Knee pain and osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a condition that affects the joint surfaces mainly, including articular cartilage and subchondral bone. Osteoarthritis causes low grade inflammation within affected joints leading to 

pain, stiffness and impaired function. The muscles around the joint can also be affected, and may not be able to function efficiently in the presence of osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis commonly affects the knee leading to knee pain and stiffness.

How to help your knee pain

Movement is medicine. Our joints love to me loaded and moved. Compression to the joint through activities such as walking allows nutrients to be released into the joint, which are crucial to allow the ongoing repair of our joints. Movement also leads to the release of synovial fluid in and around the joint, which helps to lubricate our joint surfaces. Think of this as the natural WD-40 of the body! Movement and exercise also bring about pain reduction by releasing our natural pain killers or opioids from the medicine cabinet of the brain, thus reducing knee pain. 

Simple measures such as increasing your daily physical activity levels can make a big difference to your knee pain. Track your step count using a smartwatch or your phone. Track your daily step count on a normal day and try to increase this by 1,000 steps. Walk an extra 5 minutes. If a long walk leads to knee pain or fatigue, break it up into several shorter walks. If walking more is too difficult at the moment, hop on a bicycle or static bike. This will allow you to get the joints moving, while not asking too much of them and flaring your knee pain.

Why choose Fox Physiotherapy to help solve your knee pain

At Fox Physiotherapy we treat people with knee pain caused by osteoarthritis every day. We use a number of approaches to alleviate knee pain and restore confident movement.

  1. Manual therapy: we use hands-on treatment techniques to alleviate knee pain and stiffness.  
  1. Dry needling: we sometimes use dry needling to the surrounding muscles and soft tissues, which can help to relieve knee pain and soreness.
  1. Exercise: We prescribe strength based exercises to bulletproof your knee and keep your joint healthy in the long term.
  1. Advise: we advise on daily activities, symptom management, return or continuation of hobbies and valued activities.
  2. Educate: we value spending time answering your questions and concerns. This is the value of having a 45 minute appointment over the standard 30 minutes. It is important for the person living with knee pain to fully understand the cause, the drivers of pain and how to best manage day to day.
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