When you struggle with knee pain, it can make it to where you become unable to live a normal life. It can sideline everything you would normally do, and leave you miserable. Many things can leave you with pain in your knee, from an ailment like arthritis to an injury. Even injuries from years ago can still affect how your knee feels today. Thankfully, there are also many different options when it comes to feeling better.
Most Common Causes of Knee Pain
There are many different things that can leave your knee in pain. The most common cause of pain in the knees is an injury. This could be from falling down to bumping your knee on something. Some pain is gradual, in that it builds up over time. Other pain is intense and sudden, making it to where you feel fine one minute, but have excruciating pain the next. It is really important that you narrow down the cause of your pain if possible. This helps your medical staff determine the best treatment possible.
Another cause of knee pain is simply using your knee too much. Sometimes this is done by repeatedly doing the same movements over and over. Other times, it could be doing a specific movement the wrong way once. Knees are very mobile joints, and they are used for nearly every task we perform each day. They are part of walking, sitting, standing, turning, squatting, kneeling, and more. If you sit in an awkward position too long, this can lead to pain in your knee as well. After some time, knees begin to wear out. Healing is difficult without proper treatment, leaving you to face the choice of how to work on healing your body.
What to Do When You First Notice Knee Pain
When you first experience knee pain, you should get it checked out by your doctor. They can determine what the best course of action is to help your knee heal up. However, if your pain starts off minor, you may not think that being seen is necessary. If that is the case, and you want to try treating the pain at home, there are a few options.
First, you can try over the counter medication. This can help alleviate the pain and swelling in and around your knee. Ideally, you should opt for some anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen. Take these for a 24 course and see if that helps your pain.
Second, or during the same time as the medication, you should try some cooling or warmth. This can be in the form of taking a hot or cool bath, swimming in a cool pool or soaking in a hot tub, or even using cold and warm compresses. These can help increase blood flow and healing when used properly. You should have them on for 15 minutes, then off for another 15.
Finally, you should consider using a brace to hold the knee in the proper place. This can significantly help with pain because it keeps the knee from roaming around as it gets used. Since the knee joint is so large, it can easily get used the wrong way. Even a slight angle off of normal could result in more pain, and a worse injury to the joint itself.
Options for Knee Pain Relief
You also need to consider long-term options to bring about relief from knee pain. For some, this means surgery. However, that is not the best option to go with from the start. What you want is to rule out everything else before you go with that option. Not only is the surgery to correct pain in your knee not a guarantee, but it also leaves you out of commission quite a long time. Your recovery depends greatly on your injury, but it is often something you must maneuver around for a few weeks without using. Recovery is no quick thing after knee surgery, so all other options can often provide you with quicker pain relief.
Some of the options that you should consider prior to surgery include wearing a brace, getting physical therapy, and even injections to help relieve pain. The most effective of these for most people is physical therapy. This teaches the body how to move properly once more. It also strengthens the muscles that surround the knee. This helps the ligaments and tendons stay strong and heal any problems with them, too. Another thing you may want to consider when it comes to finding relief from pain in your knee is seeing if your body is out of alignment. This can cause a lot of pain in many different places, and a simple realignment can go a long way towards fixing it.
How We Can Help with Knee Pain Relief
Here at A Family Chiropractic Clinic, we are well versed in helping to treat knee pain. When you come in and see us, we go through a process to help determine what is causing your pain. Once we have an idea of what could be causing the pain, we do what we can to make sure to eliminate the problem. From there, we work with you to determine which options provide the best relief for you.
What we have found is that combining numerous types of treatment seems to be what works best for most people. This means that we may offer you the option of coming in for both physical therapy and an adjustment. Between both of these procedures, you are likely to get more relief than from either of them independently. That way, you can get past your pain, and get on with living your life.
