Relief of Osteoarthritis Knee Pain without Drugs, Surgery
A breakthrough shows an effective treatment that relieves the pain of osteoarthritis in the knee without drugs or surgery.
The treatment doesn’t even require any hospital stay, recovery time or rehab exercises.
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition that involves a progressive wearing down or thinning of the cartilage in the knee joint.
For some patients the result is eventually a bone-on-bone contact, causing a lot of pain just from walking.
Bone-on-bone contact of osteoarthritis. Scuba-limp/Commonswiki
Pain Relief from Knee Osteoarthrits: No Drugs, No Joint Replacement
The simple and painless procedure is called geniculate artery embolization (GAE).
This image-guided treatment blocks arteries in the knee, resulting in less inflammation and therefore less pain.
“Geniculate artery embolization is a relatively new procedure [as of 2022] for treating arthritis pain in the knee,” says Marc F. Matarazzo, MD, a board certified orthopedic surgeon with Total MD Family Medicine & Urgent Care.
“There are several randomized controlled trials currently being conducted.
“This procedure uses a minimally invasive technique to disrupt the blood flow at the site of pain.
“It is thought that this inhibits neovascularization [growth of new blood vessels], leading to the breakdown of tissue and feeding of inflammation and knee osteoarthritis.
“There are some promising initial data regarding its efficacy.
“This should not be confused with geniculate nerve radiofrequency ablation, which is also a minimally invasive treatment for pain related to osteoarthritis of the knee.
“This procedure has a more established track record and has been shown in one study to be superior to NSAIDs and an intra-articular cortisone injection.”
How is GAE done?
• An interventional radiologist inserts a catheter through an incision the size of a pinhole.
• This blocks the very small arteries within the knee’s lining, reducing inflammation caused by the osteoarthritis.
• GAE is an outpatient treatment.
• It takes 45 to 90 minutes.
In a small study by Bagla et al, there were no adverse side effects of the procedure.
After one month, patients continued to report pain relief.
If you’re suffering from the pain of osteoarthritis in your knee, you may want to ask your orthopedic surgeon about geniculate artery embolization.
But keep in mind that GAE is not a cure for the degenerative process of osteoarthritis.
Dr. Matarazzo specializes in sports medicine and related injuries. He performs minimally invasive and complex reconstructions, and joint replacements, of the shoulder and knee. Dr. Matarazzo is certified in the MAKO robotic-assisted knee replacement system and has 20+ years of orthopedic experience. He has a special interest in cartilage restoration and preservation.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Depositphotos.com
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Sitting too Much Is Linked to Problems Peeing
The “sitting disease” is back in the news: Excessive sitting is linked to issues with voiding: lower urinary tract symptoms.
Problems with peeing in the case of extended sitting time refer to issues with urinating and/or storing urine.
The association between peeing problems and prolonged sitting (as well as overall sedentary lifestyle) is a finding that’s reported in the BJU International (March 2018). The study involved 69,795 Korean men of middle age.
Lower urinary tract problems were 39 per 1,000 person-years, says the study.
A person-year refers to the number of years of follow-up multiplied by number of people in a study.
Problems Peeing May Be Related to Excess Sitting Time
“The results support the importance of both reducing sitting time and promoting physical activity for preventing lower urinary tract symptoms [LUTS],” explains lead author Dr. Heung Jae Park in the BJU paper.
“Further studies are still needed to examine the influence of sedentary behaviors on LUTS and its determinants,” says senior author Dr. Seungho Ryu in the same paper.
Nevertheless, this study is an eye opener and brings more awareness to the sitting disease – which has been called the “new smoking,” because excess time with your butt in a seat is associated with the same severity and type of cardiovascular health problems as is smoking.
In addition to problems with peeing, excessive sitting is also linked (and very strongly at that) to coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, deep vein thromboses and spinal problems.
Rid the Sitting Disease
Two ways to break free of the sitting disease are to walk about the room or pace forward and backward while watching TV, and to get in the habit of using a treadmill desk for computer work.
You may also want to wear a high quality pedometer to track the number of steps you get in daily. Aim for at least 6,000 and ideally 10,000.
This will be an incentive to reduce your sitting time throughout the day.
If you regularly do stretching exercises for your legs, do them while standing.
For example, hamstring stretches can easily be done while standing by propping a foot on a height and gently leaning your chest towards your knee.
Additionally, see if you can replace some seated strength training exercises with a standing version.
For example, replace a seated dumbbell curl with standing, and seated overhead dumbbell press with standing.
Little changes like this will go a long way in cutting back on the amount of time you spend in a chair.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180321090926.htm
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