We’re happy to help any patient that walks through our doors that is an ideal candidate for partial or total knee replacement surgery, but in a perfect world, people’s knees would stay healthy long into their golden years. As with any medical condition, prevention is preferred to treatment, so in today’s blog, we’re going to share some ways you can help reduce your risk of needing a knee replacement operation in the future.
How To Reduce Your Knee Replacement Risk
When it comes to reducing your risk for eventually undergoing a knee replacement operation, it really comes down to reducing unnecessary wear and tear on the joint while simultaneously working to strengthen the joint and its supportive structures. Here’s how to best do that.
- Exercise – Exercise is probably the best thing you can do for your joint. Controlled strength training workouts and physical activities that require your joints to function at their highest level helps keep them healthy. Inactivity can lead to joint mobility issues and a weakening of supporting joint tissues, so work to keep the area active through exercise. Don’t overdo it though, because repetitive stress from activity can actually serve to injure crucial joint structures.
- Weight Management – Our knees help to support our weight with every step we take, but if our waistline expands, it means our knees are tasked with handling more stress. Over time, this increase stress can lead to faster joint degeneration. One of the most controllable and predictable factors of future knee replacement risk is weight, so work your way towards a healthy BMI if you want to cut down your knee replacement likelihood.
- Physical Therapy – Physical therapy is another great way to help protect your knees. Using targeted exercises and stretching techniques, physical therapy can help to target any aspect of the knee that needs improvement. From the supportive knee ligaments to the compartments of the knee itself, physical therapy is a great way to keep your knees strong for years to come.
- Bracing – Bracing can also help to ensure the alignment of your knee remains as it should. Sometimes the way we walk can put excess stress on certain areas of our knee if our natural body alignment is off. Bracing, especially during athletic activity, can help to keep your knees in a healthy alignment when moving.
- Medications – While medications won’t help to strengthen your knee joint by themselves, they can help make daily tasks more bearable. For some individuals, taking an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications or a prescription medication can help make exercise or physical therapy less of a pain. These medications can be used in combination with other strategies to help reduce your risk of knee replacement surgery.
If you follow these tips, we’re confident you’ll help to reduce your risk of needing a knee replacement operation in the future. But if you do need help with your knees at some point, reach out to Dr. Botero and his experienced medical team today.
