Every day, our knees must withstand body weight and physical activity.Over the years, the cartilage wears down and changes occur in the joint.It is for this reason that older people experience arthrosis of the knee joint.
Osteoarthritis of the knee joint (gonarthrosis) is a degenerative pathology of the joint in which cartilage is destroyed, muscles and ligaments are damaged, and bones are deformed.
Treatment of arthrosis of the knee joint at home is a certain set of actions that alleviate the patient’s condition.
If therapy is supplemented with competent medical prescriptions, the progression of the disease can be slowed down and sometimes completely stopped.
Symptoms and causes of joint arthrosis
The first of the signs indicating gonarthrosis of the knee joint is stiffness in the knee and the appearance of pain after minor exertion, sleep and long sitting in place.If the patient warms up a little, the pain will subside.When bending the knee, a crunching sound is often heard, and after hypothermia the pain worsens.
Such signs of the disease appear over several years and are sometimes disturbing.If the problem is not treated, over time it becomes difficult to walk, the knee joint becomes deformed, and it becomes impossible to move without crutches.
The following can help accelerate the development of pathology:
- Excess weight of the patient, which triples the rate of progression.
- Regular exercise.
- Meniscal injuries, fractures and knee injuries.
- Defects in bone placement (X and O-shaped).They deform the cartilage tissue and the joint as a whole.
Stages of development of arthrosis of the knee joint
Stage 1
The legs become very tired, mobility begins to become limited and a crunching sensation appears.Joint pain also occurs at rest and during prolonged exercise.At this stage of the disease, there is no deformation of the knee and the joint gap can only narrow.
Stage 2
Deforming arthrosis of the knee joint, grade 2, requires immediate treatment, as the pain becomes severe and limits movement.A person is unable to move over long distances and needs a lot of rest.With a loud crunch and deformation, lameness appears.The bone grows and osteophytes form, fluid accumulates in case of synovitis.
Stage 3
The most difficult stage of the disease.Pain appears even at rest, and the leg becomes almost motionless.The joint gap may disappear completely.
Who is at risk?
- people with extra pounds;
- everyone who leads a sedentary lifestyle;
- patients with knee injuries;
- professional and amateur athletes who place a lot of stress on their knees;
- people with a profession that puts a lot of stress on their knees;
- patients with pathologies of cartilage and bone matter;
- people with infectious diseases and parasitic diseases.
All these reasons accelerate the development of the disease at an early age and lead to a complex course of the disease.
Treatment of arthrosis of the knee joint
At the moment, doctors do not single out a single treatment regimen, since there is no specific medicine that helps patients in the same way.When planning treatment at home, doctors take into account the degree of the problem, the patient’s age, the severity of pain and the degree of joint deformation.
That is why it will take a long time and diligently to treat such a disease, using various methods of influencing the sore knee.
Principles of nutrition
Everyone should understand that it is necessary to begin treating arthrosis at home with a diet correction.In this case, an increase in the amount of calcium, vitamins “B” and “E” is considered a prerequisite.The body can obtain these elements from sprouted wheat, dairy products, almonds, whole grains, bread and pasta.
Salt needs to be limited and increased in vegetarian salads and vegetables after rapid heat treatment.
Anyone planning to treat arthrosis to any degree should exclude acidic fruits such as grapefruit, lemons, oranges, as well as alcohol and coffee from their diet.The amount of meat consumed will have to be minimized, as will dried fruits and cereals.
Jellied meat made from bone broth is considered a healthy dish, since it is enriched with collagen, which is required for the construction of cartilage and bone matter.It is equally important to use gelatin, which contains the main chondoprotectors.
Gymnastics
Even in the most advanced degree of arthrosis, treatment involves performing three exercises:
- You need to sit on a high chair or table so that your legs hang down freely.Then they begin to chatter them with an amplitude of up to 10 cm. Severely ill patients are allowed to perform the exercise for 5 minutes every hour, and for other patients - 10 minutes a couple of times a day.
- Sitting on a chair, place your feet on the floor.Leaning on the toe, the heel lifts off the floor by 12 cm and then falls freely.After 3 seconds, the exercise is repeated.For both sore legs, the exercise is performed alternately.
- Sit on a chair and place your feet on the floor.Then, leaning on your heel, relax and slowly slap your toes on the floor, raising them no more than 12 cm. Take a 3-second break between exercises.
Knee joint massage
At home, you can independently work on the knee joint with arthrosis, using blows through the fingers, palm and slaps.
Under the influence of spanking, the skin activates nerve pathways and provokes a rush of blood.By blows through pressed fingers, the impact spreads to the muscles, ligaments, tendons and joint capsule.Thus, blood is squeezed out of the capillaries more easily without damage.
The treatment should begin with tapping with pressed fingers in painful places.The kneecap is struck from the side.Hitting a very sore joint should be done as carefully as possible, and as it recovers, they should be slightly strengthened.
The damaged tendons must be tapped carefully, and then struck with a pressed palm on the right, left, in front, on the straightened leg, under the knee, and on the bent leg.The session ends with spanking.
Number of required procedures:
- moderate arthrosis – once a week;
- mild stage of arthrosis – once every 23 days;
- severe arthrosis with inflammation and swelling - once every half month.
Magnetotherapy
This procedure can easily be carried out at home, and will not further deform the knee.For many years, magnetic therapy has been tested in practice and has always shown excellent results.
A knee joint affected by arthrosis can be treated at home under the influence of a weak magnetic field.This treatment normalizes blood circulation and metabolism.Thus, the outflow of fluids from tissues accelerates.
To treat a problem with a magnet, you do not need to perform complex actions.The procedure requires only a small magnet.Massage the area of the injured knee with circular movements for 20 minutes once a day.The duration of such treatment is usually up to three months.There are many reviews about the treatment of grade 2 arthrosis of the knee joint with a magnet and they are all positive.
Thermal treatments
The ability to carry out thermal procedures at home is limited.Instead, you can use wet and dry heat - foot baths and compresses.
Add sea salt (a spoon per liter) to water heated to 45°C, and then pour it into a high tank so that your knees are completely immersed there.Warm water helps dilate blood vessels, and salt removes excess fluid from the periarticular tissue.
Sand with coarse salt or a mixture of dry herbs is heated in the microwave or in a frying pan, and then wrapped in thick material and cooled to room temperature to apply to the knee.After such treatment, the compress is not thrown away - it is used for the entire course.
At the end of the thermal procedure, a gel (ointment) prescribed by the doctor is applied to the knee joint.With enlarged pores, the drug penetrates better and has a stronger analgesic effect.
Treatment with medications
At home, treatment of arthrosis of the knee joint of varying degrees of complexity can be carried out with local drugs with anti-edematous, anti-inflammatory, warming and analgesic effects.The advantage of these funds is the possibility of long-term use.The active substance of the ointments does not penetrate in such a volume as to cause side effects.Thus, the circle of people for whom treatment is available is expanding if a course of injections or tablets with the active substance is prohibited.This applies to NSAID drugs that are prohibited for people with chronic and acute gastrointestinal diseases and other ailments of internal organs.When used topically, they provide pain relief and relieve inflammation in arthrosis.
Traditional recipes for the treatment of knee arthrosis
In nature, amazing medicinal plants are known that are necessary for the production of collagen and the restoration of cartilage matter.
- Gelatin- a popular treatment for joints.To prepare the medicine, you should take a spoonful of gelatin and pour a quarter glass of water into it in the evening, and in the morning, when it is swollen, consume it on an empty stomach.For a full therapeutic course you will need 150 g of gelatin.The drug is contraindicated for those with high blood clotting.
- Dandelion– freshly picked flowers are thoroughly washed under water and then chewed to a pulp.You need to eat up to 5 flowers per day.For treatment in winter, it is worth preparing the leaves of the plant.The leaves should be chewed daily, despite the bitter taste.Dry grass is poured with a glass of boiling water and soaked.Dandelion tincture has an excellent effect.You need to rub it on your knees for a month.The pain will go away quickly, but the procedure must be continued.To prepare the remedy, collect many dandelion heads and fill a bottle with them, and then fill it with alcohol or triple cologne.The tincture will be ready in a month.
- Honey and bee products– a unique remedy for arthrosis of the knee joint.Honey is heated with a heating pad and then applied to the affected area, rubbing in with light circular movements.The process is carried out once a day for half a month, and after a break the session is repeated again.
- Burdock– a common plant for treating joints.You need to take 6-7 burdock leaves and fold them with the fleecy side down.Place a pan of hot water on this stack until it cools.The knee is lubricated with vegetable oil, leaves are placed on top and wrapped in polyethylene and a towel.
- Cinquefoil and cinquefoil (tincture)– cinquefoil and cinquefoil roots (2:1) are poured with vodka and left to infuse for 20 days.The finished product is taken orally, one spoonful before meals, for a month, and then take a break.The combination of herbs relieves swelling, increases joint mobility and eliminates crunching.
- Cabbage juice– this product should be soaked in woolen material and applied to the sore spot.The procedure is carried out before bedtime.The finished juice is stored for no more than three days in a dark place.You can make compresses from cabbage leaves.The inside of the leaf is smeared with honey and applied to the sore knee.This is then reinforced with polyethylene and wool cloth overnight.The compress is removed in the morning, and the remaining honey is removed with warm water.The course of treatment lasts a month.
- Compress of curdled milk with chalk– add a fermented milk product to the ground chalk, mix thoroughly and apply the mixture to the knee joint.After insulation with film and cloth, the next morning the residue is removed with a napkin.Chalk compress relieves inflammation and relieves pain.
- Therapeutic bath with pine– coniferous plants are always used for the treatment of arthrosis of the joints and most often in the form of baths.To prepare the medicinal mixture, take pine branches with needles, a couple of chopped Jerusalem artichokes, 1 tsp.turpentine, 1 kg sea salt, 2 tbsp.l.honeyYou can stay in such a bathroom for no more than 20 minutes, and then wipe your skin with a towel.A mesh of iodine is drawn on the sore joint and smeared with honey.A steamed mesh of pork fat is also applied there.The course of therapy for arthrosis is two weeks.
Osteoarthritis of the knee is a disease that most people often have to deal with.Therapy at home helps stop the progression of the disease, as well as completely restore joint matter.Moreover, the effectiveness of the methods depends on the patient himself and his desire to recover.