Have you started noticing you or your parents having some knee pain when climbing up or down the stairs? Many of us will suffer from knee pain at some point in our life, especially when we become older. The common cause of knee pain in the older population is called knee osteoarthritis.
Knee osteoarthritis is characterized by cartilage thinning, and bone sclerosis, meaning that the bone is abnormally hardened. This is because the cartilage becomes thin and therefore not able to protect the joints from rubbing against each other, which increases friction on bone and your body will produce more bone to protect it, however, in an irregular manner.
Little do we know that our knees bear 2-6 times our body weight when we do daily activities, for instance, raising from a seated position will have 5x bodyweight loaded on the knee joints. That means if you are 200lbs, the load on your knees would be 1000lbs. To reduce the load of the knee joint, one big factor is to reduce body weight through diet and exercise.
You may wonder if loading the knee joints too much thins the cartilage, wouldn’t exercise be bad for the knees? This is for another post! Stay tuned!
Of course, there are many other reasons explaining why the knees are painful. Be sure to find a therapist and have it check out!