Knee Pain

Typical Causes of Knee Pain

Knee pain can have many causes, and the results of knee pain can also be varied. The unifying thread, though, is that a painful knee will affect nearly every other part of the body. Favoring a painful knee can cause you to walk, stand, and move in ways that your body isn’t used to. That kind of motion can affect your hips, back and neck if you don’t get your knee pain under control quickly. A timely diagnosis and treatment can keep your knee pain from affecting everything else. Knee pain can be caused by an ongoing condition, like arthritis or some diseases which soften the bones or cartilage.

Sometimes tendonitis or bursitis can cause knee pain and swelling which may mimic the symptoms of a sports injury. Knee pain is most often caused by ligament or cartilage injuries from sports or other vigorous movement. As with any ongoing pain, the only effective way to treat knee pain is to first visit a doctor and diagnose the cause of the pain. Once the cause is properly diagnosed, then you can set about creating a treatment plan to make sure that your knee pain does not cause complications for the rest of your body. <

Common Treatments of Knee Pain

When treating many types of knee pain, the most useful approach is to break the inflammatory cycle. The inflammatory cycle starts with an injury, which leads to an inflamed and painful knee. The inflammation causes further injury, which leads to further inflammation, and so on. This cycle of inflammation leads to continued or progressive knee pain. The cycle can be broken by controlling the inflammation, and by limiting further injury to tissue.

Some common home care techniques that help to break the inflammatory cycle and decrease the amount of knee pain are protection, rest, ice, compression, and elevation (PRICE). Protection can be achieved by simply staying off the knee as often as possible, and bracing or wrapping the knee when you have to walk. Resting the muscles is a necessary part of allowing them to heal. Ice and compression will decrease the swelling and therefore the pain, and elevating the knee above the heart will also decrease the swelling and hasten healing. Treating your knee pain not only helps your injured knee to heal; it also keeps your knee condition from affecting the rest of your body.

Alternative Treatments of Knee Pain

Some causes of knee pain are temporary and can be managed by allowing an injured bone or ligament to heal. Other causes of knee pain, however, are progressive and incurable. These conditions may be slowed or stabilized, but long-term pain management will have to become a way of life for the knee pain sufferer. Some people are comfortable with, or at least tolerant of, the use of pain killers and anti-inflammatory medicines. If you would rather not make a habit of ingesting chemicals on a daily basis, there are two kinds of knee pain relief which are gaining respectability in the medical community: acupuncture and glucosamine and chondroitin.

Acupuncture is the very ancient practice of inserting needles accurately along meridians in the body. Traditional beliefs hold that the needles, when properly placed, help to unblock the vital life force (qi), which rids the knee – and the rest of the body- of pain. A more modern explanation is that the placement of the needles release neurotransmitters and endorphins. Glucosamine and Chondroitin are found naturally in cartilage, and are also available as over-the-counter dietary supplements. If your knee pain is caused by osteoarthritis, these supplements may help relieve that pain