Many people over the age of 50, especially women, have varying degrees of knee pain, which tends to present initially as a mild dull ache that is intermittent and improves with rest. However, if left unattended, it may recur. Some older patients with osteoarthritis disease often feel that the onset of knee pain often occurs after exertion, such as walking a long way that day carrying a large bag of things, or returning from a climb, etc. In addition to this, there is also a link between the onset of pain and the weather, with the knee being particularly bad when the weather suddenly becomes cold and damp. When in pain, most people naturally reduce the movement of the joint – walking less or even walking with a limp (the painful leg is basically unstressed). The pain is relieved with rest, but it may be temporary. If care is not taken, over time, as the number of episodes of joint pain increases, gradually the patient will feel inflexible and stiff, for example, when changing from sitting to standing, the leg will not straighten out at once and will need to kick a few times or rub the knee to barely walk. This is because the joint has degenerated and as a result, sterile inflammation (arthritis) has developed. The so-called degeneration is actually a kind of aging. When exercising, take care of your joints People who are in their young and middle-aged years are as healthy as ever, and their knees are naturally healthy. Many people start to experience degeneration of joint cartilage in their 40s and 50s. The degeneration of the joint gets worse with age, and in theory, it can only get progressively worse overall (or remain largely unchanged), “Once the cartilage has degenerated, it’s almost impossible to reverse it to normal, and it’s unlikely to get any better than when you were younger,” says Prof. Liao Weiming. Therefore, if you want to walk without a limp (or even stand up straight) in your old age, you should treat your joints well and take care of them when they are not severely degenerated and deformed. Joint maintenance, the most important two points: First, the appropriate working conditions and weight-bearing posture, to avoid adverse work or life posture and state damage to the joints, such as prolonged weight walking and standing, prolonged squatting or kneeling squatting; second, to choose the appropriate exercise, but also choose the right amount of exercise, or in the exercise to avoid damage to the joints, the so-called appropriate exercise and the amount of exercise. The so-called appropriate exercise and the amount of exercise is not to feel the discomfort of the joints during and after exercise; third, pay attention to warmth, to avoid too cold and too wet outside environmental impact; fourth, to pay attention to weight, to avoid excessive weight to increase the load on the joints. Appropriate exercise, for young people, also includes the prevention of sports injuries. Young people, especially men, generally like to do some competitive sports, such as playing soccer, badminton, basketball, etc. The bouncing, stopping and turning in these sports may contain movements that acutely change the direction of joint movement, which is especially likely to cause sprains, meniscus tears and joint cartilage damage, affecting the health of the joints. Therefore, before performing these exercises, be sure to warm up first, so that the joints, ligaments and muscles are ready to exercise, while paying attention to the appropriate degree of exercise and the amount of exercise. After work to exercise, but also every hour to move In contrast, some young people do not like to exercise, especially urban office workers, they can even sit in front of the computer for half a day because of the nature of the work without moving the position, this situation, not only to the cervical lumbar spine is not good, the knee joint is also not good. The reason why the knee joint can be stable, flexible movement, because there are many ligaments around the joint protection, so that the knee can support the weight of the whole body, if sedentary or do not exercise, the muscles are not strong, ligament relaxation, knee activities may be “errors”, the knee is prone to injury. Of course, some people have noticed their lack of exercise, so they will go to the gym or sports field after work to exercise. Professor Liao Weiming stressed that “exercise after 8 hours of work is certainly good, but if there are conditions, every hour to take a short break to move the cervical lumbar spine and joints, the human spine and joints to maintain a healthy state is beneficial. Sitting for a long time, most of the muscles of the human leg will be in a state of relaxation without contraction, and the muscle does not contract for a long time, its strength will weaken, blood circulation will also become worse, resulting in muscle, tendon, ligament strength; on the other hand, part of the muscle ligament may be in a long time stress and spasm, easy to occur muscle ligament fatigue, secondary to osteophytes. Every once in a while the appropriate activities of the spine and joints, the spine and the muscles around the joints can be properly exercised, so as not to “use into the waste” situation, the spine and joints can also maintain normal conditions. It is important to keep your knees warm even if you don’t feel cold. Keeping your joints warm may sound like something for the elderly, but it is not. The knee is a “skin-and-bone” structure, and when you feel it with your hands, you can feel the bones underneath the skin, so it is not protected by a thick layer of fat or muscle, which means it is especially cold. Cold is an irritant to the joints, and it can also lead to sterile inflammation, which can damage the health of the joints. Therefore, joint (especially knee) warmth should start at a young age. Many women still wear short skirts in the middle of winter, when they are both moving and “freezing”. The root of arthritis is laid behind the freezing. See here, it is estimated that many beautiful women will retort: “then wear short skirt stockings, really do not feel very cold, do not feel the knee cold, this should not be a problem, right?” The reason for this is that arthritis is a multifactorial and cumulative process, because the body has the ability to repair itself, but when the symptoms of discomfort appear, it means that the situation has developed “out of control”. Therefore, both the elderly and children should pay more attention to keeping their knee joints warm. Of course, warmth can be passive or “active”. Active warming means improving the body’s ability to protect itself from the cold, such as winter swimming, cold baths (cold showers), etc. “Active” warming requires gradual and long-term adherence, and still requires keeping the joints “warm” after “cold” activities. “Warmth”. Each individual feels the cold differently, so you should choose the “active” and passive ways to keep warm according to your actual situation. In cold weather, it is a good idea to wear warm knee pads such as wool and cashmere around your knees. However, wearing sports knee pads for long periods of time is not necessarily a good idea, as they can cause the muscles and ligaments around the knee to “slacken off” and lead to disuse atrophy, which in turn can aggravate joint degeneration. Sports knee pads should be worn during exercise, but not for long periods of time in daily life without special instructions from your doctor. Two questions to ask your doctor before surgery For people who already have degenerative osteoarthritis in the knee, delaying or stopping the aggravation of the arthritis is the most important and the goal of their treatment. In milder cases, when knee pain occurs only occasionally, one should try to use treatments that are not traumatic to the body, such as weight loss, not lifting and holding heavy objects, and reasonable exercise, actions that aim to reduce the excessive load placed on the joint. These actions are aimed at reducing the overload on the joint. Since the knee joint has to bear the weight of the whole body (including the weight of the things you carry and carry) when you stand up unless you do not walk upright, avoiding overload on the knee joint is the most basic and important of all treatments. The proper use of topical medications and physical therapy can also reduce pain and stiffness in the joint, enhance the tone of the muscles around the joint, and increase the stability of the joint. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain medications are commonly used to relieve symptoms. These medications have the effect of eliminating inflammation in addition to relieving pain. However, the application of such drugs needs to be used under the guidance of a physician to avoid adverse drug reactions. In the early and middle stages of osteoarthritis, it is also meaningful to inject sodium hyaluronate into the joint cavity. Sodium hyaluronate is like a lubricant for the joints, forming a protective film on the surface of the joint cartilage, which lubricates and protects the joint cartilage. Surgical treatment may be considered when the patient has more severe persistent pain in the knee joint, and significant joint movement disorders that affect work and life. Before deciding to have surgery, ask your doctor two questions: First, do you have to have surgery? Second, what kind of surgery? One is arthroscopic surgery, which is suitable for patients with mild to moderate osteoarthritis, especially for patients with free bodies, mechanical compression, swelling, and fluid accumulation in the joint. The other refers to artificial joint replacement surgery. Artificial knee and hip joint replacement is a mature surgical procedure that can provide pain-free, better functioning joint activities for patients with severe pain and dysfunction and effectively improve the quality of life, but the acquisition of good results depends on accurate mastery of surgical indications, good surgical techniques and proper pre- and post-operative management. Joint replacement surgery must be strictly indicated, and patients must have long-standing and persistent pain, joint deformity or dysfunction, severe osteoarthritis clearly evident on X-ray, and proven ineffective with conservative treatment, and no more effective surgical alternative to address the problem. Moreover, the implementation of artificial joints requires specialized techniques, preoperative evaluation and scientific and rational management during the perioperative period, and good functional rehabilitation, and is not just a matter of surgery, therefore, it requires a strong comprehensive hospital and qualified joint surgery specialists to obtain the desired results. There is another type of surgery called osteotomy, which is mainly used for external bony deformities of the knee joint due to trauma or developmental factors, and can be used to correct poor force lines in the lower extremity and improve joint function through osteotomy. These patients are usually relatively young and do not have significant osteoarthritic manifestations to be considered for this type of surgery. Therefore, prior to surgery, it is important to consult with the surgeon about the need for surgery, what type of surgery will be performed, the results and the occurrence of complications. If there is a significant deformity in the leg that is visible to the naked eye in elderly patients, such as a leg that does not extend straight (or has poor flexion), or has a significant X-shaped leg or O-shaped leg, combined with persistent pain and dysfunction, “this indicates that their condition is more serious and likely requires joint replacement therapy,” Professor Liao Weiming told the audience. “Of course, the need for surgery and whether the patient can afford it need to be combined with the patient’s clinical symptoms, local manifestations, imaging, physical condition and other specific circumstances and a comprehensive assessment before a realistic choice can be made. Moreover, surgery does not solve all the problems and does not completely achieve a normal joint, and surgery also carries the risk of complications. Therefore, although surgery is proven and effective, it needs to be chosen with care.”