Poona Hospital & Research Centre

Osteoarthritis is a condition that causes cartilages in the joints of a human body to wear away. The joints in your body are made of bones and the ends of each bone have cartilages to prevent friction between them. Certain factors like age, nutrition or health threats can cause the cartilages to break down into bits and pieces. As a result, bones come into direct contact with one another causing the joints to swell or to turn tender.

Take a look at the following factors that can cause osteoarthritis

1. Stress on specific joints due to certain postures: The triggering cause behind acute joint pain could be the way you sit for long hours in a day. A sportsperson might face joint pains due to his or her occupation. Similarly, any person required to sit or stand for a long stretch of time due to his/her jobs can suffer from osteoarthritis as well.
2. There might be a deformity in any of your joints: A person born with joint deformities might suffer from arthritic problems later in life. Severe accidents can lead to deformities too.
3. You may have suffered injuries that resulted in the condition: Joint pains needn’t always require an impactful injury. Mild or heavy injuries can lead to arthritis all the same. Defects in the joint cartilage could be passed on through genes.
4. Age could also be a contributing factor: If a person is aging, his or her chances of developing osteoarthritis increase manifold. Age can make your bones and cartilages go weak. As you grow older, the capacity of your bones to absorb nutrition also decreases.

Prevalent symptoms that help you identify osteoarthritis

1. A grinding sensation in the joints: A person suffering from osteoarthritis will experience continual bouts of grinding pain in the joints. This may keep him or her from walking, sitting, working or even resting. The grinding sensation is indeed disabling.
2. You tend to face stiffness in the bones: Patients with this kind of arthritis have been reported with lacking flexibility in their joints. If they are sitting for too long, or have been inactive for some time or might have just woken up from sleep, they are likely to experience stiffness in their bones. Joints even turn sore in such situations.
3. Extra bits of bones could create trouble: Extra bits of bones that develop at a later age are also referred to as bone spurs. They stick around the sore area and make movement a real challenge.

Modes of treatment
If osteoarthritis is detected at an early age, it can be fought against using medications. However, when the disease is really discomforting, treatment procedures like acupuncture or regimented exercising can help a patient. Yoga also does wonders to remedy joint pain. Surgical procedures are also available but they should be fallen back upon as a lender of the last resort.

The knee is one of the largest and most important joints of our body. It is also susceptible to wear and tear as well as injuries. Knee pain can occur due to a variety of reasons starting from conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis as well as injuries that can affect the ligaments, the joint, the menisci and femur. These are the various parts of the knees, which can suffer from degeneration or even injuries. The best way to combat chronic knee pain is through rest, ice compress and with the help of pain relieving and anti-inflammatory medication. 

While rest and ice compress for chronic knee pain and pain relieving and anti-inflammatory medication are the best ways to combat knee pain, orthopaedics also recommend the use of various strengthening exercises which can alleviate knee pain. Here are a few of the best ones:

1. The Towel Hook: Lie down flat on your back and raise one leg, Hook a towel under the foot and press it against the towel as you pull both ends downwards, creating slight pressure. This can be done for a few seconds at a time. Remember to do this at least ten times for each foot and increase gradually. This exercise helps in strengthening your entire leg from the calf to the knee and even the thighs so that the pain subsides.
2. Towel Roll: In towel roll exercise, after pushing knee, should do dorsiflexion and hold for 20 seconds.. Hamstring exercises are also given by placing roll towel under your feet, push down, dorsiflexion and hold for 20 seconds Adductor exercises are also given by placing small ball between your legs just above the knee joint, press and hold for 20seconds.
3. Swing: For this exercise, you will need to sit down on a chair. Now take one leg and swing it up until it is in line with your hip. Hold it out like this before you slowly bring it down again. Do this at least twenty to thirty times for each leg and gradually increase the frequency and the number of seconds for which you hold the knee. This will also help in pain management.
4. Knee Marches: You can also do knee marches by sitting down on a chair. You will need to march each knee up and down at least twenty to thirty times. You will need to do this for a few minutes every day and you can easily do it twice a day even when you are at work, sitting in front of a desk. You must ensure that your posture is straight and upright for this exercise.

What is Adhesive Capsulitis?
Adhesive capsulitis is a very specific term for a condition that involves the spontaneous, gradual onset of shoulder stiffness and pain caused by tightening of the joint capsule.

Symptoms of Adhesive Capsulitis-

• Restricted motion of the shoulder
• Dull or aching pain in the outer shoulder area
• The pain occurs in the upper arm

Causes of Adhesive Capsulitis-

• autoimmune reaction
• Poor posture
• Parkinson’s disease
• Diabetes
• Cardiac disease or surgery
• Hyperthyroidism
• Hypothyroidism

Risk factors of Adhesive Capsulitis-

• Affects people between 40 and 60 years old
• More common in women
• Hormonal and genetic conditions

Complications of Adhesive Capsulitis-

• Increased stiffness
• Loss of bone

Diagnosis of Adhesive Capsulitis
The diagnosis includes a doctor’s examination and is based on the symptoms the patient. In some cases, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or X-rays can help to rule out other potential causes of the pain and stiffness in the shoulder.

Treatment of Adhesive Capsulitis-

Acupuncture & Acupressure Treatment of Adhesive Capsulitis-
Acupuncture involves inserting extremely fine needles in your skin at specific points on your body. Typically, the needles remain in place for 15 to 40 minutes. During that time they may be moved or manipulated. Because the needles are hair thin and flexible and are generally inserted superficially, most acupuncture treatments are relatively painless.