Current Arthritis News and Research » knee osteoarthritis

Leeches for Treating Knee Osteoarthritis

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:47:07 +0000

Knee Osteoarthritis

It sounds like something out of medieval times. Using leeches to treat every disease and condition known to man. But as it turns out leeches are actually very powerful for treating a wide variety of ailments including knee osteoarthritis.

Knee osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that results in the breakdown of the cartilage between the joints in the knees. This leads to pain, loss of range of motion and bone damage. There appears to be several origins of knee osteoarthritis including joint deformity, repeated injury, or excess weight. There is no cure for osteoarthritis so the focus is on treatments for the pain and reduction of continued damage to the joint.

And this is where leeches come in. Leeches secrete morphine, a potent pain killer. Leeches also secrete an anticoagulant which improves blood flow to the area where the leeches are applied and an anti-inflammatory. Since inflammation is responsible for the symptoms of osteoarthritis, researchers believe that leeches might relieve pain in patients with osteoarthritis.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classify leeches as medical devices and has approved them for microsurgery. The FDA is also involved in the regulation of the transport and sale of leeches. In Germany there has been an estimated 70,000 treatments a year over the last few years with four to five used for each treatment. Most of these treatments have been aimed at pain reduction in knee osteoarthritis.

Several studies have been conducted regarding the use of leeches for treating knee osteoarthritis.

One study, reported in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, focused on 16 patients with an average age 68. These patients had experienced persistent knee pain for more than six months. None had suffered any knee injuries and all had x-ray evidence of osteoarthritis. These patients were already treating their knee osteoarthritis with physical therapy, relaxation, diet and exercise.

In this study, part of the group was provided traditional treatment and the rest were treated with leeches. Four leeches were applied to the knee for 80 minutes. Pain levels were measured three days before and 28 day after the treatment. The results were rapid. Treatment with leeches resulted in pain relief after three days and continued through the 28 day test period. The patients who received traditional treatment did not experience relief. There were no side effects noted from the leeches and the patients reported that the initial leech bite was mildly painful.

A larger study was conducted involving 51 patients age 40 and above with knee osteoarthritis with high pain. Four to six leeches were applied to the affected knee and were allowed to remain until they detached themselves, which took about 70 minutes. Then the patients rested the knee for 12 hours. Researchers then measured the patients pain, stiffness and range of motion after 3, 7, 28, and 91 days.

The results were similar to the smaller study. The patients receiving leech therapy reported less pain, less stiffness, better function, and fewer total osteoarthritis symptoms through the full 91 days that the researchers followed them.

These studies give hope for alternative treatments of knee osteoarthritis for reducing pain and increasing mobility. In order to properly validate these studies additional research needs to be conducted over a longer period of time. But it appears that leeches do provide relief to knee osteoarthritis sufferers.

Originally posted 2010-02-01 07:00:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Half of American Adults Will Get Knee Osteoarthritis

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:41 +0000

Recently released research says that nearly half of all adults will develop osteoarthritis of the knee by age 85. People who had previous knee injuries or are obese have an even higher risk.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed data on more that 3,000 people from Johnston County, N.C. All of the participants, who were all over 45 years of age, were interviewed, given physical exams and X-rays. They were then evaluated twice over an average of 6 years. The average age of the group was 61.

At the beginning of the study, approximately 60% of the participants were overweight or obese and 15% already had knee osteoarthritis. In spite of the research group being located within a small geographic area, researchers believe that the results would likely apply to all Americans.

The results of the study showed that the lifetime risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee was 44.7%. Several factors were ruled out as contributors to that risk, those being race, sex and level of education.

Two factors that did contribute were the existence of a prior knee injury and whether or not the patient was obese or overweight.

Those participants with a previous knee injury have a risk of 56.8%, compared to 42.3% for those without a prior knee injury.

Those people with a normal weight have a risk of 30.2% of developing osteoarthritis of the knee. However, those that were overweight increased their risk to 46.9% and those who were obese have an even higher risk of 60.5%. People that were normal weight at age 18, but were obese or overweight by age 45 had the greatest risk.

“These results show how important weight management is for people throughout their lives,” says Joanne Jordan, M.D., in a news release. Dr. Jordan is principal investigator of the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project and a senior study researcher. “Simply put, people who keep their weight within the normal range are much less likely to develop symptomatic knee osteoarthritis as they get older and thus much less likely to face the need for major surgical procedures, such as knee replacement surgery.”

The results of the 13 year study were published in the September 15th issue of Arthritis Care and Research.

Originally posted 2008-09-22 20:44:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Frankincense Provides Osteoarthritis Relief

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:16 +0000

Frankincense is an aromatic resin that has been used for perfume and incense for thousands of years. The most aromatic is the Arabian Frankincense that is obtained from the Boswellia sacra trees in Oman and Yemen. Indian Frankincense, which is considered to be an inferior aromatic compared to the Arabian form, comes from the Boswellia seratta tree found in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Indian Frankincense has been used for thousands of years in India in the Indian system of traditional medicine known as “Ayurveda”. Recent research has also found that Indian Frankincense can reduce the symptoms of osteoarthritis.

The research which was led by Siba Raychaudhuri, a faculty member at the University of California at Davis, specifically tested an extract which they called AKBA (3-O-acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid) from the Boswellia serrata tree. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study focused on 70 patients that had been diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis.

The participants were randomly given one of two doses of an enriched Indian frankincense extract, under the brand name of 5-Loxin, or a placebo on a daily basis. The groups that had been taking the 5-Loxin indicated that they noticed improvement in their symptoms within 7 days. After 3 months, the participants that had been given the frankincense extract reported reductions in pain and stiffness, as well as improvements in their mobility compared to the control group.

According to Raychaudhuri, “The high incidence of adverse affects associated with currently available medications has created great interest in the search for an effective and safe alternative treatment… AKBA has anti-inflammatory properties, and we have shown that B. serrata enriched with AKBA can be an effective treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee… In this study, the compound was shown to have no major adverse effects in our osteoarthritis patients. It is safe for human consumption and even for long-term use”.

The team’s findings were published in the July 31st edition of the online journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Originally posted 2008-09-05 21:45:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Researchers Link Appetite Hormone, Osteoarthritis

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:45:11 +0000

Physicians have long held that being overweight significantly increases the risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA). A recent study, however, suggests that obesity by itself does not predictably lead to OA.

Some researchers believe that extra weight exerts mechanical force on joints that they weren’t designed to handle, eventually destroying cartilage, while others blame the breakdown on inflammatory chemicals, including the appetite controlling hormone leptin.

A research team from the Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C., studied mice that did not produce leptin. The mice were given unlimited food and water, and without the leptin they quickly gained weight, eventually becoming three times the weight of normal mice and with 10 times as much body fat.

The knee bones of the leptin-free, obese mice did change, but without forming osteoarthritis. The inflammation levels which are used to measure arthritis were essentially unchanged in these mice. The results suggested that leptin may have a dual role in the development of osteoarthritis by regulating both the skeletal and immune systems.

“To our surprise, they didn’t get arthritis. That tells us that obesity in and of itself may not be the cause of osteoarthritis.” – Farshid Guilak, PhD, director of Duke’s Orthopaedic Bioengineering Laboratory.

Researchers also note that the joints from the obese mice looked better than those of the normal control mice.

On the other hand, another study found that mice that processed leptin normally gained only half as much weight when put on a high-fat diet but showed significant knee osteoarthritis.

The researchers state that the study has several limitations. The obese, leptin-deficient mice didn’t develop osteoarthritis but they didn’t move around as much as the normal mice. This may have prevented their joints from being excessively stressed by their body weight, as human bodies are.

The results of the study are published in the October 2009 issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism

Originally posted 2009-10-02 13:01:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Tai Chi Improves Knee Osteoarthritis

awesome — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:10:07 +0000

Researchers from the Tufts Medical Center in Boston reported that the traditional form of Chinese exercise called Tai Chi can help reduce pain and physical impairment in people who have knee arthritis.

Developed centuries ago in China, Tai Chi combines deep breathing and relaxation with many fundamental slow, gentle, graceful movements that flow imperceptibly and smoothly from one to the other. These movements are low impact and put minimal stress on the joints and muscles. It can bring improvement to balance, flexibility and muscle function.

Five previous trials were conducted to study the benefits of Tai Chi on knee osteoarthritis. Three found significant improvements in pain and physical function. However the other two found no significant improvements.

The researchers studied a group of twenty people in over 55 with severe knee osteoarthritis. This group did 10 modified forms from classical Yang style Tai Chi for an hour twice a week for 12 weeks. A second, similar group of patients did the same amount of conventional stretching exercises during the same time period. The participants averaged ten years since their osteoarthritis diagnosis.

The group that performed tai chi reported greater pain reduction, less depression and improvements in physical function and overall health.

According to lead researcher Dr. Chenchen Wang, “Tai Chi mind-body exercise appears to provide an important approach for self-care and self-management for knee (osteoarthritis).”

The study provided the latest evidence that Tai Chi may offer benefits for people with arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation advocacy group recommends it for improving the quality of life of people with arthritis.

The results of this study were presented at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Francisco.

Originally posted 2009-02-05 12:00:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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