Strategies for preventing arthritis progression -
All providers, especially those who regularly interact with athletes and sports enthusiasts, such as athletic trainers, physical therapists, sports medicine physicians, and fitness professionals, can advise patients or clients on the importance of wearing protective gear, like braces to prevent re-injury.
While time constraints are a commonly reported barrier to implementing injury prevention programs, 15,16 many organizations deploy warm-up activities that embrace some of the core components and only need minor adjustments to adopt a successful injury prevention program for their setting.
Check out the Remain in the Game toolkit for coaches, which includes videos and workouts for team strength and flexibility movements. Keep players in the game with just 10 minutes of training at every practice!
Clinicians should encourage individuals who are overweight or obese without symptomatic OA to lose weight. Weight loss counseling is a key component to successful weight loss in patients. The CDC reports that adults with arthritis who are overweight or obese and who receive provider counseling about weight loss are four times more likely to attempt to lose weight; yet, fewer than half of those adults are receiving such counseling.
There is a critical need to develop, disseminate, and implement secondary prevention strategies to help patients after an initial injury. Injury prevention is particularly relevant for patients with a history of injury because a prior injury is a risk factor for a new injury.
Patients who have had a fall or are at risk of falling can build strength and improve balance to reduce their risk of fall-related joint injuries and should be counseled to engage in or increase their physical activity. Skip to main content. Submit Search. DOWNLOAD PDF Additional Resource for HCPs: OA Prevention- Connecting OA and Weight.
Weight Management Resources The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC developed resources to promote individual-level and community-level efforts to prevent and manage obesity. Fall Prevention Resources Patients who have had a fall or are at risk of falling can build strength and improve balance to reduce their risk of fall-related joint injuries and should be counseled to engage in or increase their physical activity.
CLINICAL TAKE-HOME POINTS Clinicians should use the 5As and other motivational interviewing techniques to discuss the importance of weight management strategies among patients at risk for obesity or with obesity.
The most common and clinically proven lifestyle approaches prescribed by physicians to slow the progression of osteoarthritis aim to decrease the inflammation created by the body in response to the damaged cartilage in the joints.
Recommendations may include anti-inflammatory medications, ice, exercise, stretches, massage, diet, weight loss, acupuncture, herbal remedies, joint support, and pain-relieving injections.
Physical therapy is often prescribed to assist with implementing correct exercise techniques. Biologic injections, such as Platelet Rich Plasma PRP and stem cells, may also help to diminish the pain, swelling, stiffness, and other symptoms of osteoarthritis inflammation, but their level of effectiveness has yet to be definitively proven.
Herbal remedies and supplements are intended to improve aspects of health that cannot be obtained through natural processes. Most supplements can be beneficial as long as they are used in moderation, but people should consider consulting with a physician before self-prescribing them.
When supplements can help to diminish inflammation, then they can be of benefit. As of today, there are no known supplements that will change the natural history of osteoarthritis progression, such as protecting the remaining cartilage or growing back damaged areas. Anti-inflammatory products, such as cannabidiol CBD oils or herbal remedies Turmeric , have also been shown to diminish some of the symptoms of osteoarthritis.
However, these supplements are often unregulated and can be unpredictable in how they affect each individual. The two lifestyle factors that have repeatedly been shown to slow the progression of arthritis are interconnected: physical fitness and weight loss.
I routinely encourage my patients to engage in regular low-impact exercises to help them maintain flexibility while strengthening the muscles around the affected joint. I also promote a healthy diet to keep excess weight off. Especially in patients who are obese, losing just a few pounds can take considerable force off the joints and improve the chances of slowing osteoarthritis progression.
Unfortunately, no current medications, injections, or other lifestyle modifications will alter or change arthritis in a joint once it occurs. Certain injections, such as cortisone, have been shown in some studies to give short-term relief from symptoms but may increase the progression rate of arthritis.
Some patients experience severe cartilage loss with bone erosion, deformity, bone spurs, and mechanical symptoms, but have minimal inflammation and function quite well daily.
Others have minimal joint damage but can have crippling inflammation, severely compromising their ability to perform the simplest of tasks. I encourage patients to carefully consider how negatively they feel their quality of life is compromised related to their osteoarthritis symptoms.
When patients believe that they have exhausted the non-surgical treatments and are willing to undergo the process of surgery to replace the damaged cartilage in their arthritic joint, then they are usually extremely satisfied with the outcome of their surgery.
Quality of life compromise, which can vary quite a bit from person to person, will guide patients in making the best decisions for themselves. Sometimes this means a person starts to make unwanted lifestyle choices, such as avoiding activities with their family members or decreasing sporting activities such as golf or tennis due to joint pain.
Sometimes it means a person will hardly be able to walk or sleep through the night because of the inflammation of arthritis. However, patients should not wait until they are deconditioned or have progressive bony damage in the affected joint because this can increase the complexity of the surgery or make the recovery process more difficult or risky.
As an orthopedic surgeon, I aim to share in the decision-making process with my patients regarding surgery by listening carefully to their assessment of their current function and quality of life compromise regarding their age and health. I educate them about osteoarthritis and explain the risks and benefits of joint replacement surgery related to their specific circumstances and health metrics.
This process leads to good and meaningful decisions about surgery, which more frequently lead to excellent outcomes and, ultimately, healthier joints and happy patients.
Thank Preventng for Strategies for preventing arthritis progression nature. You are Increase metabolism and lose weight naturally a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we rathritis you use a more progreseion to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Osteoarthritis OA is amenable to early prevention and treatment; not all patients with knee OA progress to severe pain or joint replacement, and patients at high risk should be identified.
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