Osteoarthritis is a word that must not be unfamiliar to people of your parents’ generation or grandparents’ generation. Usually when you get up, you have a vague pain, often too painful to move, and when you go down the stairs, your knees “click”, so walking becomes an ordeal, and squatting is a life-threatening thing …… According to statistics, 100 million people in China are suffering from osteoarthritis, and it is It is a common cause of joint pain in the elderly. So what’s wearing our knees out? What are the symptoms of osteoarthritis? How should it be treated? Is it still possible to exercise? Today, we’re going to answer all of these questions. What is osteoarthritis? Osteoarthritis is one of the most common forms of arthritis and is an asymmetric, non-inflammatory disease with no systemic signs, also known as degenerative joint disease. This means that it may occur in only one knee and is not due to inflammation, nor does it cause any symptoms elsewhere on the body. Rather, as a person ages, the knee ages and the joint gradually wears down and becomes rough and cannot be repaired. It is characterized by primary or secondary degenerative changes in the articular cartilage and the formation of bony growths at the edges of the joint. The pathological changes are mainly cartilage degeneration and subchondral bone lesions. Osteoarthritis occurs more often after the age of 50 and is more common in women than men. This is due to the fact that women have more prominent problems with osteoporosis during menopause due to hormonal changes, so we may be more likely to hear aunts and mothers complaining about knee pain rather than uncles. Osteoarthritis most commonly affects joints such as the knee, hip, fingers, lumbar spine, and cervical spine. Let’s take a look at a healthy knee compared to an osteoarthritic knee – left: normal knee right: osteoarthritic knee X-ray comparison What are the symptoms of osteoarthritis? There are four main features: 1. Joint pain: often occurs in the morning, but the pain is relieved after activity, and can be aggravated by excessive activity. 2. Joint stiffness: often occurs in the morning when waking up or during the day after the joint has been in a certain position for a long time. 3.Examination of the affected joints may show swelling and pressure pain, and a feeling of friction or a “clicking” sound when moving. 4. In severe cases, muscle atrophy and joint deformity may occur. How to treat osteoarthritis? Osteoarthritis troubles many people, but there are still clinical misconceptions about patients’ attitudes toward treatment. If there are young people reading this, they need to provide proper guidance and education to their elders, and if they are patients, they should trust the judgment of their doctors. Due to the lack of understanding of this disease, two extreme cases are often encountered in the clinic. One is that the condition is still relatively mild but is overly anxious and worried; the other is that the condition is already serious and requires surgical treatment, and there are misconceptions about surgery, even preferring to seriously affect the quality of life rather than undergo surgical treatment. The treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee is also divided into conservative treatment and surgical treatment, and the treatment principle follows the same principle of stepwise treatment as that of knee sports injuries. How to treat conservatively? Conservative treatment is appropriate when symptoms are just present, intermittent and mild. The main methods are: 1. Adjustment of lifestyle and exercise patterns. 2. 2. Avoid movements or exercises that increase the weight on the knee joint, such as climbing mountains, stairs, squatting, kneeling, etc. 3, strengthen the thigh muscle strength training, such as straight leg raising exercises. 4, and then assist physical therapy, such as hot compresses, baking electricity. Many patients with mild symptoms can achieve the purpose of reducing symptoms and slowing down the development through the above treatments. For patients who are not satisfied with the pain relief after the above treatment, anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs can be added intermittently, supplemented by crutches to reduce the weight of the joint. If these conservative treatment measures can relieve or control the joint pain and meet the individual’s needs for daily work and life, surgery is not necessary. What does surgical treatment involve? If the pain is not relieved satisfactorily after taking anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, or if the drugs are effective, but the pain becomes obvious once the drugs are stopped, and the quality of life is seriously affected, surgery should be considered. The surgical treatment options are: minimally invasive arthroscopic debridement, osteotomy deformity correction, unicondylar surface replacement, and total knee surface replacement. Each procedure has indications, mainly with reference to the severity of the osteoarthritis. Specific surgical options should be discussed with a specialist. What should I do to prevent and exercise for osteoarthritis? Knee cartilage degeneration gradually begins after the age of 30, so daily protection of the knee joint should be carried out early and early intervention should be made. 1, pay attention to the knee joint warmth: try to wear long pants (for the elderly can also bring knee pads, on the one hand to keep warm, on the other hand to prevent knee injuries), do not expose the knee joint directly to the cold air. 2. Hot compresses: to improve blood circulation, reduce knee discomfort, relieve knee pain and muscle spasm, and reduce swelling. Hot compresses are preferable to wet compresses, such as hot air baths and hot spring baths. Hot towels can also be used as wet compresses, but note that heat therapy should be stopped if there is redness and swelling in the joint. Hypertension, heart disease, and high temperatures in summer need to pay more attention. 3, the combination of work and rest: avoid excessive weight on the joints, long time in a certain position, especially less than 90 °, do not sit and stand for a long time. Should be appropriate joint activities, such as more swimming, adhere to more bicycles, less walking, especially less up and down steps and walking uneven road. 4, reduce weight: obese people should moderate diet, reduce weight, reduce the weight of the joint, more protein, vitamins and minerals food intake. 5.For those who have bad posture should be corrected as far as possible, use cane, crutches, reduce the weight of the joints. 6, reasonable use of braces: splints, knee brace, elastic straps, increase the stability of the joint. 7.Strengthen the knee strength exercise: see the corresponding content of the previous knee sports injury. 8, strengthen the knee joint range of motion training: seated knee swing flexion and extension exercises: sitting at the edge of the bed, the affected limb lower leg drops, the healthy limb to help press the affected limb to increase flexion. Kneeling knee flexion exercise: the patient sits on his knees in bed and kneels backwards on his own to increase the knee flexion angle.