Tag Archives: knee osteoarthritis

non drug treatments osteoarthritis
Thursday, October 18 |Arthritis Foundation

Best Approach to Managing Osteoarthritis

According to a study inArthritis Care & Research, people with hip and knee OA use oral pain medications far more than nondrug alternatives. Of the nearly 1,200 patients in the study, 70 to 82 percent took pain relievers; fewer than half triedphysical therapyor other nondrug options. Most were overweight, and none got the minimum 150 minutes of physical activity a week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for good health.

That’s a problem, says Laith Jazrawi, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of sports medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. “We know that compared to people who are sedentary,patients who are more active have less painand better function.”

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knee osteoarthritis pain dmards
Tuesday, July 17 |Arthritis Foundation

Disease-Modifying Drugs No Help for OA Pain

Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs)根据一项新的荟萃分析，骨关节炎并不是手部或膝关节关节炎(OA)的有效治疗方法。The drugs are commonly used to treatrheumatoid arthritis (RA)and other forms ofinflammatory arthritis, but researchers in the United Kingdom (UK) found they were no better than placebo for OA pain. Their findings appeared in June 2018 inRheumatology.

DMARDs aren’t pain medications. They’re meant to slow the disease and prevent further damage to joints and organs by suppressing inflammation. When DMARDs work, pain usually improves as inflammation gets under control.

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knee oa weight loss
Thursday, July 5 |Arthritis Foundation

More Weight Loss Is Better for Knee OA

When it comes to easing the symptoms of kneeosteoarthritis (OA), the more weight loss, the better, according to researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In a study published recently online inArthritis Care & Research,Stephen Messier, PhD, and colleagues report that overweight and obese adults aged 55 and older with knee OA who lost 20 percent or more of their body weight saw far greater improvements in pain, function, quality of life, inflammation and knee joint stress than those who lost less.

In an earlier trial, the same researchers found that a weight loss of 10 percent – the amount the National Institutes of Health recommends for overweight and obese adults – improved mobility and decreased pain by 50 percent over an 18-month period. In their latest findings, they say doubling weight loss can cut pain and improve function by another 25 percent.

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knee oa treatments ranked
Monday, June 18 |Arthritis Foundation

Study Ranks Treatments for Knee OA

A new study takes a look at which approaches are best to bring relief to people with kneeosteoarthritis (OA), a condition that affects approximately 20 percent of people over the age of 45 in the United States.

Knee OA can be extremely painful and limit a person’s ability to function. Although there is no cure, numerous treatments are available to reduce symptoms, including over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Exercising and losing weight if a patient is overweight or obese also can help. Total knee replacement surgery is effective but is done only in cases where the disease is advanced and it’s medically necessary.

So, which treatment is best? To help sort out the choices, a group of researchers set out to assess how the available non-surgical drug treatments stack up against each other for providing pain relief and improving physical function. The authors did not address lifestyle changes, likeweight lossandexercise. The study was published recently inJournal of American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons(JAAOS).

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knee osteoarthritis african american
Thursday, February 8 |Arthritis Foundation

More African-Americans Could Benefit from Knee Replacement Surgery

Studies have shown that racial minorities in the United States undergo fewer totalknee replacements (TKR)forknee osteoarthritis (OA)than whites do, but the reasons for this are unclear. A new study sheds light on why fewer black Americans tend to have the surgery – and at what cost. It found that African-Americans are offered the option of TKR in fewer cases than whites are, they accept the option less frequently, and when they do undergo the procedure, they have higher rates of complications. Because of these factors, they lose a large number of what’s called “quality-adjusted life years” or QALYs.

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exercise and weight loss for osteoarthritis
Monday, January 8 |Arthritis Foundation

Nondrug Pain Relief Underused for OA

People with hip or kneeosteoarthritis (OA)use oral pain medications more often than nondrug pain treatments, such as physical therapy,knee joint injectionsand topical creams, according to an analysis of three clinical trials. That’s in spite of guidelines that recommend trying nondrug treatments before medications.

The analysis, which appeared recently inArthritis Care & Research,looked at trials conducted by researchers at Duke University, the Durham Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, all in North Carolina. A total of nearly 1,200 patients ages 61 to 65 participated in the three studies. All participants had knee or hip OA, and most were overweight and treated by a primary care doctor. None got the minimum 150 minutes of physical activity a week recommended for good health.

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knee osteoarthritis pain
Tuesday, August 29 |Arthritis Foundation

Knee OA More Common Now Than at Any Time in the Last 6,000 Years

A team of researchers from the United States and Finland has found that rates ofknee osteoarthritis (OA)are higher now than in the past – probably not for the reasons you think.

In a study published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that knee OA is more than twice as common today, in the post-industrial era, as it was at any time before, going back to prehistoric days. People in the 21st century are also more likely to have arthritis in both knees than were people in the past.

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chondroitin oa supplement
Monday, July 17 |Arthritis Foundation

A New Study Finds Pharmaceutical Chondroitin Helps Knee OA Pain and Function

Chondroitin sulfate improvesosteoarthritis (OA)knee pain and functional limitations in walking and daily activities as effectively as the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib (Celebrex), according to a new study published recently inAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases.但美国读者应该知道，有一个陷阱:研究人员测试了一种在美国没有的硫酸软骨素。

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Osteoarthritis Treatment Options
Monday, May 22 |Arthritis Foundation

Study Confirms That Losing Weight May Save Your Knees

Losing excess weight may help preserve knee cartilage in people who have or are at risk of knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), whose findings were recently published online in the journalRadiology. Knee cartilage is the rubbery, slick cap that covers the ends of the upper (femur) and lower (tibia) leg bones that make up the knee joint.

他们的研究还发现，减掉多余的体重可以保护半月板，这是一种新月形的软骨垫，可以缓冲膝关节。Lead author Alexandra Gersing, MD, a postdoctoral scholar at UCSF School of Medicine, says this is especially important because atorn or damaged meniscuscan speed up the degeneration of the knee joint overall.
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