Pillar 3: Reduce the Load
And now for the long term . . .
Hopefully, our ‘Control the Pain’ pillar was able to give you some useful strategies and treatments that have helped to reduce your overall pain level and you can now move a little better and do a little more. These pain control strategies tend to focus on the inflammation and nerve reactivity that is present in an osteoarthritic knee, particularly those that are flared up.
Now we want to turn attention to taking action that will prevent that inflammation and pain from building in the first place. The best way to do this is to take the strain and irritation off the knee cartilage by reducing the pressure on it. Imagine a hot air ballon gently lifting off the ground and the pressure reduction on that portion of the earth.
I think you know where we are going here. Yes, a big part of this pillar is weight loss. It’s not that you can’t help your knee osteoarthritis with all the other measures in this course, but if you are significantly overweight, losing even small amounts can make a big difference to your knee pressures. With the help of the Arthritis Society of Canada, we will explore some weight loss and healthy eating basics in the first lesson. And perhaps, more importantly, link you with some community resources that might support you in that journey.
You may have had many failed attempts at weight loss, but this might be different. Even small amounts can make a difference and you might be surprised at how much pressure each pound lost can take off your knee (yes, that’s a teaser to keep you flipping the pages here).
But how can I lose weight if I can’t move?
This is a perfectly legitimate question, and one that comes up with almost every Knee OA patient. Yes, healthy eating is probably the biggest part of weight loss, but reducing your pain levels with movement makes it much easier and inspiring.
Besides the pain control strategies to assist with this that we covered in Pillar 1, there are also some assistive devices that can help many with knee osteoarthritis to keep moving. Knee Unloader Braces are often recommended for this purpose. You might also consider doing aquatic exercise initially, or using walking poles to assist in the movement. Any little thing to reduce the load and get you moving more can make a big difference