When knee osteoarthritis affects your wellbeing, it is a progressive and, currently incurable, condition, in which your knee’s cushioning cartilage is slowly and steadily lost. However, though you can’t stop knee osteoarthritis in its tracks, Dr Michael Parks, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, who specialises in knee replacements, says there are ways to slow the progression.
According to Dr Parks, ‘The most important is activity modification. It’s best, once you have a diagnosis of knee arthritis, to limit repetitive impacts on the joint.’ This means that, whilst it’s unlikely that long-distance running caused the arthritis in your knee, keeping it up once you’ve developed the condition isn’t going to do wonders for your wellness. Dr Parks recommends cycling, low-impact elliptical training and swimming, but you should avoid the breaststroke, as the whippy frog kick may put stress on your knee. ‘Water aerobics are also very good, especially for people who are older or overweight,’ he adds. ‘The buoyancy of the water unloads the knee.’
So if some activities aren’t helpful to your knee, why bother with it at all? Many studies have shown that some kind of activity is actually essential to slow the progression of knee osteoarthritis. The movement helps to bolster the health of your knee’s remaining cartilage, and helps you to maintain your weight, which puts less pressure on your knee. According to Dr Sabrina Strickland, an orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, ‘I tell patients; try to be as skinny as you can be,’ as it is ‘likely to make the symptoms better. Carrying less weight usually means feeling less pain.’
However, when it comes to supplements, such as glucosamine and chondroitin or shark cartilage, that are supposed to help rebuild your cartilage, Dr Parks warns, ‘there is very little if any science’ to show that they work as promised. ‘I tell people, if they want to spend their money on them, that’s up to them. There don’t seem to be any side effects, and some people do say it makes them feel better. But most people don’t get benefits.’
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