How to treat knee arthrosis so effectively? You need to help your body, reduce stress, normalize metabolism, improve bowel function, ease kidney and liver. That is, to lose excess weight, start eating properly, reduce the amount of animal fats, meat, carbohydrates that are easily digested. Include in the menu dishes made from vegetables, sour milk products, rye, bran bread or wheat flour.
Proper diagnosis is the key to treatment. Joint lesions are a symptom of many diseases with different treatment regimens. Therefore, diagnostic errors, and even more independent diagnoses can be too expensive for patients.
The question of how to treat knee joint arthrosis is not a new thing for modern medicine. For its treatment, there are now a variety of methods, both therapeutic and surgical. Since switching to surgical methods is always the last method, we will consider therapeutic methods.
Medicine
The effectiveness of treatment depends on the degree of joint destruction, punctuality. Often start with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
They do not directly affect the cause of the disease and do not stop the destruction of the joints, the effect is only to reduce the main symptoms. Signs of inflammation decrease, swelling subsides, pain disappears or becomes less.
With the help of anti-inflammatory drugs, a strong sensation of pain will be relieved, making it possible to gradually switch to other treatment methods, for example, massage, which will be contraindicated due to pain and inflammation.
But long-term use of these drugs is undesirable, as they hide the manifestations of the disease, creating a complete picture of healing, but in fact the disease can develop. In addition, side effects can increase the process of cartilage destruction. Therefore, if there is a question about the need for long-term use of drugs in this group, priority should be given to selective anti-inflammatory drugs.
If a diagnosis is made - arthrosis of the knee joint, vasodilators are prescribed: improve cartilage nutrition, synovial membrane joints stop destruction and improve the recovery process. To reduce the components of allergies, desensitizing drugs are prescribed.
Chondroprotectors in the treatment of knee arthrosis
How to treat arthrosis of the knee joint, if not trying to restore the cartilage structure damaged by this disease?
For this, a group of drugs called chondroprotectors are used.
They not only act on individual symptoms, but influence the cause of the disease, help improve the condition of the cartilage surface, increase the production of joint fluid and its lubricating properties.
They increase the production of synovial fluid, improve its properties, and restore cartilage. The only thing to keep in mind is that you can only restore what is still there, but if the cartilage is completely gone, shattered, there is bone growth, this medication will not help.
Therefore, the best results from the use of chondroprotectors are if you start using them earlier, at the latest I or II stage of arthrosis of the knee joint, and, in the long run, several times a year.
Unfortunately, this gadget is out of date. Sometimes 2-3 courses of treatment are needed to get results, and this takes from six months to one and a half years. And drugs of this group are completely ineffective in the third stage of the disease, when the cartilage is completely destroyed. However, of all the drugs used for arthrosis, chondroprotectors are the most useful for patients, in addition, they have almost no contraindications and side effects.
Joint injection
Intra-articular drug injections have a good effect, but keep in mind that the procedure itself can injure the capsule tissue and cause infection in the joint cavity. As a rule, corticosteroid drugs are injected into the joints. For long-term action, steroid hormones are used (if necessary to relieve severe inflammation).
This procedure is usually performed to provide emergency treatment to the patient. This can relieve pain and inflammation quickly. But it is undesirable for some reason to inject into the same knee more often 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 achieve the goal and have a positive effect.
Significantly increases the sliding of the articular ends of the bones against each other and reduces the load on the injection of hyaluronic acid on the cartilage. Of course, this drug is very effective in the absence of significant cartilage destruction.
External facilities
Patients often ask the question of how to treat knee arthrosis by external methods? After all, the first thing you want to do with knee pain is to rub it and wrap it warmly.
Unfortunately, ointments, creams, and all kinds of scrubs do not cure arthrosis. But they can alleviate the patient's condition, reduce pain and do not act irritating to the gastrointestinal tract, as an anti-inflammatory drug. Warming ointments are used, as well as ointments based on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The skin only absorbs 5-7% of the active substance, so the effect of this ointment is not as effective as we would like.
But compresses for arthrosis of the knee joint are more effective. For them, medical bile can be recommended. They relieve inflammation directly in its focus, have healing and analgesic effects.
Massage and Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy for arthrosis also has a positive effect. Procedures such as ultrasound, laser, magnetotherapy, phonophoresis are used. Thanks to them, the pain sensitivity in the joints is reduced, the inflammatory process in it is reduced, and the swelling is removed.
You can use radon, salt bath, apply compresses with bile.
If possible, you can undergo manual therapy, pull. In this case, the ends of the bones move away from each other and the load on them decreases. Only manipulations should be done very carefully and by a qualified specialist. Manual therapy and massage of the knee joint also give good results, improve blood circulation to the diseased joint, stop the development of destructive processes in it and restore its function as far as possible.
Massage is very effective in the early stages of the disease, when it does not have a completely damaging effect. It is good to do this after doing recovery exercises. A hot shower or steam room is a good preparation step for a massage. After that, the muscles are heated, and massage has a deeper healing effect. In the treatment of arthrosis of the knee joint, sanatoriums also have a good effect. Mud healing improves the regenerative processes in cartilage, increasing the supply of useful substances to the joints and the blood supply to them.
If the joint is completely destroyed, only surgical treatment can help - replace it with an artificial one.
Precautions: reduce the process of destruction
Prevention of arthrosis stems from the underlying causes, the main ones being overweight, trauma, and poor physical activity. Physical education, doing physical exercises that can be done strengthens the muscles around the joints. Thanks to this, the load on the cartilage becomes less. Walking in the morning and swimming are useful.
At the same time, it is important to observe proper load replacement and rest and safety during training. Excessive injuries and loads should be avoided in every possible way. However, injury is one of the leading causes of arthrosis. The appearance of microcircles determines the presence of an early focus of inflammation. Therefore, for athletes and sports enthusiasts, one should not forget about protective equipment such as knee protectors.
Prevention of arthrosis of the knee joint also means adhering to a diet. Each extra weight puts extra pressure on the foot joints. You need to eat foods that are less sweet and starchy, as well as fruits and vegetables - as much as possible. Studies show that vegetarians tend to have arthrosis. Strong coffee and tea have a detrimental effect on the joints, they cleanse calcium from the bones, but natural dairy products help increase its storage.