There are six common reasons why older women are prone to knee pain! How to treat, the doctor tells you

In our real life, there are indeed many elderly women who are very prone to knee pain. In the work of doctors, we also have the feeling that female patients suffer from joint pain, especially knee pain. Why? so?

The reasons why women are prone to knee pain are very complicated. Today we will introduce them to you in detail.

01

The physiological anatomy of women is inherently different from that of men.

Women bear the role of reproduction, so the pelvis of women is relatively wider than that of men, which also leads to certain abnormalities in the knee joint alignment. We usually place the midpoint of the patella to the tibial tubercle. The angle where the connecting line intersects with the vertical line pulled by the quadriceps is called the q angle. The normal q angle is 10~15° for men and 12~18° for women. The larger the q angle, the more patella. Tendency to move to the outside. The larger the buckling angle of women, the greater the friction between the patella and the femur behind it during squatting, which is why many women are very prone to pain on the lateral side of the patella.

Although it seems that the q angle of women is only 3° more than that of men, for the delicate knee joint, this 3° abnormality is enough to cause female friends to be prone to knee pain. You must know that in knee replacement There is a deviation of 1° in the operation, which may cause irreversible consequences.

02

Pregnancy in women is the reason why they are prone to knee pain.

During pregnancy, women will have significant changes in weight and hormones. For every kilogram of our weight, the load on our knee joints will increase by 4 kilograms. If women gain more weight during pregnancy, It is easy to cause some irritation to the joints. During pregnancy, hormone levels in women will change significantly, and the effect of hormones will be greater during production. The effect of hormones will make women's ligaments and tendons relax to a certain extent, which will be better for production, and for joints. In other words, once the tendons and ligaments are loosened, the joint becomes unstable, and the unstable joint is prone to pain.

03

Menopause has a great impact on bones and joints

Menopause is a big milestone for women. In orthopaedics, due to the sharp drop in hormone levels, the bones are no longer as strong as before, and osteoporosis will occur. We call it the bone of menopause. Looseness can cause pain in female patients. Remember that muscles and bones are one family. As bones become less strong, muscles naturally weaken. When about 10% of the bone mass is lost, the patient will experience bone pain. If the muscles are atrophied or weakened, the joints become unstable, which can also lead to pain.

04

Aging itself can easily lead to joint pain.

Whether it is a man or a woman, as the age increases, the joints are used for longer and longer, and the possibility of no wear and tear is very low, so they are prone to degeneration of the bones and joints, which we often call the bone joints. Arthritis, women are slightly more likely than men to develop osteoarthritis, the ratio is 1.6:1.

05

physical characteristics of women

Since the anatomical structures of women and men are different, women are in a squatting position when they go to the bathroom, which also has a certain impact on the knee joint. You must know that when we squat, the pressure on the knee joint is 5.6 of our body weight. times.

06

Overworked

In the current social form of our country, female friends not only have to take responsibility for work, but also take care of washing clothes, cooking, taking care of children and doing housework after returning home, which invisibly increases the workload of women. In particular, there are some women who love to be clean. They have to kneel on the ground to wipe the floor or squat to wipe the floor every day. In the long run, the burden on the joints has also increased a lot, which has also led to women being very prone to bone and joint problems. The problem.

The above are some common causes of knee pain in women. So how to deal with common problems? Let's talk about it in detail.

07

knee pain due to osteoporosis

●If a female friend has knee pain, especially in the special period of menopause, she should go to the hospital to consult a professional endocrinologist and perform a dual-energy x-ray examination to determine whether there is osteoporosis. This examination is the gold standard for osteoporosis. Only after we have made it clear that there is osteoporosis can we talk about the response, otherwise all measures will be useless.

According to the dual-energy x-ray examination, we will get a t value, if the t value is significantly lower than -2.5, it can be determined to be diagnosed as osteoporosis.

In addition, for the osteoporosis of female friends, it is recommended to carry out a bone metabolism examination. This examination can determine whether the patient is osteoporosis due to the reduction of bone formation or the increase of bone destruction, and most women are in the perimenopausal period. During this time, there will be obvious vitamin D deficiency, and bone metabolism examination can also clarify what kind of situation vitamin D is in.

● diet adjustment. After it is clear that osteoporosis exists, female friends should insist on ingesting a certain amount of nuts every day, mainly hazelnuts and bitter almonds. The amount does not need to be too much. The intake of milk and some deep-sea fish, such as salmon, is recommended twice a week, and 100 grams each time is enough. To properly increase the intake of vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, the daily amount should not be less than 500 grams. Properly increasing the intake of beans can also help supplement calcium well.

Appropriate persistent exercise to promote bone health is a weight-bearing exercise. Jogging, brisk walking, lifting dumbbells properly, dancing, elderly aerobics, and Tai Chi are all acceptable, but swimming is of little significance because swimming has the buoyancy of water. It is a non-weight bearing sport.

●Be sure to stick to the sun. The time of sun exposure should be controlled at about 20~30 minutes each day. If the sun is relatively abundant, the time should be appropriately reduced. If the sun is relatively small, the time can be appropriately increased, but remember not to be exposed to the sun. Excessive exposure to the sun, or exposure to direct sunlight, can easily cause skin cancer. In addition, be sure not to expose to the sun through glass, because the glass will absorb the most important ultraviolet rays in the sun to promote bone health.

If the osteoporosis is serious and you want to fight against it, it is okay to take appropriate drug supplements. It is okay to take some drugs that inhibit bone destruction, such as bisphosphonates, and you can also take some bone-promoting drugs. Calcium deposition drugs, such as calcitriol or alphacalcidol, but these drugs must be taken under the guidance of a professional doctor, because these drugs often have some special methods of taking or some special things that must be paid attention to. For details, for example, after taking calcitriol, you must regularly review blood calcium and blood phosphorus, and adjust the dose in time.

● appropriate calcium supplementation. It is still meaningful to take some calcium tablets orally to supplement the raw material of calcium. We usually recommend that the amount of oral calcium should be controlled at 600-1000 mg per day.

●Some rehabilitation exercises suitable for patients with osteoporosis. The following exercises are good for female friends with osteoporosis. Persistence is good for bone health. You don’t need to make appropriate choices for every action. Some actions that suit you, sticking to them will be beneficial.

08

Knee Pain from Osteoarthritis!

As mentioned earlier, women are very prone to knee osteoarthritis, and hand osteoarthritis is also the hardest hit area for female friends.

Early osteoarthritis patients often show a sense of tension behind the knee joint, joint weakness, especially the performance of soft legs, some patients will have obvious joint snapping when squatting, and accompanied by pain. With the severity of the disease, the patient's symptoms will become more and more serious. Some patients will gradually show joint pain when going up and down stairs and walking on a flat road. Later, the patient will show joint pain when resting. Pain, accompanied by obvious joint movement disorders and joint deformities.

For knee osteoarthritis, it is recommended that female friends recommend knee x-ray or knee MRI to clarify the state of the cartilage in the joint cavity and how much bone hyperplasia is formed? Only in this way can better help patients to carry out scientific treatment.

●For female friends with mild symptoms, if they are confirmed to be osteoarthritis after examination, they should properly control their weight, reduce the burden on joints, and try to reduce the increase in long-term squatting, kneeling, cross-legged, mountain climbing and repeated stair climbing. Actions that load the joints. Because the pathological basis of osteoarthritis is the damage of cartilage in the joint, oral glucosamine or some Chinese patent medicines can be taken to help control the symptoms of osteoarthritis.

Patients with severe symptoms can try intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate or platelet-rich plasma factor to promote the repair of articular cartilage damage, increase the elasticity of articular cartilage, and increase intra-articular lubrication to relieve symptoms. Mirror surgery helps you manage your symptoms and reduce pain.

●If the symptoms of the joints are particularly severe, the patient has obvious joint deformities and cannot walk normally. After walking more than 500 meters, there will be obvious joint pain, and when resting or sleeping, they will also suffer from pain because of the pain. If the impact is serious, then there is an indication for joint replacement, and it may be necessary to completely help patients solve the problem through knee replacement surgery.

●Rehabilitation exercise. Female friends who suffer from knee osteoarthritis pain, don't think that there is a problem, and you can help yourself reduce the wear and tear of the joint by staying still. Appropriate exercise is beneficial to the protection of articular cartilage. It is recommended to control the number of steps taken every day at 6000~8000 steps. Slope, can take the elevator without taking the stairs.

In addition, there are some rehabilitation exercises to promote blood circulation in the lower limbs, maintain joint flexibility, and increase the strength of muscles around the joints. You should insist on it from the day you have symptoms. The following are the methods of these rehabilitation exercises. You don’t have to do every movement, try Choose those movements that suit you for rehabilitation exercises, as long as you insist on protecting your joints, it will be beneficial.

09

Summarize

There are many causes of knee pain in women, and they are very complex. It can be said that each patient has its own different etiology.

The common causes of knee pain in elderly women are osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The article has given you some detailed introductions. If you have other doubts, you can leave a message below. , of course, factors like rheumatoid arthritis and meniscus damage are also reasons why older women are prone to pain. This requires a detailed analysis of specific issues. We can’t go into such detail in the article. Dr. Xie has also written a lot of popular science articles. You can pay attention to Dr. Xie and seek help in Dr. Xie’s previous popular science articles.

I am Xie Xinhui who insists on explaining the knowledge of complex diseases in simple language. It is not easy to code words. If you agree with my point of view, please help to follow or like it. If you or your family and friends also have joint pain problems , please forward this article to those who need it, thank you!