Treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint at home.

Knee osteoarthritis is a disorder of the hyaline cartilage that surrounds the oval protuberances of the tibia and femur.This chronic disease develops slowly and progresses constantly, so the hyaline cartilage is gradually destroyed.In the later stages of the disease, the damage affects the joint and is transferred to a part of the bone located nearby.

If you have osteoarthritis of the knee joint, you can treat it at home, but before doing so it is worth familiarizing yourself with the basic principles.First, it is important to understand that therapy is a complex process.Treatment includes medication, diet, massage, exercise therapy, and physical therapy.

Osteoarthritis of the knee joint is called gonarthrosis, osteoarthrosis, depharthrosis.These are all different names for the same disease.

What is knee osteoarthritis?

Gonarthrosis is a progressive disease of the intra-articular cartilage in which the nutrition of the tissue surrounding the joint is altered.Osteoarthritis mainly affects older people.Less commonly, this disease affects professional athletes or people who do heavy physical work.

Symptoms

The main question of interest for people with signs of osteoarthritis is the symptoms and treatment of the disease at home.Before contacting a doctor, do not ignore the signals your body is giving you.The following symptoms indicate that you have gonarthrosis:

• pain that appears when running, walking vigorously, or climbing stairs;
• swelling, which is expressed by slight swelling of the kneecap;
• accumulation of fluid in the joint, causing an increase in its volume (the joint swells and becomes ball-like);
• feeling of stiffness or tightness in the knees;
• pain that occurs when rising from a sitting position and when taking the first steps after rising from a seat;
• heaviness in the knees;
• limited mobility;
• Sharp pain with any attempt to bend the leg.

The severity of the symptoms depends on the degree of gonarthrosis.In the early stages, pain appears rarely and disappears when the patient walks a certain distance.In later stages, signs of the disease appear constantly and do not disappear even at night.

Degrees of osteoarthritis

Doctors distinguish 2 types of gonarthrosis: primary and secondary.Primary osteoarthritis occurs in elderly patients and is associated with age-related changes in your body.Secondary gonarthrosis is a consequence of injuries, pathologies and developmental disorders.This type of gonarthrosis can appear at any age.

There are 3 degrees (stages) of development of the disease:

1. The manifestations of gonarthrosis in the first stage are mild.Dull pain occurs irregularly.In most cases, this happens in cases where the joint is subjected to heavy and prolonged loading.There is no deformation of the joint at the first stage of the disease, only slight swelling is possible.
2. In the second stage, gonarthrosis symptoms appear at regular intervals.The nature of the pain changes: the discomfort becomes sharp, intense and prolonged.Additional signs: the appearance of crunches, stiffness and slight deformation of the joint.
3. The third stage of gonarthrosis: clinical manifestations intensify to the maximum.The pain becomes constant, gait is disturbed, swelling increases and the temperature in the joint area increases.

In severe cases, fragments of detached osteophytes (growths on the surface of bone tissue) appear.This leads to a blockage of the joints, which is manifested by acute pain.Therefore, the patient cannot move independently.

Very often, patients wonder how to treat second degree osteoarthritis.At this stage, the vast majority of patients consult a doctor.However, you should not delay visiting a medical facility.The sooner you start treating gonarthrosis, the better the chances that the treatment will be successful.

Reasons for the development of the disease

The appearance of gonarthrosis is explained by a complex of factors.Doctors identify a number of causes of the disease:

1. Injuries: meniscus damage, tibia fractures, ligament damage.Pathology develops 3-5 years after injury, but in some cases it occurs much earlier, after 3-4 months.
2. Greater load on the joint.Gonarthrosis often affects professional athletes and people who do heavy physical work.The risk group includes people who started playing sports after 40 years of age.They do not take into account age-related changes, so they place an abnormal load on the joints.
3. Excess body weight.Excess weight causes greater axial load on the joints.The latter causes microtrauma, damage to the meniscus and ligament tears.The greater the patient's weight, the greater the risk of developing the disease.
4. Past illnesses.Pathologies that over time can lead to gonarthrosis include psoriatic, rheumatoid or reactive arthritis, gout and ankylosing spondylitis.
5. hereditary factor.The disease is caused by weakness of the ligamentous apparatus, which is genetically determined.

Doctors identify several more reasons: metabolic disorders, congenital anomalies, capillary fragility, circulatory pathologies, disorders of the hormonal and endocrine systems, old, untreated injuries.

Prevention

Prevention of osteoarthritis of the knee joints includes a set of the following measures:

• maintaining optimal body weight through proper nutrition and dosed physical activity;
• drink 1.5 to 2 liters of clean water per day;
• be careful when playing sports;
• See a doctor immediately if you experience discomfort in the knee area.

Experts recommend creating a diet taking into account the individual needs of bone and cartilage tissue.It is strictly prohibited to follow diets that are based on the rejection of certain foods (for example, cereals).This can lead to metabolic disorders and subsequent pathologies of the musculoskeletal system.

How to treat osteoarthritis of the knee joint at home?

To get rid of gonarthrosis at home, it is necessary to approach the treatment comprehensively.Therapy includes taking medications, following a diet, and physiotherapy procedures.Carrying out a massage for osteoarthritis is an equally important point that should be entrusted to specialist doctors.Self-medication can cause the disease to worsen.

Pharmacological treatment

Before treating knee osteoarthritis, it is good to know how to relieve knee pain.Reception of medications is the main part of treatment, the goal of which is to eliminate pain and restore cartilage tissue.

Medications for osteoarthritis.

To eliminate inflammation and associated discomfort, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are prescribed.This is a group of drugs that have a complex effect: they relieve pain, calm inflammation and reduce temperature.In the treatment of gonarthrosis, they are prescribed intravenously or intramuscularly.

Another group of analgesics are COX-2 NSAIDs.This category of drugs has a similar therapeutic effect, but the side effects of these drugs are milder.Medicines in this group can be used to relieve pain for several months.

Analgesics help relieve pain, but do not affect the cause of the disease.To cure gonarthrosis, it is necessary to take chondroprotectors, hyaluronic acid, ointments and other medications prescribed by a specialist.

Chondroprotectors

Chondroprotectors are a group of drugs intended for the restoration of cartilage tissue and the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis.The preparations in this group are made from animal or plant raw materials, hyaluronic acid, collagen and chondroitin sulfate.The latest generation drugs are a combination of the listed substances.They are also complemented with polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamins.

Chondroprotectors are available in the form of gels, ointments, tablets and injectable solutions.

Ointments

Ointments, creams and gels are products suitable for rubbing.They have a series of effects:

• warm the affected area;
• calm inflammation;
• Activates local blood circulation and distracts from pain.

hyaluronic acid

Hyaluronic acid is a substance that is part of epithelial, nervous and connective tissues.Preparations based on this component act on the joint in the same way as the natural lubrication of the joints, which is why they were given a second name: "liquid prostheses."

It forms a film on the surface of damaged tissue that performs a protective function.This helps prevent further destruction of cartilage tissue and improve the sliding of surfaces that come into contact with each other during movement.

Compresses with drugs.

To improve effectiveness, ointments and solutions in the form of compresses can be used.Ointments, creams or gels are applied to the affected area with a napkin and fixed with a bandage.A plastic film is placed on top and a cotton cloth on top.You can keep this compress on for no more than an hour.

Folk remedies

Traditional medicine combined with traditional medicine gives excellent results.

Rubs and baths

Rubbing is a mixture of medicinal solutions that is rubbed onto the skin of the affected area.The purpose is to improve blood flow, helping to warm the sore spot and distract the patient from the pain.It is recommended to use this method in combination with a sauna or hot bath.You must first warm up the body with hot water or a steam room in a bathhouse, and then apply a mixture of medicinal solutions to the sore area.

Infusions and decoctions

Infusions and decoctions will help relieve pain and improve the patient's condition in the initial stages of gonarthrosis.To relieve symptoms, the following home remedies are used: black bean herbal tea, lemon, garlic and nettle infusion, and beef hooves decoction.

Compresses

You can make compresses yourself based on natural ingredients.They are carried out in the same way as wrapping with ointments and solutions.You can use natural honey, clay, camphor oil and young dandelion leaves as a base.This compress can be left overnight.

Exercise therapy and procedures.

therapeutic gymnastics

Doing exercises for knee osteoarthritis at home is one of the most effective ways to self-treat this disease.Physiotherapy exercises are not prescribed for patients with exacerbations of gonarthrosis.You can perform exercises only during periods when there is practically no pain and mobility is not limited.

therapeutic massage

For gonarthrosis, experts allow self-massage of the knee joint.For the massage technique to give the expected result, it is important to perform it correctly.The knee joint massage technique is as follows:

1. Sit on a chair, bend your knees at right angles.To make it more comfortable, place a bench or small chair under your feet.
2. During the process, one hand should be behind the knee and the other in front.
3. There are several ways to massage the knee: rubbing with the edge of the palm, bending the hand into a fist or performing gentle circular caresses with the fingertips is allowed.

Experts recommend massaging the knee for osteoarthritis at home up to 5 times a day.The total duration of the procedure is up to 15 minutes.Contraindications for massage: acute stage of the disease, bleeding, vascular thrombosis, elevated temperature, fever.

Thermal treatments

This is an effective treatment method that is used in conjunction with other methods.The procedure is performed once the acute stage of gonarthrosis has disappeared.This treatment option aims to dilate blood vessels, activate metabolic processes, accelerate regeneration and increase joint mobility.Elimination of pain is another advantage that thermal procedures provide.

Magnetic therapy device

There is a device that emits a magnetic field that comes into contact with charged particles in the body and accelerates metabolic processes.Thanks to this, the restoration of cartilage tissue is stimulated, the production of natural lubrication is increased and metabolic processes are improved.

The device is often used in medical institutions and sanatoriums.Therapy with the device can also be done at home.The kit includes detailed operating instructions.

meal

A patient with gonarthrosis needs to lose weight and also eliminate harmful foods from his diet.Below we present two tables that will help you lose weight and eat healthy foods for your joints.

Useful and prohibited foods.

In the treatment of osteoarthritis, doctors recommend maintaining a normal weight and following the following diet:

Healthy Products	Prohibited products
lean meat; still mineral water; balls; cereals; poultry and fish; fermented dairy products; jellied meat made with bone broth; chicken eggs.	tomatoes; refined oils; mayonnaise; Fast food; alcohol; coffee; flour and sweet products; fruits with high acid content; sausages; sausages; fatty meat; pimento; white cabbage.

It is necessary to eat frequently and in small portions (up to 300 g).The last meal should be eaten no later than 2-3 hours before bedtime.

Diet example

Sample menu:

Breakfast	Lunch	snack	dinner	late dinner
buckwheat porridge with mushrooms – 150 g; piece of rye bread – 20 g.	Jellied meat cooked on pork legs – 250 g.	a glass of kefir – 250 ml.	mashed potatoes – 100 g; baked haddock – 80 g.	chicken breast – 80 g.

You can add any permitted products to the menu.The main rule is not to overload the body with heavy foods and eat according to a schedule.