Nearly 900,000 Americans undergo knee replacement surgery each year, according to Cleveland Clinic. The majority of these surgeries are performed on those suffering from knee osteoarthritis, a condition that affects more than 14 million people in the U.S. And though it’s a common surgery, the recovery is far from easy, and complications aren’t unusual. When someone gets a knee replacement earlier in life, there’s also a better chance they’ll need a second surgery down the road.
That’s why doctors and scientists are continuously researching alternative methods to treat knee osteoarthritis, from coral implants to minimally invasive injections. Now, experts say that simply tweaking how you walk could save your knees.
RELATED: Cortisone Shots Could Be Making Your Knee Arthritis Worse, Doctors Warn.
What is knee osteoarthritis?
Before we get into the science behind this latest research, let’s break down exactly how knee osteoarthritis affects your joints.
“Osteoarthritis of the knee happens when the cartilage in your knee joint breaks down, causing the bones to rub together,” explains Cleveland Clinic. “This friction causes pain and swelling in your knee, leading to stiffness.”
Many cases are simply due to lifelong wear and tear, but being overweight, having past knee injuries, or putting prolonged stress on your joints can increase your risk.
Knee osteoarthritis is a progressive condition, meaning it gets worse over time. However, many treatment options exist to help manage the pain, including cortisone shots, knee gel shots and other injections, physical therapy, and knee braces.
But when the osteoarthritis develops to a certain point, knee replacement is often the only remaining option.
RELATED: Doctors Share 10 Ways You’re Silently Damaging Your Knees.
How can a walking change delay a knee replacement?
A new study, published in the journal The Lancet Rheumatology, investigated how one’s foot angle while walking contributes to stress on the joints and pain caused by knee osteoarthritis.
Researchers from NYU Langone Health, the University of Utah, and Stanford University enlisted 68 men and women with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis.
Over a year, the participants were instructed to change the angle of their feet by 5 to 10 degrees when walking on a treadmill. The researchers then tracked their self-reported knee pain, knee loading (the forces acting on the joint, as determined by a computer program connected to the treadmill), and cartilage microstructure via MRI scans.
“The results suggest that those trained to angle their feet slightly inward or outward from their natural alignment experienced slower cartilage degeneration in the inner part of their knee compared with those who were encouraged to walk more frequently without changing their foot position,” explains a press release.
As New Atlas explains, this is significant because the inner part of the knee joint is the most common location for osteoarthritis to develop, and it gets exacerbated by regular walking.
In fact, those who adjusted their foot angle experienced a 2.5-point reduction in pain on a 10-point scale—the equivalent of taking an over-the-counter pain medication.
Moreover, “those who adjusted their gait reduced the maximum loading in the knees by 4 percent, while those who kept their normal walking pattern increased their loading by more than 3 percent,” adds the press release.
The scientists note that more research is needed, specifically by including individuals with obesity in the experiment. They also plan to use artificial intelligence to “identify the most effective walking method for osteoarthritis patients.”
“These results highlight the importance of personalizing treatment instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to osteoarthritis,” said co-lead author Valentina Mazzoli, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “While this strategy may sound challenging, recent advances in detecting the motion of different body parts using artificial intelligence may make it easier and faster than ever before.”
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