[Source: Daily Mail UK]
For millions of people in this country, knee pain is part and parcel of their daily lives.
Around one in five people aged over 45 has osteoarthritis, where the cartilage that cushions the bone in our knees wears thin. It’s a growing problem, says orthopaedic surgeon Mark Wilkinson, who is also a professor of orthopaedics at the University of Sheffield.
‘The incidence is increasing because of our ageing population, and because rates of obesity, a major risk factor for knee osteoarthritis, are rising,’ he says.
There is no cure and treatments focus on relieving pain until the joint deteriorates so much that a replacement is necessary. Yet, increasingly, such treatments are being called into question.
A recent study discovered that cortisone injections — one of the most common treatments to ease pain and reduce swelling in osteoarthritis — could do more harm than good.
Scientists from Boston University found that the steroids in these jabs could speed up the joint’s disintegration — hastening the need for a knee replacement. One theory is that the steroids may be toxic to cartilage in some cases.
‘We’ve been telling patients that even if these injections don’t relieve your pain, they won’t hurt you,’ the study leader, Dr Ali Guermazi, a professor of radiology, wrote in the journal Radiology. ‘We are now seeing that these injections can be harmful to the joints.’
Meanwhile, although prescription-strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as diclofenac and ibuprofen, can reduce pain, they can bring side-effects, too, such as stomach irritation. And a review in The Lancet in 2016, which analysed results from 74 trials, found that paracetamol had at best a 4 per cent chance of improving osteoarthritis pain.
So where does that leave the millions of people in the UK with painful knees?
When teacher Angela Raynes, 65, found herself plagued by debilitating knee pain, she chose a new approach.
She’d had intermittent knee pain since she was 16, and two years ago the pain in both knees began to make it hard to walk and drive long distances.
Scans revealed severe osteoarthritis, but Angela, from North Thoresby in Lincolnshire, turned down a steroid jab and double knee replacement.
‘I knew the recovery period would be hard as I live on my own,’ she says.
After researching online, she chose a new treatment where fat cells are extracted from the tummy and then injected into the knee — it’s thought they help encourage the tissue to repair itself.
Angela had the procedure in 2018 — it took a day and her knees are now pain-free. ‘I have my life back. I can work, drive long distances and walk on the beach again.’
Other new treatments are starting to replace older procedures. Here we explore which cutting-edge techniques may benefit you.
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Full article can be read at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7724751/Achy-joint-treatments-bees-knees.html
