Desk jobs, obesity trigger knee pain
Surgeons
and physiotherapists have blamed rising levels of obesity and desk-based jobs across all
age groups for a huge surge in the number of people with painful knee joints, dubbed as 'office knee'.
More than a quarter of UK workers are suffering from knee pain, a new survey by healthcare provider Nuffield Health revealed has revealed
It found that people over the age of 55 suffer the most, with one in ten questioned claiming they are in constant pain.
And almost a quarter of 1,600 workers aged 16 to 65 surveyed said they have been living with pain for up to two years.
Sammy Margo, a spokesperson for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said the rise of the internet and desk based jobs are to blame for the phenomenon of 'office knee'.
"I have seen a huge surge in the number of people with knee pain and it is down to the sedentary lifestyle people are leading now. It is very much people with desk based jobs, and some of them have been working for ten to 20 years in these roles," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.
"I have been a physiotherapist for the past 25 years and in that time we have had the advent of the internet, which has been very much a factor," she stated.
And consultant orthopaedic surgeon Ronan Banim said that surgeons are seeing knees that are 'literally being crushed' by excess weight, which could increase the long-term risk of osteoarthritis.
He warned that if levels of obesity continue to rise the number of people needing knee replacements is likely go through the roof.
According to him, weight control, regular, careful, exercise and healthy eating could help people in avoiding the need for future surgery.
22.12.2012
Radio waves to cure
high BP?
There
seems to be a new cure for high blood pressure. Renal denervation, a minimally
invasive surgery, can lower blood pressure (BP) that refuses to yield to drugs,
according to the results obtained from a study that was conducted over a
year-long period. The findings build on results released in 2010. It showed
that six months of treating the arteries around the kidneys with radio waves
lowered drug-resistant high BP. Results show that risk of heart attack and
stroke could be reduced by 40 percent.
Renal
denervation involves inserting a catheter through an artery located near the
groin. Once there, a tip at the end of the catheter emits a radio frequency to
deactivate hyperactive sympathetic nerves in arteries that deliver blood supply
to the kidneys. These nerves contribute to high BP, the journal Circulation
reports.
Murray
Esler, professor and senior director at the Melbourne-based Baker IDI Heart and
Diabetes Institute, who led the study, said the findings could have significant
public health implications in the treatment of resistant hypertension, which is
often a cause for heart attack and stroke. High BP is a major health problem
worldwide, causing debilitating health problems and even sudden death. It is
estimated that 30-40 percent of the population suffer from high BP and of that
group, 15 percent are resistant to traditional therapies, according to the
Heart Institute statement.
The
results are drawn from Symplicity HTN-2, an on-going, multi-centre,
international study sponsored by device manufacturer Medtronic to evaluate
renal denervation for the treatment of hypertension. The study found that 83
percent of the treatment group experienced a drop in hypertension at six
months, and nearly 79 percent of the group maintained such reductions at 12
months. Critically, the study found that the participants’ kidneys were not
damaged or functionally impaired and there were no ill effects on long-term
health from the procedure.
Esler
commented: ‘Studies will soon determine whether this procedure can cure mild
hypertension, producing drug-free normalisation of blood pressure’.
22.12.2012
By
asking for the impossible we obtain the best possible
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