Gentle Stretches for Treating Knee Pain

Although knee pain can have many causes, one of its universal issues is that treatment can be even more painful than the underlying problem.

Most people who have engaged in vigorous physical therapy for knee pain due to a torn ACL, MCL, or meniscus, know the particular agony of exercising a joint that is already inflamed. Yet these patients find themselves in a Catch-22, because doing nothing can cause the joint to stiffen up and heal improperly.

The Today Show recently published a video that could help. It covers the basic of some very gentle knee stretches that you can do at home, without unnecessary exertion or extended cool-down routines:

The American Orthopedic Sports Medicine Center (AOSM) offers the most modern and minimally painful therapy for chronic knee pain in the San Diego area. Please contact the offices today for an appointment.

Where Does Knee Pain Come From?

It’s time, once again, for a quick look at the causes of knee pain. Most people are aware in some vague sense that knee pain is often caused by torsional injuries of the sort we see during football games and Olympic downhill events. But what about in everyday life?

Knee injuries are more closely associated with athletic activities than with carrying the groceries, but your mileage may vary. When you’re experiencing tendonitis, torn cartilage or a baker’s cyst, many of these conditions can build up slowly over time, accumulating damage during the quotidian rituals of your life until the pain becomes too intense to ignore. Even simple activities such as climbing stairs or lifting children can create inflammation and injury.

But knee pain can also arise from acute traumatic events, which will require surgery to repair:

Injuries to the knee structure can cause swelling and bleeding if it is not properly treated. A fracture can happen if a person is suffering from medical conditions like osteoporosis. This will lead to the weakening of the bone and knee can fracture even due to a slight pressure.

The best way to diagnose and address knee pain is with the help of a qualified orthopedic knee pain specialist. The offices of Dr. William Holland offer superior knee pain care, management, and surgery throughout the Southland. Contact the office today to get your questions answered.

Knee Pain Leads to Pain Everywhere

Referred pain is a phenomenon where pain in one part of the body can spread, almost by osmosis, to affect unrelated joints and tissues. Referred pain accounts for a number of common headaches, as well as some cases of arm, elbow, and wrist pain which may in fact originate in the shoulder.

The mechanisms behind referred pain are still being studied, but there is no question that it’s real, and often immobilizing. So it is newsworthy that a recent study found that knee pain may be behind all sorts of related complaints too:

“We found that the severity of knee pain and having pain present in both knees were significant risk factors for the development of widespread pain. In contrast, having only structural changes on X-ray indicative of knee osteoarthritis was not.”

Needless to say, “widespread pain’ is exactly what you think it is. Treating the source of referred pain can often resolve its offshoots downstream, as it were, so knee pain doctors such as myself are always looking for new ways to rip this problem out by the roots through careful knee treatment and knee surgery.

The Best Treatment for Knee Pain? Avoid It

When doctors talk about how to prevent knee pain, most of the advice follows predictable ideas about rest and good warm-ups. But you can also reduce the incidence of knee pain by limiting the loads you place on the joint, and by applying better mechanics to your lifting and squatting motions.

This video from the Huffington post includes a few more exercises that should help your knee stay loose and healthy.

One of the most useful things about these exercises is that they aren’t just designed to help you prevent knee pain in your daily life or in the sports you play; these exercises can reduce strain during your workouts as well.

For more good advice on the best treatment for knee pain in San Diego, please contact the American Orthopedic Sports Medicine Center today.

An Important Perspective on Treating Knee Pain

Knee pain and osteoarthritis go hand in hand, and each goes hand in hand with aging. Although the Web is rife with advice about the best way to prevent, manage, and resolve knee pain, few rigorous studies have ever compared the most common methods head to head.

Enter Consumer Reports, which recently launched a clear and helpful study explaining why some of the most popular approaches to knee pain may also be the least effective:

The study focuses on two supplements in particular – glucosamine and chondroitin – which are widely recommended for knee pain despite scant clinical evidence behind them. Supplements generally tend to represent a Wild West in medicine, and this is one case where some of these unregulated pills may be doing more harm than good.

Bottom line: if you want the best knee pain treatment in San Diego, talk to the experts. AOSM is widely hailed throughout Southern California for its cutting edge approach to orthopedic treatment of knee pain.