Osteo Arthritis (Knee Pain)

To put is simply, osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease. It is an alignment disorder accompanied by swelling, pain, tenderness, reduced movement and cracking sound in the knee. However, there are a number of disorders that can lead to the structural or functional failure of one or more of the joints.

Osteoarthritis can involve the entire joint including the nearby muscles, underlying bone, ligaments, joint lining (synovium), and the joint cover (capsule). It can also result due to the advancing loss of cartilage. When the cartilage tries to repair itself, the bone remodels, the underlying (subchondral) bone hardens, and bone cyst form.

Phases of osteoarthritis:

• Stationary Phase: This involves the formation of osteophytes and is characterized by the narrowing of the joint space.

• Further Progression: With the progression of the disease, there is further obliteration of the joint space. 

• Erosive Phase: The appearance of subchondral cysts (cysts in the bone underneath the cartilage) indicates the erosive phase of disease progression in osteoarthritis.

• Final Phase: The last phase in the disease progression involves bone repair and remodeling.

Alternative Names

People often refer to osteoarthritis by other names like 'degenerative joint disease,' or 'wear-and-tear arthritis.'

Symptoms

Depending on the joint affected, people with osteoarthritis may experience specific symptoms in the joints such as:

• Stiffness
• Bony enlargement and swelling
• Deformed joints: Joints can start to look like they are the wrong shape, especially as arthritis gets worse.
• Cracking and creaking: Joints may make crunching, creaking sounds.

Activities of daily living, such as climbing stairs or opening jars, often become more difficult as the joints become more affected by the disorder.

Causes

There can be many causes of osteoarthritis, some of which are:

• Endocrine: People with diabetes may be prone to osteoarthritis. Other endocrine problems also may promote development, including hypo-thyroidism, hyper-parathyroidism and obesity

• Trauma or injury to the joint

• Inflammatory joint diseases: like- gout and rheumatoid disease

• Congenital / developmental irregularities

• Nutritional problems may also cause osteoarthritis

Yogic Therapy - A Robust Cure

Medical Yoga Therapy addresses all these problems in this sequence:

• It aims to correct the alignment of tibia and fibula (knee bones-   Misalignment of these bones is responsible for the OA of knee).

• The sequence of asanas tone up the paronial group of muscles, (responsible for bow legs) and adducters group of muscles (responsible for reducing joint space between these two bones, particularly in their medial compartments).  More specifically, naga stretch helps in the correction of bow legs.

• The sequence strengthens the quadriceps muscles group, which in turn, maintains the corrected alignment of bones and reduces pressure from the knee joints.

• The sequence, in some cases, can also improve the joint space between the knee joints.

Sequence of Asanas

A special sequence comprising of asanas like Danda asana , Ankle fixed stretch, Leg stretch IV, Naga stretch is designed. Props are appropriately used to make the 'Saadhaka' comfortable and gain from the posture. The asanas are aimed at relieving the pain and strengthening the area to cure the ailment.

As patients suffer from pain and restricted motion, the asanas and therapies are done differently with use of props and belts to ease the poses and provide maximum benefit to the patients. These therapies should only be performed under an expert guidance to avoid any complications.