Knee wear and tear can cause such harm to the body

Knee wear is also called knee joint wear. It is a disease caused by arthritis or hypertrophic arthritis. It is generally common in middle-aged and elderly people. It is a high-incidence chronic joint disease. Joint wear can easily lead to damage to the soft tissue of the knee joint, endangering bone health. It is also very harmful to the body. It can easily lead to swelling and redness of the leg joints, restricted movement, etc. It can also easily lead to difficulty squatting and even loss of walking ability. It requires timely treatment and care. You can perform appropriate massage and eat more light foods.

Knee wear hazards

Knee cartilage wear, also known as knee joint degeneration, osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease, proliferative arthritis, hypertrophic arthritis, senile arthritis, etc., is the most common chronic, progressive joint disease. Its pathological characteristics are degeneration and destruction of articular cartilage, subchondral bone sclerosis, reactive hyperplasia of joint margin and subchondral bone, and osteophyte formation. The clinical manifestations are swelling and pain in the knee joint, difficulty walking, difficulty going up and down stairs, difficulty squatting after standing, and inability to stand up after squatting, and the patients are in great pain. Although the disease progresses slowly and each patient presents differently, the final outcome is the same - loss of walking function at the knee joint.

Basic Introduction

Knee cartilage wear, also known as knee joint degeneration, osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease, proliferative arthritis, hypertrophic arthritis, senile arthritis, etc., is the most common chronic, progressive joint disease. Its pathological characteristics are degeneration and destruction of articular cartilage, subchondral bone sclerosis, reactive hyperplasia of joint margin and subchondral bone, and osteophyte formation. The clinical manifestations are swelling and pain in the knee joint, difficulty walking, difficulty going up and down stairs, difficulty squatting after standing, and inability to stand up after squatting, and the patients are in great pain. Although the disease progresses slowly and each patient presents differently, the final outcome is the same - loss of walking function at the knee joint.

Pathogenesis

How does knee cartilage wear occur? The surface of a normal knee joint has a very thin but very friction-resistant layer of transparent cartilage, which is light blue, translucent, smooth and shiny. This layer of wear-resistant hyaline cartilage is very important in the movement function of the knee joint. The knee joint is the joint that bears the heaviest weight and moves the most in the human body, and is therefore also the joint that degenerates earliest and suffers the most damage. The middle-aged and elderly people over 45 years old, especially women, will experience degeneration and atrophy of the hyaline cartilage of the knee joint due to the decline in their hormone levels. Coupled with some minor injuries, the mirror-smooth hyaline cartilage will have dot-like "rust spots", which means local necrosis. At this point, the body will mobilize various internal forces to repair the "rust stains", including the secretion of more and more joint fluid and bone repair. However, the exuded joint fluid is an acidic liquid, which is not only not conducive to the repair of "rust stains", but also forms a source of stimulation for various chemical inflammatory mediators, causing a series of symptoms such as swelling around the joints, pain, and difficulty walking.

symptom

Pain fold

The characteristic is that the pain worsens with more activities, is relieved by rest, and still occurs during further activities, or may even become worse. It is particularly difficult to go up and down stairs. The patient can only use the good leg or the leg with mild symptoms to step up and down the stairs one step at a time. He cannot go up and down the stairs alternating between legs like a normal person. It is often more difficult to go down the stairs than to go up them. Joint sprains, colds, and overwork can often induce or aggravate joint pain. Severe pain can make the legs unable to move and affects sleep.

Swelling and folding of joints

Joint swelling is caused by synovial hyperplasia and intra-articular effusion. It is often caused by sprains and colds in the early stages, and will later become persistent swelling. A grinding sensation or snapping sound when the joints move.

Knee Soft Fold

Also called weak legs. It is a phenomenon that the knee joint suddenly becomes weak while walking, and you feel like kneeling or falling, which may be accompanied by severe pain. "Stuck" phenomenon: after a joint has been stationary in a certain position for a long time, it is very painful to move it again and it cannot be flexed or extended. It must be moved slowly and gradually for a while before the "stuck" phenomenon disappears and the knee joint can be flexed and extended. If you take a bus, you often need to stop one stop in advance, so the patient has to stand up and move his joints before getting off the bus.

Folding with hinge lock

It means that during walking or other movements, the knee joint is suddenly locked in a certain position and cannot move, as if something has "stuck" the joint. It is often necessary to try to swing and flex the joint, and often only after feeling a "click" can the joint resume its original movement. Loose bodies formed by articular cartilage exfoliation and ruptured meniscus are common causes of joint locking.

Joint dysfunction folding

Due to cartilage destruction, osteophyte formation, and synovial hyperplasia, the knee joint cannot be fully extended or flexed, making it impossible to squat or hold weight, and even sitting on the toilet is difficult. Joint deformity: As the disease progresses, the knee joint becomes thicker and deformities such as "O" legs appear.

treat

Currently, the conventional treatments for knee cartilage wear are analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs, acupuncture, plasters (bone-setting and blood-activating plasters), etc. These treatments can reduce swelling and relieve pain, promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, relax meridians and dredge collaterals, relieve symptoms of joint stiffness, pain, and swelling, and restore knee joint movement. However, it should be noted that although these treatments can temporarily relieve adverse symptoms and achieve better treatment results, they cannot prevent the disease from worsening. Once the disease becomes more serious, this treatment will not achieve satisfactory results. For patients with more serious conditions, knee arthroscopy is the best treatment for senile degenerative knee arthritis. This therapy allows a camera and surgical instruments to be inserted into the joint through a small hole of 5-10 mm, and precise surgery is performed under the arthroscopy. Due to the short operation time and small incision, the patient has basically no pain during the operation and recovers quickly. At present, the more common treatments for joint degeneration mainly include: rest and recuperation, physical therapy, drug therapy, and surgical treatment, etc. If the joint degeneration is mild, it can be relieved by rest and physical therapy. Some patients with joint degeneration experience severe pain. In this case, they may need to follow the doctor's advice and use common medicines such as ibuprofen, glucosamine, or inject sodium hyaluronate. If joint degeneration worsens further, surgical treatment such as arthroscopy, minimally invasive surgery, or even artificial joint replacement may be required. However, these treatments for joint degeneration either have serious side effects or require high financial investment, which are issues that patients must consider. From another perspective, these treatments cannot fundamentally solve the root cause of joint degeneration - cartilage wear. As a result, medical research on joint degeneration has gradually deepened. Among them, there have been major breakthroughs in the treatment of joint degeneration.

Scientific prevention

1. Pay attention to your walking and working posture, and do not twist your body while walking or working. Do not wear high heels when walking long distances. Wear thick-soled, elastic, soft-soled shoes to reduce the impact on the knee joints and avoid wear and tear on the knee joints.

2. Try to avoid obesity to prevent adding burden to the knee joints. Once you are overweight, you should actively lose weight and control your weight.

3. In terms of diet, you should eat more foods containing protein, calcium, collagen, and isoflavones, such as milk, dairy products, soybeans, soy products, eggs, fish, shrimp, kelp, black fungus, chicken feet, pig's trotters, lamb legs, beef tendons, and sawtooth shark cartilage powder. These can not only supplement protein and calcium to prevent osteoporosis, but also grow cartilage and joint lubricants, and supplement estrogen to enable bones and joints to better metabolize calcium and reduce the symptoms of knee arthritis.