”My leg hurts so much!” In life, we hear this a lot, parents who are over 100 years old more or less complain about a few words of leg pain. Most of the leg pains here are knee pains. From crawling to walking upright, humans have completed an important evolution. Walking upright has allowed us to save more energy, but it has also caused humans to suffer from knee pain! This is because the cartilage and subchondral plates of the joints are subjected to daily mechanical forces caused by upright walking and various activities. After middle age (45 to 50 years), aging is accompanied by a gradual decrease in muscle function and a decrease in the function of the peripheral nervous system. This means that the nerve and muscle responses are not coordinated, and once the mechanical forces exceed the capacity of the articular cartilage, they will wear it down little by little. When the cartilage between the joints is damaged and becomes rough, the joints become like rusted door shafts that are not only hard to turn but also loud. This means that osteoarthritis occurs, and it can also bring a series of symptoms. For example: joint pain, early pain is mild, mostly occurs during activity, and relieved after rest, later, pain at rest, and often nocturnal pain. Overexertion may cause sudden increase in pain. Morning stiffness of the joint is limited and relieved by activity. This stiffness does not last more than 30 minutes, and if it exceeds one hour, it may be what we often call rheumatoid arthritis, rather than osteoarthritis. Difficulty in movement is gradually aggravated. Early on, it is mild, only in the morning or after sitting for a long time, and can be recovered after activity; as the disease progresses, the symptoms gradually worsen to the extent that the range of joint movement is significantly reduced. For osteoarthritis, fellow women need to pay more attention: osteoarthrosis occurs more frequently in women than in men around the time of menopause, and the incidence is twice as high in women as in men. The ratio of men to women in cases undergoing surgery is more than 1:8, which is also much higher than in men. This may be related to the following factors: women’s ovarian function gradually decreases after the age of 45, and menopause enters menopause after the age of 50 or so, and estrogen levels drop significantly, making joint cartilage metabolism weakened and prone to degenerative changes. In addition, most middle-aged women are fat and gain weight significantly. Some occupations that require frequent standing and walking, such as weavers and salesmen, are mostly women. Women generally perform more household chores (especially squatting) than men. Can osteoarthritis of the knee be prevented? Although aging is inevitable, there are ways to prevent or delay the onset and progression of osteoarthritis of the knee, and you must learn them! 1. Avoid wind and cold: Wear knee pads or elastic bandages to protect our knee joints. 2, reduce weight: the incidence of obese women is 4 times that of normal weight women, while the incidence of obese men is 4-8 times that of normal weight, the incidence of osteoarthritis of the knee can rise or fall by 40% for every 4-5 kg increase or decrease in weight, the benefits of weight loss are obvious to all. 3, appropriate exercise. In addition to weight loss, exercise muscle is also very important. But not all exercises are appropriate, it is best to do more exercises that the knee joint likes and less exercises that the knee joint does not like. Exercises that the joints like: swimming and cycling, muscle exercise The most beneficial exercise for the joints, the first choice is swimming, this exercise is basically no pressure on the joints of the whole body, but can enhance the cardiorespiratory function, make the muscles developed and powerful, reduce abdominal fat, maintain a proportionate body shape, this activity can be carried out every day, each swim is not too long, do not make the body overworked. After all, swimming is a condition, and cycling is also a good choice. Bicycling is relatively less stress on the knee joint, while cycling can maintain the mobility of the joint, the strength of the muscles around the joint can be enhanced. You can also do muscle exercises at home: straight leg raises, lateral leg raises, and prone knee flexion exercises 2 to 3 times a day, 20 to 30 strokes each time. Exercises that the joints do not like: going up and down stairs, half-squatting and running Minimize weight-bearing exercises for the knee joints such as going up and down steps and running to avoid and reduce the wear and tear on the joint cartilage. Older people should not take a half-squatting position and make the knee joint sway back and forth. The pressure on the patellar surface is greatest in a half-squat, and rocking can aggravate wear and tear, resulting in osteoarthritis of the knee. What should I do if I have osteoarthritis of the knee? If you have osteoarthritis of the knee, in addition to the above-mentioned preventive measures, you should also go to a hospital specialist for treatment in a timely manner. Here we will talk about how to cure. 1, conservative treatment: (1) drug therapy NSAIDs drugs: reduce pain, inhibit inflammatory response analgesic drugs: simple pain relief cartilage repair drugs: glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, etc. Topical medication: a variety of pain relief cream or application, etc. (2) intra-articular injection intra-articular cavity injection of sodium vitreous acid, increase the nutrition of joint cartilage, increase joint lubrication; if added trimethoprim and other drugs, is (3) Functional exercises such as: daily or every other day. You can do quadriceps exercise, you need to sit on a chair, and lift the lower leg and the ground at an oblique angle of 30 degrees, hold for 10 seconds, then put down the leg and slowly do the relaxation action. Sometimes both legs can also do alternate method, repeatedly. (4) Physical therapy, etc. Acupuncture, massage, massage and other traditional treatments can have some effect. 2. Surgery: (1) Arthroscopic surgery Osteoarthritis with obvious meniscal damage, free body and other diseases. For this kind of disease, arthroscopic knee joint cleanup, repair cartilage damage, remove the free body, can relieve the symptoms to a certain extent. (2) Osteotomy Osteotomy is indicated in cases of malalignment of the joint, uneven load distribution, overload on one side while the other side is intact, or inversion or valgus deformity of the knee. (3) Joint fusion This procedure is performed by removing the joint surface and fusing the bone to the bone, which can relieve pain and restore stable weight-bearing capacity, but at the expense of joint movement. It is less commonly used. (4) Artificial joint replacement The ultimate solution for osteoarthritis of the knee is to replace the joint surface with an artificial knee joint. In severely degenerated knees, artificial joint replacement has the combined advantages of relieving joint pain, maintaining joint mobility, maintaining joint stability, and not affecting limb length.