Let's Talk More About Degenerative Arthritis.

Knee joint is the largest and most complex structure joint in our human body. Because of its superficial position;  its bearing of heavy burden; its huge amount of activities; its complicated structure but unstable  structure (especially during activities), it can easily lead to injury. Knee joint is also a common place for hyperosteogeny. This is the anatomic basis of degenerative arthritis. favourite

Let’s us see how Traditional Chinese Medicine explain on degenerative arthritis:

For Traditional Chinese Medicine, degenerative arthritis is known as knee pain or gonalgia, gonatalgi,and gonyalgia. This is mostly belong to  Bi Syndrome  ( Bi  in acupuncture terminology means obstruction).  Bi Syndrome  refers to those diseases that result from blockage  in the extremities, meridians or organs by pathogens (disease causing agents). The syndrome manifests as joint pain, numbness and impaired movement of the limbs.

For the clinical records, this kind of disease is normally seen on elderly people, especially those at the age of 50 to 6o years old. While female patients are more than male patients who suffered of this degenerative knee arthritis.

There is a statement in  Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon  << HuangDi NeiJing – Bi Theory >>, “When three of the six climatic evils (wind, cold, and dampness mixed together, and combined to become  Bi, obstruction”. The meaning is that the Bi Syndrome is caused by the collaboration from within the external pathogenic factors of wind, cold, dampness and others; together with the internal factors of weak internal organs  WuZhang LiuFu .

In the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kidney rules bone; Liver rules tendon.

“Kidney rules bone” means that kidney is related to the growth and function of both the bone and bone marrow. The physiological function or the Kidney essence (kidney’s  JingQi)  of the Kidney directly affect the growth, nutrition, function, and etc of the bone. Besides, it is  also directly affect the enrichment of the bone marrow; the strength of the bone; and the agility of exercise.

“Liver rules tendon” means that liver is closely related with the physiological function of tendon. The physiological function of Liver or the Liver  Qi  is directly affecting the function of tendons. When the Liver is functioning well, or when the Liver  Qi  is sufficient, the whole body’s muscles and joints can exercise and move freely. The  book, << HuangDi NeiJing SuWen – ShangGu TianZhen Theory >>, “At the age of 56, Liver  Qi  decline, tendon cannot move”. Saying that, generally, when a man reach the age of 56-year-old, he may feel that less agile in movement.

Therefore, degenerative arthritis is caused by few factors when there is changes in body with the increase of age. These factors are:

1. The virtual decline of liver and kidney
2. Insufficient of vital energy,  Qi  and blood
3. Long term fatigue or traumatic injury
4. The invasion of  external pathogenic evils such as wind, cold, and dampness
5. Improper diet.

The patients were mainly manifested as slow onset of the disease. It is more commonly seen in middle-aged obese women, with strain history. Patients feel pain when there are activities of the knee joints.

The symptoms of degenerative arthritis:

1. The early onset of pain is seizure, follow by continuous pain. It then becomes serious after overworked. The pain is even more obvious when go up and down the stairs.
2. There is limitation for the activities of the knee joints, particularly when doing activities of run, jump, kneel and squat. It can be limp when getting serious, but not Ankylosis or Anchylosis of joint.
3. There is snapping fricative during the activities of the knee joints. Some patients may even have swelling joints, and quadriceps atrophy.
4. The area around the knee joints has tenderness. When moving the patella, the knee joints feel pain.
5. Individual patients can occur genu varum or genu valgum.
6. When there is episome found in knee joint, it can suddenly appear the interlocking phenomena during walking. This can disappear after some activities.

When Traditional Chinese Medicine treat this disease, it is not just confined to that pain area. Instead, while giving local treatment, it is even more focus on conditioning the function of the internal organs,  ZhangFu  especially regulating and nourishing both the liver and kidney. There are various method to do so, including acupuncture, massage, having Chinese medication, applying external of medicine plaster and etc. All these can also implemented together.

This is the feature and advantage of Traditional Chinese Medicine on giving treatment on degenerative arthritis. The effect is much better than just only simply take pain killer or “colloid pill”. There is even no need to worry about the side effect after having the surgery on the knee, i.e. the  knee joint replacement surgery.