Tag Archives: osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis – part 2

This is a follow on from my last post and my time at the World Congress of Physiotherapy held in Amsterdam earlier this year. Is running bad for knee cartilage?  Can it cause knee OA? Ans Van Ginckel, a research physiotherapist from Ghent University in Belgium and her colleagues compared the changes in thickness of knee cartilage in 9 previously sedentary young women (20-40 y) who participated in a 10 week, 5 km beginners running program, with 10 sedentary controls.  Thicker cartilage is generally desirable as it is better able … Read the rest of this post »

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Osteoarthritis of the knee and physiotherapy – Part 1

Osteoarthritis of the knee What does recent physiotherapy research tell us? I just returned from Amsterdam where I attended the World Physiotherapy Congress. I was fortunate to be able to present a poster of my Master’s research to a large international audience.  I previously summarized and posted my whiplash related master’s research on the West 4th Physiotherapy blog, http://www.west4thphysio.com/archives/645 so in this post I decided to focus on summarizing some of the most interesting research presentations I attended which focused on osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. Can osteoarthritis be prevented … Read the rest of this post »

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Does joint pain actually damage?

Often I am consulted in the clinic for assessment and treatment of joint pain that has come on without any major trauma. The commonest cause for wear and tear type joint pain is osteoarthrosis (also called osteoarthritis) or degenerative joint disease. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and results in the slow destruction of joint cartilage, the springy joint tissue which caps the bone ends and acts as both a shock absorber and bumper. As the cartilage thins,wears and breaks away the joint surfaces roughen, resulting in a … Read the rest of this post »

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Trouble in high heels…

  It’s summer on the west coast. Here in Vancouver, BC, the sun shines and most of us take vacation of some sort (hence the lack of posts over the past few weeks). But of course I’m not the only one who gets to take a break. Many of my fashionable clients (you know who you are) do the same thing, ditching their habitual high heels for something altogether flatter and more modest. For most people it’s a fairly easy transition with barely a whimper from their perpetually tight calf muscles. … Read the rest of this post »

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