Many people, especially the elderly, often say to us, “If you don’t keep warm when you’re young, you’ll get cold legs easily when you’re old.
Whenever the sky is cloudy and rainy or the climate turns cool, there are often many patients with knee pain aggravated, these patients are mostly middle-aged and elderly, so it is also called “old cold leg”. Cold Legs is actually the medical term for arthritis! Arthritis is significantly correlated with age, gender, obesity, excessive weight bearing exercise, and genetic susceptibility, all of which can lead to the development and exacerbation of osteoarthritis in the lower extremities, and you will find that patients with osteoarthritis are often more sensitive to cold. However, in medical research, there is no direct relationship between cold, exposure to cold and the onset of osteoarthritis. A survey done in four regions of China, including northeast and south China, found that the incidence of osteoarthritis in people in cold regions is not higher than in other regions, but if you have osteoarthritis and do not pay attention to proper warmth and timely addition of clothing, it can lead to painful episodes and aggravation of the disease. Why is this? Medically, we can get the answer. The relationship between cold and pain is mainly caused through blood circulation. As the temperature drops, the blood vessels in the skin contract, resulting in poor blood circulation, so inflammatory factors that would otherwise be carried away by the blood will collect locally in the joints, resulting in pain. So the pain, because of the accumulation of inflammatory factors, and not because of other reasons, which is often said to be the root cause of pain caused by the old cold leg. Therefore, when you have old cold leg, you should pay attention to keep warm and add clothes in time to reduce the pain. The treatment is usually divided into three stages, early oral anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, functional exercises, hot compresses, physiotherapy, etc.. Arthroscopic surgery is an option in the middle stage. Arthroscopic treatment of knee osteoarthritis is still effective for some of the early patients, and many patients who are unable to work or walk due to knee swelling and pain are treated by arthroscopic surgery with obvious results during the follow-up period. All are able to live and work normally. The late stage treatment is what we often call the ultimate treatment, artificial joint replacement.