Arthritis Knee Replacement Prevention: Simple Exercise

Knee osteoarthritis is a serious issue, affecting about 14 million adults in the U.S., many of whom might eventually require knee replacement surgery.

But that may all be about to change.

…because recent research presented at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting revealed a simple exercise that can completely reverse knee arthritis and help you avoid knee surgery.

Researchers have known for some time that strong muscles can slow down the progression of arthritis and prevent joint replacement surgeries. But the specifics of which muscles matter most were not fully understood until now.

Led by the University of California, San Francisco, the team zeroed in on the balance between two critical muscle groups near the knee: the quadriceps and the hamstrings.

The quadriceps, located at the front of the thigh, are the body’s strongest muscle group and play a vital role in walking and other activities. On the other hand the hamstrings, located at the back of the thigh, are crucial for extending the hip and bending the knee. Together, these muscle groups counterbalance each other, enabling a wide range of activities and protecting the knee joint.

To understand this relationship better, the team studied thigh muscle volume in 134 participants from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. They compared 67 patients who underwent total knee replacement with 67 control participants who did not.

The two groups were matched based on factors like age and gender.

The researchers used advanced 3T MRI imaging and a previously trained deep-learning model to accurately measure their participants’ thigh muscle volumes at the time of the surgery, two years earlier, and four years earlier.

This is what they found.

1. A higher ratio of quadriceps to hamstring volume was linked with a lower chance of needing total knee replacement surgery.

2. Thicker quadriceps, hamstrings, and gracilis muscles were also associated with lower odds of surgery.

This means that you should train all the muscles in your thighs, the quadriceps in the front, the hamstrings in the back, and the gracilis on the inside.

But you should especially focus on your quadriceps.

One of the best of the most pleasurable ways to train your quadriceps is to cycle. If there is a steep hill near your house, all the better. Otherwise, you can set the tension to high on a stationary bike to create the same effect.

But if you already suffer arthritis, exercising is not going to cure it. For that you need to take three simple natural steps explained here…