Whether young or old - to be and remain mobile, we need healthy joints. This is especially true for the knee joint. What should you do if it is in pain due to injury or osteoarthritis?
Climbing stairs, hiking, dancing, swimming, cycling - healthy joints are a basic prerequisite for pain-free activities in everyday life and leisure. This applies all the more to the knee, the largest and most complex joint in our body, which is exposed to particularly heavy loads. Our knee joint is an ingenious construction: the precise interaction of various structures that absorb loads (bones and cartilage), provide stability (ligaments, capsule) and transmit force (muscles, tendons) usually functions without problems or pain for many years. However, the pressure load - especially on the kneecap cartilage - is high. Any increase in load leads to a significant increase in pressure. If the overload is massive or is repeated several times, the irritation can become so great that the pain increases even during everyday activities.
Overloading and wear and tear
In short, constant strain makes the knees susceptible to injury, irritation, inflammation and wear and tear. Restricted movement and pain can be the result. In younger people, this is often acute pain following trauma or short-term overloading, for example due to sports accidents. Older people often suffer from pain after years without symptoms, which can be attributed to wear and tear of the joint, i.e. osteoarthritis. Regardless of age, this can develop into a chronic history of pain. In particular, long-term, repeated overloading of the knee joints through kneeling activities at work, sports that put a strain on the joints or obesity promote the breakdown of the joint cartilage layer and thus wear and tear.
Prevention instead of pain
What can be done to prevent knee problems and pain? The focus here is on prevention. This includes losing weight if you are overweight, strengthening the muscles close to the knee, stretching the muscles, regular exercise and avoiding overloading in everyday work, leisure and sport. Targeted exercises to strengthen the anterior and posterior thigh muscles also help. Stability can be improved through balance and coordination exercises. In particular, exercises to improve coordination skills help to stabilize the knees, increase stability and gait safety and reduce the risk of falls in older people.
Successful physiotherapy program
A combination of advice, instruction, exercises and - if necessary - weight control is recommended for osteoarthritis in particular. This is where GLA:D® (Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark). The physiotherapy program was developed in Denmark, where it has been proving its worth since 2013. GLA:D aims to empower people with osteoarthritis and enable them to get their knee or hip problems under control themselves ("self-management"). And it is highly effective, as a scientific evaluation of 38,000 participants over five years has shown. After both three and 12 months, clear progress was made in the areas of pain, walking ability and quality of life. The core of the program is learning and practicing therapeutic exercises together under the guidance of GLA:D-certified physiotherapists in Switzerland who offer the program in their practice. You can find further information on gladschweiz.ch.
