Of all the lower body joints, the knee is probably the one most likely to send you to the physiotherapist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt carries most of the weight of the body, and being a hinge joint, it means that it doesn\u2019t have a nice socket structure,\u201d says physiotherapist Dr Jillian Eyles, from the University of Sydney. \u201cIt relies on the ligaments and the joint capsules and the muscles around it to really stabilise the joint, and it\u2019s fairly easy to injure compared to another joint that\u2019s more supported.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knee injuries, and the associated increase in the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis, are a key reason why more than 53,000 knee replacement surgeries are performed each year in Australia, and that figure is expected to more than double<\/a> by 2030.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what experts say about how to keep your knees healthy and avoid becoming one of those surgical patients:<\/p>\n Avoid injury<\/p>\n Knee injury substantially increases the risk of knee osteoarthritis, and at a younger age. One of the most common serious knee injuries is a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament<\/a>, which crosses diagonally under the kneecap and connects the thigh bone to the shin bone \u2013 the same injury that took Matildas star striker Sam Kerr<\/a> out of the game for over a year.<\/p>\n It is possible to reduce the risk of knee injuries like this by warming up properly before activity, says physiotherapist Dr Kathryn Mills, from Kensington Physiotherapy and Macquarie University in Sydney. \u201cThat\u2019s not going for a run and stretch \u2013 it\u2019s doing a designed program that is designed to train both how your muscles are working, the extent to which they\u2019re working, and how your brain is turning on those muscles,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Warm-up activities recommended for preventing ACL injuries include squats, walking lunges, running with high knees, and side-to-side jumps and hops.<\/p>\n Maintain healthy weight<\/p>\n The knee is one of the key load-bearing joints of the body, so the greater the load on that joint, the greater the risk of damage over its lifespan. \u201cIf you think about how many steps a day someone walks, [that] accumulates over the course of their life, if you\u2019re putting a lot of load on those joints \u2013 which can come from body weight \u2013 that can be a contributor,\u201d says Prof Rana Hinman, a research physiotherapist at the University of Melbourne. She recommends maintaining a healthy weight for healthy knee joints, both to reduce load and reduce inflammation.<\/p>\n