything that they can do is of benefit.
One study that looked at over 1500 adults with hip and knee joint symptoms showed that as little as one hour of physical activity per week significantly increased the likelihood of maintaining disability-free status over four years.
In another meta-analysis, looking at 280 studies, researchers concluded that resistance training resulted in moderate improvements in pain and physical function, and these benefits do not depend on spending an hour in a gym every day!
“These findings highlight the flexibility available for clinicians in the prescription of resistance exercise for knee and hip OA without compromising improvements in pain and physical function,” the authors wrote.
Step counts can be another way to measure activity, and as discussed in my recent article , 10,000 steps is not the optimum goal. Fewer steps a day brings many health benefits. One study found that among nearly 1800 participants with knee osteoarthritis, each additional 1000 steps per day was associated with a 16%-18% reduced risk of developing functional limitations two years later. Walking 6000 steps a day was the threshold that best determined who would develop functional limitations and who would not.
Taking a ten-minute break for a walk around the neighborhood after lunch is a simple way to begin a program to reduce your chronic pain and keep it from causing further disability. After several weeks, maybe you can plan an additional ten-minute walk after dinner. Remember that anything you do is going to help you in the long run.
The World Health Organization recommends focusing on a combination of aerobic activity, functional balance, and strength training. All my Pilates and Yoga classes include balance and resistance exercises; join a class and see for yourself! Many of my students have arthritis and are able to do the exercises. Pilates is not just for your 20-year-old granddaughter!
It’s important to choose something that you enjoy doing because consistency is the most important thing to reduce your pain and prevent further disability. If you like to swim, that’s an exercise recommended for people with arthritis. Maybe you prefer Tai Chi to Yoga or Pilates. Find something that you know you’ll keep doing, because the most important thing to reduce your pain and prevent further disability is, to do it. That does not happen overnight. There’s no pill you can take to make it all go away, it takes a bit of work. I’ll be honest with you, some exercises may be a little difficult in the beginning. Maybe there’s a leg exercise that is repeated ten times in a class. Just do as many as you can – even if that’s 1 or 2, and then stop and take a few deep breaths. You can increase the reps as you get stronger. Just keep going!
Here’s one knee exercise that most docs and Physical Therapists recommend, but this is a version that I have modified. I have added the squeezing step in the video as my research has shown this helps to strengthen ALL the muscles surrounding the knees, not just those above and below. Check it out!
Best of Health,
Kathi
