Tag Archives: knee osteoarthritis pain

knee osteoarthritis pain dmards

Disease-Modifying Drugs No Help for OA Pain

Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are not effective treatments for hand or knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a new meta-analysis. The drugs are commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other forms of inflammatory arthritis, but researchers in the United Kingdom (UK) found they were no better than placebo for OA pain. Their findings appeared in June 2018 in Rheumatology.

DMARDs aren’t pain medications. They’re meant to slow the disease and prevent further damage to joints and organs by suppressing inflammation. When DMARDs work, pain usually improves as inflammation gets under control.

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knee oa weight loss

More Weight Loss Is Better for Knee OA

When it comes to easing the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (OA), the more weight loss, the better, according to researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In a study published recently online in Arthritis Care & Research, Stephen Messier, PhD, and colleagues report that overweight and obese adults aged 55 and older with knee OA who lost 20 percent or more of their body weight saw far greater improvements in pain, function, quality of life, inflammation and knee joint stress than those who lost less.

In an earlier trial, the same researchers found that a weight loss of 10 percent – the amount the National Institutes of Health recommends for overweight and obese adults – improved mobility and decreased pain by 50 percent over an 18-month period. In their latest findings, they say doubling weight loss can cut pain and improve function by another 25 percent.

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Cycling Knee Osteoarthritis

What is the Best Exercise for Knee OA?

Focusing on either aerobic conditioning or resistance training – especially moves that target the quadriceps muscles, which help support the knee – is the most effective exercise approach for reducing pain from knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a 2014 study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Experts have long known that exercise can help reduce pain and improve function for people with knee OA. But what type of exercise is best, and how much, are subject to debate. The new study, an analysis of 48 previously published trials, aimed to provide answers.

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