How You Can Avoid or Delay Hip Replacement

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, more than 285,000 total hip replacements are performed each year in the United States. Are you experiencing hip pain or loss of mobility, yet want to avoid being a part of this statistic? Although a total hip replacement may be inevitable for some, there are things you can do to either stave off such a major surgery or avoid it all together.

At Manhattan Sports Therapy, we are dedicated to helping patients avoid invasive surgery whenever possible. Our treatment modalities include a number of non-surgical approaches designed to alleviate hip pain as well as give you better mobility. In addition to what we can do in our Manhattan clinic, we also suggest the following for patients to do at home.

What You Can Do at Home Starting Now

The hip is one of the body’s largest joints. It is a ball-and-socket joint that is part of the large pelvis bone. By losing weight, strengthening your muscles around this joint and increasing your flexibility, your hip joint suffers less damage and strain on a daily basis.

Strengthening
Physical therapy to strengthen the muscles surrounding your hip joint can make a profound difference in the discomfort you feel. This will include specific exercises that are designed to build your quadriceps and hamstring muscles. In doing so, these muscles are better equipped to absorb the shock of walking and running, which means less load transferred to your hip joint. Strengthening the buttocks and hip flexors should also be a key component to your physical therapy regime.

Flexibility
Stretching is important to keep the muscles flexible around the hip joint. This is best performed after exercising, when there is extra blood flow in your muscles.

Weight loss
Did you know that the force you place on your joints can be up to six times your weight? Consider shedding those extra pounds to relieve your hip joint of this undue pressure.

Supplements
You may also benefit from other surgery alternatives. Chondroitin and glucosamine supplements have been used to try to help protect hip cartilage, but they do not work for every patient. It is not recommended that patients take painkillers, even over the counter ibuprofen or acetaminophen, for long periods of time.

Non-Surgical Hip Pain Treatment in Manhattan

If you are still struggling with hip pain despite strengthening, supplements and weight loss, please call Manhattan Sports Therapy. Dr. Miro offers a wide variety of hip pain treatments including soft tissue mobilization, joint manipulation, strength and stretching exercises, acupuncture, active Release Technique® (ART), cold-laser Light Therapy, Graston Technique® and Kinesiology Taping.