Why Your Knees Might Ache More With Age and What to Do About It

You had a particular spring in your step when you were a spring chicken. However, you’ve recently noticed that your knees are much less limber. Does this sound familiar?

Father Time can cause tight, stiff, or aching knees for many of us. However, knee discomfort is not unavoidable. While you can’t entirely age-proof your knees, you may take precautions to avoid significant complications.

Elizabeth T. Nguyen, MD, a physiatrist at the Hospital for Special Surgery who is board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, discusses what causes knee pain in older individuals and what you may do to alleviate the suffering.

1. Your Cartilage Degrades

 

“Cartilage protects bones and joints while also acting as a shock absorber within the knee joint,” explains Dr. Nguyen. In other words, connective tissue serves as an important cushion for your body’s components.

However, cartilage deteriorates over time as a result of regular wear and strain. This results in “reduced shock absorption and higher tension along the joint, which might potentially contribute to knee discomfort,” according to Dr. Nguyen. (However, not everyone with cartilage wear feels discomfort.)

Dr. Nguyen believes that strengthening activities are the greatest way of prevention and therapy for knee discomfort caused by cartilage degeneration. You may specifically help your knees by concentrating on muscle groups that move and protect the knee joint.

Strong quadriceps (the group of muscles on the front of your leg) are essential for knee health. Indeed, “studies have proven the association between quadriceps weakness and [knee] discomfort,” according to Dr. Nguyen. So strengthening your quads will help you avoid knee issues in the future.

In addition, she explains, reducing recurrent misuse of the knee joint and keeping a healthy body weight (more on this later) is important for good knees in your senior years.

2. You’ve Put on Weight

 

Weight gain with age is typical due to factors such as a slower metabolism and a more sedentary lifestyle. However, being overweight is a risk factor for developing knee discomfort, according to Dr. Nguyen.

This is because carrying additional weight puts more strain on your knees.

“Weight gain can increase the strain and stress over the knee joint, which can lead to knee discomfort, inflammation, stiffness, and loss of functional mobility,” explains Dr. Nguyen.

But it isn’t all. “Obesity can also cause low-grade systemic inflammation, which can impact several joints,” she says. According to the Cleveland Clinic, persistent inflammation can cause joint discomfort or stiffness.

Fix it: Even a small weight loss can make a significant impact on knee soreness.

“Losing one pound of body weight can lower stress on the knee joint by around fourfold,” adds Dr. Nguyen. “For example, a 10-pound weight loss can result in a 40-pound reduction in stress on the knee joint.”

3. Your Muscles Have Weakening

 

According to Harvard Health Publishing, you may anticipate losing up to 5% of your muscle mass per decade beyond the age of 30, which is a natural part of the aging process.

However, age-related muscle loss, known as sarcopenia, results in increased weakness and decreased mobility, which can be harmful to your knee health.

“Muscles like the quadriceps and even the gluteal muscles around the hip play essential roles in moving and supporting the knee joint,” explains Dr. Nguyen. “The quadriceps muscles are also responsible for absorbing the forces placed on the knee.”

“Weakness in these muscle groups can result in aberrant joint loading, joint instability, structural damage, and finally pain,” she explains.

Fix it: Strength training to keep your quadriceps strong is another excellent method for keeping your knees healthy. According to the Mayo Clinic, exercises that target your hamstrings will also assist support your knees.

“Strengthening activities, such as isometric workouts or resistance-band exercises, can effectively address deficits to maximize strength and stability,” explains Dr. Nguyen.

Balance exercise could also be included in your weekly regimen for healthy knees. According to the Mayo Clinic, balance training trains the muscles around your knees to cooperate more efficiently, which leads to greater knee function and fewer chances of injury.

4. You’re Too Sitting

 

Your golden years are an excellent time to relax. For many elderly people, this typically means moving less. The issue is that too much sitting might harm your knees.

According to the State Government of Victoria’s Department of Health, inactivity can hasten the shrinking and hardening of cartilage, resulting in decreased joint mobility and range of motion. This translates to fewer limber knees.

Furthermore, according to the State Government of Victoria’s Department of Health, being active puts a certain amount of good stress on your joints and promotes the flow of synovial fluid (the lubricating fluid within your joints). As a result, if you sit for most of the day, you lose this lubricating effect.

Sedentism can also lead to muscular deconditioning and weight gain, according to Dr. Nguyen. And, as we all know, both of these variables might result in knee discomfort.

Fix it: The key to healthy knees is to stay active. (See a theme here?) Stretching, which may help to relax tight muscles that might lead to injury, and strength training are also excellent choices.

5. You are suffering from osteoarthritis.

 

Knee osteoarthritis, according to Dr. Nguyen, is a painful degenerative condition that affects the cartilage, bone, and tissues that line the joint.

“Part of the illness process involves an increase in the enzymes responsible for cartilage breakdown, which results in cartilage loss, inflammation, discomfort, stiffness, and loss of mobility,” she explains.

While this chronic knee condition is related to advancing age, not everyone develops osteoarthritis, which differs from normal aging of the joint, where the cartilage is still reasonably healthy, notes Dr. Nguyen.

Nonetheless, according to the Cleveland Clinic, this illness affects an estimated 80% of persons over the age of 55 (with 60% suffering some symptoms).

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the following variables enhance your chances of developing osteoarthritis:

• Obesity or being overweight
• Diabetes
• Cholesterol levels are high.
• Sex (those designated feminine at birth are more vulnerable) (people assigned female at birth are more susceptible)
• Genetics

Fix it: While certain risk factors are beyond our control, others, according to Dr. Nguyen, may be addressed to avoid the start or progression of osteoarthritis.

“Management is determined by the severity of the disease, the intensity of the pain, and the individual’s functional goals,” she explains.

A person suffering from obesity, for example, may engage in healthy weight control to alleviate symptoms. Dr. Nguyen believes that losing a few pounds can help reduce discomfort, inflammation, and the progression of the condition.

So, how much weight must be added to the scale to notice the benefits? “Losing more than 10% of your present body weight can result in dramatically better pain, function, and quality of life,” she explains.

Weight reduction can not only alleviate symptoms, but it can also reduce the likelihood of getting knee osteoarthritis in the first place, according to Dr. Nguyen.

According to Dr. Nguyen, other conservative therapies for the illness include:

• Aerobic activity with low impact (think: walking, biking, swimming)
• Strengthening, flexibility, and functional mobility can all be improved with physical therapy.
• Knee bracing is used to temporarily relieve tension on the knee joint.
• To reduce pain and inflammation, topical or oral drugs such as acetaminophen and/or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories are used.
• Corticosteroids and hyaluronic acid injections are examples of therapeutic injections.
• Knee replacement surgery might be considered in advanced situations where conservative therapies have failed, according to Dr. Nguyen.

6. You’ve Had a Knee Injury Before

 

Sorry to report this, but if you have a history of knee pain in your youth, it may return to haunt you later in life.

Previous knee injuries, such as a fracture, cartilage injuries, or ligament injuries, are risk factors for post-traumatic osteoarthritis, according to Dr. Nguyen.

“These injuries can result in altered neuromuscular control, aberrant joint loading, reduced knee mobility, increased joint instability, and, eventually, cartilage degradation,” she says. All of these factors might contribute to knee discomfort in old age.

Work with “rehabilitation professionals knowledgeable with the injuries to assist avoid the beginning and progression of osteoarthritis,” adds Dr. Nguyen.

A physical therapist, for example, can help you “address the underlying mobility, strength, and functional impairments through activity modification and rehabilitative exercises,” she explains.

7. You’ve Got Gout

 

Gout, a kind of inflammatory arthritis, might be causing your knee discomfort.

While gout can strike at any age, the Cleveland Clinic reports that it is more frequent after menopause.

This severe kind of arthritis “typically affects one joint at a time and is caused by an increase in blood uric acid levels,” according to Dr. Nguyen.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, uric acid is a natural byproduct produced when your body breaks down purines, which are found in certain foods and beverages such as alcohol and animal proteins. Uric acid is filtered by the kidneys and eliminated through the urine in healthy humans.

When your body creates too much uric acid or your kidneys aren’t working correctly, “uric acid crystals can build within joints, causing inflammation and discomfort,” explains Dr. Nguyen.

Gout, in addition to pain, can induce the following symptoms, according to the Cleveland Clinic:

• Redness
• Stiffness
• Swelling
• Tenderness, even when lightly touched
• Warmth, or the sensation that the joint is “on fire”

Dr. Nguyen notes that “gout recurrences may be controlled with dietary adjustments, such as lowering intake of red meat, seafood, alcohol, and sugary drinks that contain fructose,” in addition to maintaining a healthy weight for your body. Limiting these purine-rich meals can help reduce uric acid accumulation.

“Anti-inflammatory drugs can also help control pain and inflammation during flare-ups,” she says.

When Should You See a Doctor for Knee Pain?

 

While some joint stiffness is expected as you age, knee discomfort is not a normal component of the aging process.

So, if your achy knees interfere with your everyday activities or sleep and aren’t helped by a fair length of rest, ice, compression, elevation, and over-the-counter pain medicines, Dr. Nguyen says it’s time to contact your doctor.

Similarly, if your knee discomfort is caused by an acute injury that causes swelling, extreme pain, and incapacity to walk, she advises seeing a doctor very once.