While celebrating the Spring Festival happily, there is one action that you should avoid - please be careful about squats!

The Spring Festival is the beginning of the cycle of the four seasons and an opportunity to regroup and start again. The atmosphere of fireworks is the most intense Spring Festival sentiment! As the saying goes, sweep gold on the seventh day, sweep silver on the eighth day, and five blessings will follow. To welcome the New Year with joy, family hygiene and cleaning are an indispensable ritual, and spring cleaning is an important part of welcoming the New Year.

We inevitably have to do "squats" when cleaning, and for middle-aged and elderly people, squats can easily wear out the knee joints and cause damage to the articular cartilage. At the same time, squats can also cause knee-related diseases, damage to the internal structure of the knee joint, and cause knee pain, most commonly meniscus injuries. Squats are not recommended when celebrating the Spring Festival happily. Today, Dr. Cheng Qian from the Department of Orthopedics at Tongren Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine will show you the harm of squats, so that you can celebrate the Spring Festival happily.

The knee joint is the largest and most complex joint in the human body. Its main function is to move and bear weight, so it is also one of the most easily damaged joints in the human body. The surface of the knee joint lacks muscle tissue protection and has a lot of cartilage. Cartilage has the function of absorbing shock and bearing pressure. If it is damaged, it is difficult to repair. People who exercise regularly often practice squats, which can very well exercise the body's cardiopulmonary function and core muscles. However, excessive exercise, continuous squats, or sudden squats can easily lead to knee cartilage or meniscus damage.

Why squats can cause damage to the knee joints:

1. When squatting, the contact area of ​​each articular surface of the knee joint increases, and there is also the compound effect of its own gravity. When squatting, the center of gravity will be concentrated on the knee, and the knee cartilage and meniscus will be excessively squeezed and rubbed, causing edema of the cartilage and meniscus, and even meniscus tears, local damage to the cartilage, causing obvious damage to the knee joint, such as swelling, pain, and in severe cases, it will also affect the flexion and extension and weight-bearing of the knee joint.

2. Compared with young people, middle-aged and elderly people have joint cartilage degeneration, and some of them even have underlying diseases such as bone hyperplasia and osteoarthritis. Squatting may aggravate knee joint lesions and greatly increase the possibility of pain. 3. In addition, middle-aged and elderly people have poor vascular regulation response. They are prone to transient cerebral ischemia, fainting or even cerebrovascular accidents when they stand up after squatting for a long time. Therefore, middle-aged and elderly people, especially those with cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease, should not squat for a long time, and should stand up slowly to avoid accidents.

How to avoid injury when doing squats?

1. The movements should be standard and the knees should not exceed the toes. This can reduce the pressure on the knees. When squatting, be sure to keep the knees tight and do not squat too fast. Be steady and slow.

2. Wear protective gear, especially knee pads. Wearing knee pads can keep the knees in a relatively stable position and prevent knee injuries.

3. When we are cleaning, we should warm up fully before squatting to increase the secretion of synovial fluid in the joints, reduce the friction of the knee joints, and reduce the chance of injury.

How to deal with knee injury after squatting?

If you experience knee pain, soreness, limited mobility, and other symptoms after squatting, you should stop squatting immediately, rest in bed, reduce weight on the ground, and raise the knee joint of the affected limb. Apply cold compresses within 24 hours, and hot compresses after 24 hours, or apply plasters that promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, reduce swelling, and relieve pain. After taking the above measures, observe whether the symptoms are relieved. If not, go to the hospital in time, and perform knee joint MRI if necessary to rule out organic lesions such as knee meniscus injury.

Welcome the Spring Festival and clean up, and celebrate the New Year happily. Dr. Cheng Qian from the Department of Orthopedics at Tongren Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine once again reminds the majority of middle-aged and elderly friends to love health and life, avoid squatting, and protect your knees. Spend the Spring Festival happily, but don't squat!

(Contributed by Chen Nuo from Jiangnan University and Fang Dan from Tongren Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine)

Expert introduction

Cheng Qian, deputy director of the Department of Orthopedics of Tongren Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, PhD, associate chief physician, associate professor, master's supervisor, member of the Science Popularization and Health Education Working Committee of the Chinese Medical Education Association, deputy director of the Shanghai Sports Medicine Youth Committee, young member of the Shanghai Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Injury Committee, popular science expert of the Health Commission of Changning District, Shanghai, reviewer of the Asian Artificial Joint Society's "Arthroplasty" magazine, editorial board member of the "Chinese Journal of Osteoporosis", reviewer of the "Journal of Practical Medicine" and "Journal of Chinese Tissue Engineering Research". He went to Germany for exchange and study, and studied joint replacement and arthroscopic technology under the guidance of Professor Jerosch, chairman of the German Orthopedic Society and a famous sports medicine and joint surgery expert. He is good at computer-navigated robot-assisted minimally invasive unicompartmental replacement technology for knee osteoarthritis, and is proficient in joint replacement and arthroscopic treatment of hip, knee, shoulder, elbow and ankle joints, especially in arthroscopic treatment of frozen shoulder, rotator cuff injury, knee meniscus and ligament injury.