SPS Apollo Hospitals organises Knee Joint Pain & Arthritis Awareness Programme for School Teachers

Ludhiana, April 4, 2014: Over 100 faculty members from private school attended a lecture on “Knee Joint Pain &Arthritis” at Sacred Heart Convent School, Khanna. The key speaker at the event was Dr.Harpreet Singh Gill, Senior Consultant& Co-ordinator, Department of Orthopedics, Fellow Johns Hopkins Univ., USA who spoke at length on knee joint problems and arthritis in the elderly.

Elaborating on the disease, Dr.Gill said as summer beckons people outdoors for a bevy of activities, those limited by hip and knee pain due to arthritis may be wondering if it's time for joint replacement surgery so they can be active again. Exercise and weight loss are usually the first line of defense.

Exercise, especially activities that strengthen the muscles that support the knees and hips, is one key to avoiding pain. The quadriceps in the front of the thigh and the hamstrings in the back are important to knee strength. Every time you walk or do any weight-bearing activity, the quads absorb the shock. The stronger your quads are, the less load that gets transferred into the knee. The gluteal muscles in the buttocks and flexors in the pelvis are important for hip strength and flexibility.

One of the best ways to gain control of pain is to talk to a doctor about it. Unlike a broken leg pain cannot be seen in an x-ray or identified by a medical test. What a patient says may be the only way the doctor will know about the pain. And because people experience and respond to pain differently how a patient describes pain is the best way for the doctor to understand what the patient is feeling. Only then can the doctor help the patient treat the pain.

Dr. Gill also elaborated on Knee replacement surgeries. How they has improved dramatically over the last few decades because of improved techniques, improved materials and improved understanding of knee physiology and function.

At the end Dr. H.S. Gill also told everyone to consult your doctor when this situation arrives as the patient and the doctor should share the same goal--reducing the patient's pain.