32-year-old man felt his knee joints creaking, went to the doctor and was shocked to find out he had an old people's disease

Nguyen Van Minh (32 years old, office worker in Hanoi) went to the hospital for examination after many days of leg pain, difficulty walking, and cracking noises in his knee joints.

Minh has a history of obesity, has tried to lose weight for many years but failed, now the man is 1m7 tall and weighs nearly 100kg.

Due to his excess weight, Minh had difficulty walking and often suffered from joint pain. At first, Minh's legs felt numb and painful when he walked a lot. Gradually, the pain became more severe, and he could not lift his legs after just a few steps.

The young man was worried and went to the hospital for a check-up. Minh was diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis when he was just over 30 years old.

“I always thought that degeneration only occurs in people over 50, while I am only 32 years old,” Minh said, adding that the doctor advised him to lose weight to reduce the burden on his bones and take medication to improve the condition.

The trend of knee osteoarthritis is getting younger.

Also coming to the hospital after many days of difficulty walking, Dang Tuan Anh (30 years old), a porter at a garment factory in Hanoi, said that a week ago his right leg had been constantly aching, the pain getting worse every time he worked.

At first he thought it was due to a recent fall during a soccer match, but examination found no bruises or scratches.

To relieve the pain, he bought medicine and applied plasters but they were ineffective. Tuan Anh's knee joints hurt as if someone was hitting them with a stick. Fearing that he had a strange disease, the young man went to the doctor for an X-ray and was diagnosed with grade 4 osteoarthritis of the knee.

MSc.BSCKI Ly Rina - Head of Internal Medicine Clinic, An Viet General Hospital (Hanoi) said that many people think that knee osteoarthritis only occurs in the elderly, however, in recent years the disease has tended to be younger.

"Many people with knee osteoarthritis are between the ages of 30 and 40, and some are even younger than 20," said Dr. Ly Rina.

Knee osteoarthritis often occurs in the elderly, the main cause is aging. However, people who do heavy manual labor, carry a lot of weight, do heavy work, stand for long periods of time or are obese have a higher risk of knee osteoarthritis, earlier.

People with knee osteoarthritis experience pain around the knee joint or just a few points. At first, the pain is mild, appearing when walking a lot or going up and down stairs, going uphill and often appearing at night.

Over time, the knee joint may swell due to inflammation or joint effusion. If fluid is aspirated, the pain will decrease, but may recur after a few days or weeks.

When the condition gets worse, people with knee osteoarthritis may experience stiffness, most evident in the early morning when waking up, and a crackling sound in the knee joint when walking or when flexing and extending the leg.

Diet and exercise will help improve osteoarthritis.

How to prevent knee osteoarthritis

Doctor Ly Rina said, to prevent the risk of early knee osteoarthritis, you can pay attention to your diet and daily activities such as:

- You should eat cold water fish and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are very effective anti-inflammatory agents.

- Regularly use marrow bones, veal ribs, beef ribs, alternately supplement with pork, poultry, shrimp, crab.

- Build a scientific working and living regime, exercise regularly, avoid overwork.

- For obese people who need to lose weight.

- When there are abnormal warning symptoms in the joints, patients need to go to the hospital for early examination and treatment to avoid dangerous complications to health and life.

Nguyen Ngoan

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