Saturday, November 18, 2017

Inflammation and Knee Pain, One More Time

I’ve already touched on renegade inflammation and knee pain a few times, such as here and here.

But the subject of inflammation and knee pain is intriguing enough, and relevant enough (and what’s been found lately is also contrary enough) that it deserves plenty of space.

Take this article, now two years old:
Knee osteoarthritis should no longer be thought of as a "noninflammatory" condition, as inflammation associated with synovitis or effusion plays a bigger role in worsening pain than mechanical load, according to a new report from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study, published online November 10 in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
There were 1,111 people in the study, aged 50 to 79 years, who either had knee osteoarthritis or were at risk for it. Initially, 21 percent of the subjects reported frequent knee pain.

One of the doctors involved noted an unexpected result:
I was surprised that we found no relation of bone marrow lesions to pain sensitization because one of our hypotheses, based on animal models, is that mechanical and/or inflammatory lesions can lead to sensitization.
What was related to “sensitization” instead? Synovitis, or inflammation of the synovium.

Oh, another interesting finding that has grim implications:
The authors suspect that once sensitization has occurred, just cooling the inflammation might not be enough to correct it.
So what’s the takeaway? Trying to quell inflammation early may be smart, the researchers suggest:
[Their findings] do suggest that early targeting of inflammation might reduce sensitization ... Preventing the altered neurologic processing of nociceptive signals that usually occurs in OA might also prevent the progressive worsening of pain.

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Looking for a Bionic Knee Brace? Read on.

I saw this story last year and bookmarked it. It’s knee-related and kind of fun:
A pair of Nova Scotia researchers are close to producing a "bionic" knee brace that enhances ability and reduces fatigue, and have now landed a lucrative contract to produce a beefed-up version for the Canadian Armed Forces.
Production has indeed started on the “Levitation brace” (I found it selling online for $1,999). The device is a bit pricey, but knee braces are one decent option for bad knees:
The civilian product . . . is intended for athletes going through rehabilitation, workers needing to alleviate knee stress and fatigue and older people with worn-out knees.
It turns out the brace’s inventors know a little about suffering with knee pain:
Both men had knee issues. Garrish (Bob Garrish, the company’s chief tech officer) suffers from osteoarthritis in both knees, and Cowper-Smith (Chris Cowper-Smith, the company’s CEO) was suffering at the time from anterior knee pain, which is also known as runner's knee.
The military application is rather interesting. The brace would help soldiers who are often crouching and standing while wearing packs up to 120 lbs. Also, the company is looking at making a special version to absorb the high-impact stress when paratroopers drop out of planes.

I’m a big fan of devices/tricks to unload bad knees. Has anyone used a brace – probably not this one, but something simpler? How well did it work?