A recent study conducted has shown some promise that the lack of Vitamin D might be one of the reasons people suffer from osteoarthritis or risk getting it. The U.S department of agriculture has stated that those who lack vitamin D in their diet are more likely to develop osteoarthritis, which affects over 28 million Americans alone.

 

The scientists who were responsible for carrying out the research took a sample set of 418 volunteers with knee osteoarthritis and their blood samples. It was found that volunteers who had low level of vitamin D in their blood serum had their risk of knee osteoarthritis doubled over the course of the study, which was 4 years long.

 

The scientists concluded that vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for increased knee osteoarthritis progression and that increased, adequate dietary intake may be beneficial for those with knee osteoarthritis. Most patients who have low levels of vitamin D also suffer from inflammatory rheumatic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA) and fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).

 

Therefore the correlation between vitamin D deficiency and osteoarthritis has come out to be very strong through this research. The Doctors who carried out the research suggest that those who do suffer from osteoarthritis maintain a healthy level of Vitamin D through the intake of either fatty fish like salmon and tuna, fortified milk, egg yolks or the most obvious form that’s completely free…sunlight.

 

If you do suffer from osteoarthritis it’s best to head over to a doctor to get a quick check on your vitamin D levels. If you are in fact deficient in vitamin D the aforementioned tips above will help you get them back up and also help in stalling the severity of osteoarthritis and additionally provide some level of pain relief naturally.

 

 

Most doctors will tell their patients who suffer from knee pain that its important to do some sort of exercise to relieve knee pain but the constraints on those exercises are that they should be low impact on your joints. Some of the exercises recommended for knee pain are usually light jogging or brisk walks. This limits patients from progressing in terms of pace and running quality.

 

Some patients who love outdoor activities love to run and their knee pain and doctors advice overpowers their ability to progress in their physical exercises. New research has now proven that running faster overtime can actually be just as good for knee pain as a brisk walk. Therefore limiting physical exercise related to the knee is no longer an issue.

 

Researchers surveyed runners logging 1KM at 5, 7 and 8 miles an hour. For each individual stride, they found that the faster people ran, the more stress was put on the knee. However, the faster you run, the fewer strides you make to cover the same distance. That means speeding up actually allows your knees to absorb less impact over your whole run.

 

Scott Weiss, a New York-based exercise physiologist and athletic trainer also added that why some doctors are skeptical about running as an exercise for knee pain patients would be more related to the fact that runners with knee pain do not tend to train properly and dive in head first without considering the consequences.

 

Training properly is key. The main issue people have when increasing speed: They tend to start running on their toes. But running on your toes can’t be maintained without your lower legs taking a beating, Weiss explains. “Since we became bipedal (using two legs to walk), natural human gait has been to land on the heel of the foot—and that’s the best way to absorb shock from the body,” Weiss says.

 

Another tip to learn to run faster is called heel-striking and must be done with the help of a running coach. Increasing your stride length and heel landing is key to decreasing the shock to joint. Its safe to say that if you love to run you can master running fast over time and not worry about increasing your overall knee pain at all.

As crazy as it sounds, freezing the knees could be the answer to overcoming knee pain. There are over 10 million Americans who suffer from knee pain alone and that number isn’t set to decrease anytime soon. While conventional medicine has worked, there’s a new quick fix in town and that is to freeze the knee to stop the pain.

Vernon Williams, MD, Director of the Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Ladera Ranch, California has come up with a new therapy called cold therapy to relieve knee pain. Dr. Wlliams states that focuses cold therapy helps reduce the temperature of a peripheral nerve to a very precise zone.

Since most knee pain is related to nerves sending shock signals up our knees how this treatment works is that Doctors locate the nerve that’s responsible for the pain. They then numb the area and insert a cold probe with liquid nitric oxide to freeze the nerve.

Since there’s nothing wrong with lower temperatures on the internal body the treatment does not cause any damage internally. The cold therapy reaches negative 120 degrees. It doesn’t damage surrounding tissues and doesn’t kill the nerve. The relief lasts a few months.

Dr. Williams has also stated that cold therapy doesn’t just apply to knee pain but can actually be used for any issues related to pain that originates from peripheral nerves which includes headaches too.

There are a lot of myths about knee pain, one of those being that exercise makes knee pain worse. While its somewhat true that exercise can cause further strain to joints but that only happens if the exercise you are doing is not moderate. Most obese people tend to complain that exercise adds more pressure to their knee and therefore causes more pain and tears over time that though is untrue.

A new study that was carried out by Boston University put this relation between knee pain and exercise to the test. The study was done across a mix of 1200 men and women who had knee problems. They divided participants into three groups: sedentary, those who walked six or more miles weekly, and those who walked less than six miles a week for exercise.

Among those who did no exercise, 7.5% got knee arthritis, 4.9% of those who walked less than 6 miles a week also got knee arthritis with symptoms, along with 6.4% of those who walked 6 or more miles a week, but what was interesting was that these numbers were so small that they were insignificant to say that exercise was the primary cause.

In most cases physiologists recommend that those who suffer from knee problems go out and exercise. To minimize the risk of problems, however, exercisers should increase their exercise distance very gradually, then increase speed, rather than both at once. In addition good workout shoes matched to your activity — walking, jogging, aerobics, or hiking — are crucial and should be replaced every 3-6 months if you are exercising regularly, he says.

Overall exercise in moderation is the right way to go about knee pain for even those who overweight or obese. Too much of anything is adverse for the human body and that’s why most who suffer from knee pain usually start off with walks and progress to light jogging.

Knee pain is the most common health problem that plagues people of all ages. There are several medicinal advancements to combat knee pain but sometimes just taking medicine is not enough, we need to supplement it with healthy food. Below are some beneficial foods for knee pain.

 

Salmon Fish:

 

This tasty but healthy fish is full of omega-3 fatty acids which can decrease joint inflammation, something that leads to regular knee pain. It also helps you maintain good weight and keeps that pressure off your knees.

 

Fish Oil Supplements:

 

Well this might not exactly be food but its supplemental to the food you take. Fish oil supplements are very helpful for any sort of joint pain. If you’re trying to stay away from eating a lot of fish every week, a single pill of a fish oil supplement could give you that dose of omega-3 fatty acids that you need to overcome knee pain.

 

Ginger:

 

This root is your best friend when it comes to decreasing inflammation. Ginger can be used almost everyday in food and gives great taste to food. Another healthy option is to take ginger on a daily basis is having ginger-lemon tea. It is though not recommended to take ginger with any medication that causes blood thinning.

 

Red Peppers:

 

Red peppers may have a slight but of spice but they’re extremely beneficial to relieving joint pain. They contain a high dose of vitamin C which helps create collagen. Collagen is a part of your tendons and ligaments that cushions your joints and holds them together.

 

Cherries:

 

Not only is this fruit tasty but also healthy. Don’t be fooled by its size, Cherries contain a chemical called anthocyanins. Studies have shown that this chemical is known to curb inflammation in the joints and reduce the change of arthritis.

A recent medical study has brought up some very interesting findings. Findings, which are very much similar to those for heart patients and diseases. It could be that knee pain or osteoarthritis to be exact, could be something that runs in your family and can be passed on to you due to genetics.

 

The Australian authors of this study have observed a common denominator between children and parents who have osteoarthritis, that denominator is genetics.  Dr. Graeme Jones of the university of Tasmania states that its abundantly clear that genes were a strong contributor to the risk of osteoarthritis.

 

It is a known fact that one third of adults over the age of 45 suffer from some type of knee pain. While the causes of knee pain are not always clear in 70 percent of the cases the knee pain cases turn into severe cases of osteoarthritis if they are left untreated or not properly attended to.

 

The study took a batch of 186 adults who had at least one of their parents go through a knee replacement surgery. The adults whose parents had knee replacements tended to be heavier and or smokers.  The study spanned 10 years and the results were shocking.

 

The results showed that 74 percent of the children of parents with knee replacements had knee pain compared to 54 percent of those with no family history of knee surgery. While the study did confirm that knee pain does have some relation to genetics it didn’t focus much on the many causes that led to the knee pain, but since parents and children tend to have similar body and behavior patterns it does make sense that a parent could pass on habits that would make them more susceptible to knee pain and osteoarthritis.