Tiny Walking Changes Could Slow Knee Arthritis Down

The Huffington Post

Tiny Walking Changes Could Slow Knee Arthritis Down

While arthritis flare-ups can make you feel the need to rest more, the Arthritis Foundation described movement as the “best medicine” for the condition. Exercise strengthens the muscles around your joints, creating better support for your bones. Staying active also lubricates affected areas, making them less stiff. And according to research published in the journal The Lancet Rheumatology , a simple walking change can “reduce excessive joint loading related to disease progression”. In other words, the smallest of changes to a person’s foot position could help to stop knee arthritis from becoming worse. How might your foot position help with arthritis? In this study, the foot position of 68 participants with mild knee osteoarthritis ( the most common form of arthritis) seemed to affect how much stress was placed on their joints. After gait analysis, computer models were used to find their optimal foot position. Half of the people involved underwent training to adjust their feet to their best walking posture, while others were left to keep strolling as they were. They found that walkers who got used to changing their foot angle to the optimised position saw slower degeneration of their knee cartilage (the shock-absorbing tissue in joints which tends to break down in those with arthritis) than those who didn’t. Their pain score also went down 2.5 points, which was equivalent to the benefits seen from pain-relieving medication. Participants who didn’t adjust their feet, meanwhile, only enjoyed a roughly one-point pain reduction. And advanced MRI analysis showed that those who adjusted their feet according to the researchers’ guidelines experienced 4% less load on their knees while walking. Those who stayed the same saw a 3% increase in load. More load, or stress, on arthritic knee joints can make the condition worse . Researchers hope simple interventions like these could delay surgery “Altogether, our findings suggest that helping patients find their best foot angle to reduce stress on their knees may offer an easy and fairly inexpensive way to address early-stage osteoarthritis,” said Dr Valentina Mazzoli, study co-author and assistant professor of radiology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “These results highlight the importance of personalising treatment instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to osteoarthritis.” She added that the intervention could even help to put off invasive medical procedures, which are sometimes needed in severe arthritis cases, for longer. “Although our results will have to be confirmed in future studies, they raise the possibility that the new, noninvasive treatment could help delay surgery,” she shared. Related... Scientists Name The 'Most Beneficial' Exercise For Knee Arthritis If You Want Stronger Legs But Have Sore Knees, A Surgeon Loves 'Cyclist Squats' The Best Quad And Glute Exercise If You've Got Sore Knees

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