Two New Techniques for Keeping Knees Active
01 March 2014
By Jana Soeldner Danger
Chronic knee pain can make life miserable. Sufferers often need to cut back on or abandon their participation in athletics or fitness programs, and even day-to-day activities like walking can be uncomfortable.
Some bad news: Osteoarthritis, the major cause of joint deterioration, is happening in younger people. “The average age for diagnosis now is about 50,” says Dr. Frank McCormick, an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. “It used to be the mid-60s. It’s partly because many Americans today are more active than in the past, and also because many of them are heavier.”
“Cartilage injuries have been a health problem forever,” says Dr. John Malloy, an orthopedic surgeon with Broward Health. “Cartilage is avascular [meaning it doesn’t have a blood supply], so repair cells can’t get to it to heal it.”