Exercising Your Knee When it Hurts

It may seem to go against your instincts, but in some cases, supervised exercise when you have knee pain could be just what you need.

A study in the Netherlands of 131 people with patellofemoral pain syndrome found that patients who had followed a specially designed exercise program had better outcomes after one year of treatment than those who followed the standard care.

Patellofemoral pain syndrome results in pain at the front of the knee, most often starting in adolescence, particularly among teens who are active in sports. It affects women more than men.

The patients who followed the exercise program had a higher rate of recovery at three months (42% exercise compared with 35% control group) and again at one year (62% exercise compared with 51% at 12 months. The exercise group said that they had less pain and better function than the other group. Much more study needs to be done as this small group (65 in each) is only large enough to give researchers an idea of what may be happening.

The study was published recently at bmj.com.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com