Non-Drug Treatments for Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis

Hip and Knee Pain

Are you feeling a terrible pain in your hip and knee? Sometimes such pain can be a symptom of hip and knee osteoarthritis. Are you looking for some effective treatment to get rid of osteoarthritis? If yes, then this article is for you. There are some Osteoarthritis conditions which can be cured easily, but not all the Osteoarthritis are completely curable. But with some precaution, you can live a normal life. There are also some non-drug treatments that you can follow to prevent such a condition. However, before that you should have proper knowledge about the hip and knee osteoarthritis, it causes, symptoms, etc.

What is Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis happens when inflammation to a joint causes a break down of cartilage tissue. The damage of cartilage develops pain, swelling, and deformity. If you don’t know more about the cartilage, it is like a rubbery material which covers the ends of bones in joints like hip and knee. Its made up of water and proteins. Even though cartilage may undergo some repair after damage, the body does not grow new cartilage.

The occurrence of hip and knee pain together can be a  major inconvenience. Such a condition if not treated as soon as possible, can greatly affect the body activities. You may feel pain while doing normal activities like walking, running and standing. Keen and the hip joints are the two important joints in the body. Both joints are located at the end of the thigh bone.

These two joints work together and provide support to the whole body weight. The joints are responsible for sustaining the movement of the body. Any kind of pressure on the hip joint can affect the knee joint. If the knee joint experiences any kind of disorder, it will affect the hip joint. The hip and anterior knee pain can range from mild, moderate to severe. Sometimes the pain can last for a short period or can last for weeks or months.[1]

Causes of Hip and Knee Pain

Fracture in Bone

Broken bones in the hip and knee cause sharp or deadly pains in the hip and knee. Broken bones in the hip and knee joints can occur due to shocks, such as bad fall and an accident. Such kind of problems is common with elderly people as they are more fragile.

Muscle Strain

There are lots of muscles in the knee and hip areas. When the muscles of those areas are overworked, they get strained. This causes sharp pain. Such a problem occurs when you engage in extensive physical activities without adequate relaxation for the muscles.

Osteoarthritis

The hip and knee joints have a tender tissue which is called a cartilage. It helps to create smooth mobility of the joints. When such tissue gets worn out due to osteoarthritis, the bones of the joints start rubbing with each other. Such a situation can cause knee pain.

Bursitis

When you have a condition like bursitis, this can cause pain around the kneecap and hip bone. An inflammation of bursa causes bursitis. Bursa is fluid in the sac which protects the hip and knee joints and bones. The most common symptom of bursitis is hip and knee pain while sleeping in a particular sleeping position.

Pregnancy

Knee and hip pain can occur during pregnancy as the body structure changes during the pregnancy. The increase in the size and weight of the uterus develops more pressure in the hip and knee joint. When the abdominal muscles are stretched, they put more strain on the hip muscles. This is why pregnant women often feel hip and knee pain.

Age factor

As you get older the ability of cartilage to heal starts decrease which causes unbearable pain in knee and hip joint.

Weight

More weights put pressure on the joints, especially on the knees. Every pound of weight adds around 3 to 4 pounds of extra weight on the knees.

Heredity

Genetic mutations can make a person likely to develop osteoarthritis of the knee and hip. It may cause due to inherited abnormalities in the shape of the bones near the joint of the knee.

Gender

Women ages 55 and up are more likely to develop osteoarthritis in the knee than men.

Other Types of Illnesses

People with rheumatoid arthritis can suffer from osteoarthritis. Those who have some kind of metabolic disorders, for example, excess growth hormone, can also face knee osteoarthritis.

Common Symptoms of Knee and Hip Osteoarthritis

• Sharp pain which increases when you do some activities and gets a little better with rest.
• Swelling in the hip and knee joints.
• Feeling of warmth in the joints.
• Stiffness in the joints, especially in the morning or when you have been sitting idle for some time.
• The decrease in the functionality of the knee, which make it difficult to get in and out of chairs or cars, or even while walking.
• Creaking sound while moving the knees.

Non-Drug Treatment to Get Relief From Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis

Are you a person who doesn’t like to take medicine? Do you have osteoarthritis and want to know about some non-drug treatments for this? The knee replacement surgery is a great way to treat knee osteoarthritis, but sometimes it may not offer you the desired result. There is a lot of non-drug treatments for osteoarthritis that you can employ to prevent knee and hip osteoarthritis.[2]

If you are not taking prescribed drugs to manage your osteoarthritis because of its side effects, medication interactions, and costly expense, here are the non-drugs treatment for you.

Educating the patients about such condition or understanding the condition

Before starting your treatments, you need to properly understand the disease so that you will be able to follow what the doctor tells you and know what you should  ask your doctor. Your family members, close friends, and close people can be educated about your condition along with you.

Various self-management programs

Only the doctor will not be able to manage your hip and knee osteoarthritis. You can choose some self-management programs which are created to help you in managing your condition. The self-management programs help you to learn various skills and methods so that you can manage the condition in a better way.

Such a program may consist of different elements like instant relaxation techniques, stress management, pain management, exercises and more. Such programs can be learned by attending self-management classes, reading different materials and following trainer instructions.

Weight Loss

If you have excess weight, there will be heavy pressure on your knee and hip muscles and joints. That’s why people who are overweight at high risk for developing osteoarthritis hip and knee osteoarthritis. That’s why it is important to keep good control over your weight. It has been proved that weight reduction could greatly enhance the recovery process after knee replacement surgery, lower the symptoms, improve the functionality of knee and hip joints, and lower the impact of different concurrent diseases.

Physical Therapy

A professional physical therapist can easily target the affected areas, and by providing adequate therapy, the therapist can enhance the strength and knee joint alignment. Most of the doctor advise their patients to go for therapy to prevent osteoarthritis. As there is no permanent solution for arthritis, this kind of treatment generally focuses on disease management. The therapist may advise you to use some types of biomechanical devices, for example, braces and belts to get comfortable during pain.

Join Aerobic Exercise Programs

Different aerobic exercises like cycling, walking, swimming, etc. work on your large muscles in continuous and rhythmical motion. While doing such exercises, blood pumps through the heart quickly. It has proved that aerobic exercise is important for good health, keeps your heart, lungs, and muscles healthy and fit. As per the Arthritis Foundation, you can easily enhance endurance, sleep, eliminate stress, strengthen the bone and control your weight by doing aerobic exercise regularly.

Stretching Exercises

Stretching exercises move the joint in all directions. You need to do such stretching exercises daily to keep your joints healthy and functional. Besides, stretching also eliminates joint stiffness and deformities. The range of motion exercises is quite helpful for arthritis patients, as they feel terrible pain while moving their joints. By slowly stretching the joints you can keep your knee and hip joint working.

Usage of Braces

Knee and hip braces are great things which provide perfect stability, support, and pain relief to the people suffering from knee and hip osteoarthritis. First, try out the braces to see if it works or not. Most of the doctors now advised using such braces after knee replacement surgery to boost up the recovery time. It provides you comfort to do your daily activities like walking. However, knee braces should be used along with other treatments.

The non-drug treatments focus on teaching you about the disease, strengthening your joints, protecting your joints, and helping you to do your daily activities with ease.

References

1..https://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/treatments/natural/other-therapies/nondrug-approaches-knee-oa.php

2..https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK333064/

3..https://www.bcmj.org/articles/evidence-based-guidelines-nonpharmacological-treatment-osteoarthritis-hip-and-knee