Health Topics
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Healthy Living
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November 2009
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| Avoid Knee Pain this winter |
| Dr KJ Reddy |
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Our pain threshold goes down during the winter months as the nerve endings get hypersensitive. So the same pain inflicted during summer and winters are different and the body screams out from a lesser amount of pain in winter than in summer. |
Those suffering from arthritis would thus need an increased dosage to get relief from the same pain. Operatory procedures are also required at times. The bones and joints are most easily affected during this time and the knee joint, being more superficial (with less muscle and fat covering) than say the hip, is more exposed to the vagaries of the weather, and becomes the commonest joint affected.
Prevention
Most people with knee pain, especially those with arthritis, have the misconception that walking around will wear their knee out further. They couldn't be more wrong. It is by flexing the knee more that they get more blood circulation going, increase the joint nutrition and make the muscles and bones there stronger.
If knee pain has not set in yet this winter for you, it is advisable that you set time apart – from today itself (you have time to finish reading this article though) – to prevent it. Just ensure to get into a regular activity like cycling, swimming or walking on a flat surface for 40 minutes to one hour everyday, without fail. If you start these activities before the onset of winter, you would be giving your knees a healthier chance.
And in case your regular knee pain has already set in, take a Crocin tablet or two – yes, that old trusted painkiller – and start on with the above mentioned activities. There are activities that you should not do too: climbing up and down the steps, getting up from a very low seating position (like an Indian closet) and heavy physical activities. In a couple of weeks, your pain should subside.
Winters are the time people visit the orthopaedicians most, and even request for knee surgeries. The advisable option is to preferably wait out the winter (and do these activities instead), and consider the surgical option only if the pain persists during the summer.
Seeing a Doctor
Your orthopaedician would mostly take an X ray first, of your knees. They would be able assess the existing damage with this, and advise you on the way ahead. Along with medication, your doctor may advise you a course of physiotherapy. This will strengthen your muscles, increase your range of movements with the affected joint and make your bones stronger.
Knee Supports
Our immune system is up and active against intruders like these. Chemical warfare ensues, where the immune system pours substances on the microbes to kill them. This war within our body, like any other, causes damage elsewhere too – wherein symptoms like fever, chills, fatigue, etc. are expressed.
Apollo Knee Clinics
Apollo Hospitals has opened their nationwide comprehensive Knee Clinics. They will be one-stop centres for those suffering from knee pains, particularly as the winter season which escalates joint pain is at hand.
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The Knee Clinic will cover six stages of knee disease with
- Prevention and early diagnosis, through Basic Knee Checks
- Accurate diagnosis, with Advanced Knee Checks and arthroscopy (both diagnostic and therapeutic)
- Effective treatment, leading even to knee replacement surgeries, where required
- The post treatment stage or the rehab stage is critical in managing knee pain, and the rehab specialist who would be associated with the first three stages will help maximise benefits of any surgical intervention performed
- Disease management programme involves long term management of knee disease. Apart from consultations with a specialised nutritionist, rehab specialist and orthopaedician, the physiotherapist will also give the patient hands-on training to take care of his knee. The physio will call on the patient at his home in the subsequent months to review the adherence to the therapeutic protocol. An annual report sums up the condition of the knee and suggest further course of treatment
- The Knee Clinic will also have a (stem cell) research division. This will also look into developing and injecting the patient's own healthy cartilage back into his knee
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Dr. KJ Reddy is Sr. Orthopaedic Consultant at Apollo Health City, Hyderabad |
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