Knee Injury Rehabilitation
Many sports injuries cause a progressive permanent
osteoarthritis that will prevent a person from exercising to cause
the very diseases that a regular exercise program is supposed to
prevent. Sports medicine surgeon James Garrick, writing in the
medical journal Lancet (December 2005), explains why. You are
supposed to exercise. It makes you stronger, faster, healthier
and may even prolong your life. However, every time you
exercise, you risk injury and many sports injuries last forever.
Depression, heart attacks, strokes, obesity and diabetes are all
associated with a sedentary lifestyle. A twisted ankle can
change an active person into a sedentary one. A torn anterior
cruciate ligament or meniscus of the knee has a greater than 50
percent chance of causing permanent pain within five years,
regardless of the treatment.
If you tear your anterior cruciate ligament of you knee,
you must have it repaired as soon as possible. After it is
repaired at surgery, you have an almost certain chance of tearing
it again if you try to return to a competitive sport. When your
heel hits the ground during running, your foot stops moving
suddenly, forcing the upper femur bone to slide forward on the
lower tibia bone at the knee. The anterior cruciate ligament
prevents the femur from sliding too far forward and shearing off
the cartilage in your knee. Once you tear your anterior cruciate
ligament (ACL), even if it is successfully repaired, you have a
weaker ACL that still lets the top femur slide forward on the tibia
and shear off cartilage. So running causes you to lose cartilage
until you lose it all, bone rubs against bone and you hurt 24 hours
a day. The only treatment then is a knee replacement. So
anyone who has broken cartilage or ACL in his or he knee should
never run again for the rest of his or her life.
On the other hand, strengthening the muscles of your
upper leg stabilizes the knee and helps to delay and prevent a
knee replacement. Anyone with broken cartilage or a torn
anterior cruciate ligament in the knee should try to pedal a
bicycle every day. Pedaling is done in a smooth rotary motion
without sudden stopping, so it does not cause sudden forward
movement of the femur on the tibia and does not shear off
additional cartilage from the knee joint. If you pedal against
increasing resistance you will strengthen the muscles around the
knees and increase their stability so there is less wear on the
cartilage.
Checked 11/9/11