Increasing knee arthritis in spring, prevention and treatment?
Mar 05, 2025
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Knee arthritis is a degenerative disease that causes pain due to inflammation as cartilage gradually disappears. In general, arthritis causes severe pain as muscles and ligaments around the joints stiffen in cold weather, but patients who are actually treated for arthritis tend to increase more in spring than in winter.
According to data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of knee arthroplasty patients increased from 877,935 in February last year to 966,677 in March, 1,015,297 in April and 1,030,088 in May. This shows a significant increase in knee arthritis patients from March to May every year.
The medical community analyzes that the increase in physical response and activity due to weather changes is the main cause of worsening arthritis. In addition, it is characterized by a large daily temperature difference that is chilly in the morning and evening in spring and warm in the middle of the day, and changes in air pressure occur rapidly along with the increase in temperature. These environmental changes directly affect joint pain. Joints are weather-sensitive areas, and degenerative arthritis patients often suffer from these changes in air pressure.
Heo Dong-beom, director of Yonsei Star Hospital (Orthopedic Surgeon), said "As the body energy that had been reduced during the winter becomes spring, metabolism becomes active and activity increases. The problem is that the sudden increase in activity with stiff joints and muscles due to reduced activity during the winter puts a burden on the knee. This may result in the development of early symptoms of arthritis or exacerbation of existing symptoms," he said.
In order to enjoy spring outdoor activities healthy, you should avoid excessive increase in activity and choose exercise according to your physical strength.
Exercise that reduces weight burden without bending the knee much, such as walking, indoor cycling, and swimming, is effective. In addition, it gradually increases by 10% per week to prevent sudden increases in activity. For example, it is desirable to increase the intensity step by step in the order of light walking → breaking news → light jogging → climbing. Before and after exercise, you should relax your muscles and ligaments by stretching enough to prevent injury.
If you exercise excessively while already having pain in your knees, inflammation can worsen and joint damage can progress. In this case, the pain should be controlled first with medication or injection treatment, and then light exercise should be started. In that case, hyaluronic acid injections, which can be helped, act as joint lubricants that help smooth the movement of stiff knees to reduce pain, and prologue injections help enhance joint stability by strengthening ligaments and tendons around the knee.
If the pain relieves, you should start with low-intensity exercises such as walking and stretching and gradually increase the intensity, and if your knee swells or the pain continues for more than three months after exercising, you should check your condition through a detailed examination.
Knee arthritis is a disease with a high incidence rate mainly in the middle-aged, and the treatment that can be performed varies depending on the age group in the early stages. Arthritis can be prevented from worsening when appropriate treatment is performed according to one's condition.
In addition, maintaining proper weight is also an important factor in preventing and treating arthritis. When a weight gain of 1kg increases, the load on the knee increases by 4kg, so weight management alone can greatly reduce the knee burden.
Heo Dong-beom, the director of the hospital, said "It is a good season to enjoy outdoor activities in spring, but sudden increases in activity and bad exercise habits can contribute to worsening arthritis. It is recommended that you gradually increase your exercise amount, choose an exercise that suits your physical strength, and if you have pain, don't overdo it, and start exercising after medication or injection treatment."
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
