Relief and Treatment of Hand and Knee Osteoathritis

In a Mind Your Body (Straits Times) article on June 26  2014, Dr Kevin Lee addresses a reader’s concern on relief and treatment of osteoathritis in the hand and knees.

The reader has been an active sportsman since 20, but developed early osteoarthritis in both knees at 40. Physiotherapy did not help and he stopped exercising with his hurting knees. He recently developed Heberden’s nodes on his fingers. He asked Dr Lee on what can be done to lessen the pain from knee osteoarthritis and fingers.

Dr Lee suspects that the reader has osteoarthritis in both his hands and knees. Heberden’s nodes are a common sign of osteoarthritis in the hand. For the treatment of osteoarthritis, the usual treatments include weight loss, activity modification, joint supplements like collagen or herbal preparations, injections of hyaluronic acid and physiotherapy.