Your knees are hard workers. They support 80 percent of your body weight when you’re simply standing still and 150 percent when you’re walking.
It’s no wonder that about 25 percent of adults are impacted by frequent knee pain. This chronic pain can make it hard for you to work, enjoy leisure activities, and spend time with your family.
Unfortunately, many people find frustration when seeking treatment for their knee pain. Medications may be ineffective or cause side effects you can’t tolerate.
In some cases, your doctor might recommend knee surgery, but often patients are concerned about the risks.
While surgery helps to reduce knee pain for some people with specific conditions, there are numerous risks, including bleeding, blood clots, infection, nerve damage, and even an increase in pain.
What Is the Most Effective Knee Pain Treatment?
This depends on the cause or causes of your pain and your response to treatment. At Optimum Health Rehab, we take a holistic approach to treating knee pain.
Our team of medical experts will get to know you, diagnose your condition, and create a treatment plan that may contain multiple therapies.
Some people respond better to one treatment than another, so we carefully monitor your progress and modify your treatment plan as needed.
What Causes Chronic Knee Pain?
In general, the normal aging process, injuries, and stress on the knees contribute to most of the causes of knee pain. Here are some common conditions that cause frequent knee pain:
Sprained or Strained Ligaments or Muscles in the Knee
Many soft tissues in the knee work together to keep you moving. These tissues can become strained from overuse, overdoing your workout, or any injury that impacts the knee.
Usually, sprains and strains will heal with rest and time. However, some people may develop chronic pain from a persistent muscle or ligament injury.
If this is the case, we may recommend physical therapy, massage therapy, or regenerative medicine to promote healing.
Tendonitis
This often occurs when a tendon becomes inflamed due to overuse – it’s a common problem for runners and other athletes, especially those whose sport is strenuous on the knees.
The patellar tendon joins the bottom of the kneecap with the shinbone, and inflammation in this tendon is called “Jumper’s Knee” because it’s associated with jumping. However, any activity that overworks a tendon can cause tendonitis.
The patellar tendon is also used for kicking, so people who play soccer or do karate may also be at risk of developing this condition.
Like sprains and strains, tendonitis usually clears up with rest. However, it may come back if you regularly enjoy playing a sport that strains the knees.
Working with a physical therapist can help you find solutions to take some stress off your knees and the particular tendon that’s affected. If the tendonitis becomes chronic, regenerative medicine may also be an option.
Damaged or Torn Cartilage
Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas of the body, including your knees. It acts as something of a “shock absorber,” protecting the knee from the impact of activities like running or jumping.
If the bones in your knee simply rubbed together without cartilage, you would quickly find yourself in pain.
If we diagnose a cartilage injury, there are several treatments available. A physical therapist can work with you to strengthen your knee muscles while reducing stress on the knee joint.
Additionally, they may recommend wearing a brace to provide extra support for the knee when you walk. We might also advise you on supplements to promote better cartilage health.
Arthritis
Osteoarthritis describes the gradual process of cartilage wearing away over time, which often happens after years of activity or injuries. It’s considered a part of aging, but younger people can sometimes develop osteoarthritis if they have had repetitive injuries to the knee.
Cartilage itself has no nerve endings, so you don’t feel pain if it becomes damaged – but you will feel pain later if there isn’t enough cartilage left to cushion the bones as you move.
Again, we will help you prevent further cartilage damage, recommend rehabbing the knee in physical therapy, and offer nutrition advice or supplements for cartilage support.
Inflammatory arthritis is less common but can also affect the knee. If this is causing your pain, we can also advise you on a diet and supplement program designed to reduce inflammation.
Nerve Pain
Sometimes a nerve in or around the knee may become damaged, inflamed, or compressed. When you have a nerve issue, you may also experience other symptoms in addition to knee pain, including numbness, tingling, or a burning sensation.
For some people, these symptoms are intermittent, while in other cases, they may be nearly constant.
The most common reason for nerve pain in the knee is an injury, a misaligned joint, or any kind of swelling or scar tissue that compresses the nerve. We may use chiropractic adjustment to properly align the joint or treat the underlying cause of any local swelling or inflammation.
Additionally, massage therapy can help improve blood flow to the nerve and relieve compression.
Acute Injuries
While many knee problems are the expected result of aging or overusing the knee, this isn’t always the case.
We often meet people who suffer an acute knee injury, most commonly in a car accident. Frequently they are diagnosed with a sprain or strain if their X-rays don’t reveal any fractures, but in some cases, these soft tissue injuries don’t heal on their own.
In other situations, knee pain may actually be referred from a painful injury elsewhere in the body. If you have chronic knee pain after an injury that should have healed by now, a chiropractor can help you find the cause and treat it.
It’s also helpful to know that sometimes knee pain from an accident doesn’t appear right away. We’ve met patients who initially felt fine after the accident, but a few days later, they noticed their knee was bothering them.
Accidents can be traumatizing, and often the body releases adrenaline, which can suppress pain at first. If you recently had a car accident and notice unexplained knee pain, please seek medical attention right away and let your provider know about the accident.
How Does Regenerative Medicine Work for Knee Pain?
Regenerative medicine is based on the concept of helping the body heal itself. The most common regenerative treatment for knee pain is platelet-rich plasma injections, also known as PRP therapy.
What Is PRP Therapy?
This treatment harnesses some of your body’s own blood cells to speed up the healing process.
We begin by taking a small blood sample, which we place in a centrifuge. This device spins around, using gravity to divide the blood into its separate components, including plasma.
This liquid contains platelets, small cell fragments that help the blood clot when you have an injury. In addition to platelets, the plasma also carries proteins and other healing factors that are useful at the site of an injury.
But we also run the plasma through the centrifuge again, creating two new samples: Platelet-rich plasma and platelet-poor plasma. The platelet-rich plasma is best suited for the next phase of the treatment, in which we inject the plasma directly into the injured area.
We do this using ultrasound to guide the injection so the platelet-rich plasma is delivered directly where it’s needed most.
That’s it! The entire treatment takes place in one office visit – we prepare the plasma while you wait.
After your injection, we’ll advise you to go home and rest for a few days. Some people return to their normal activities quickly, but we suggest that you go slowly at first and try not to overdo it.
PRP injections may begin to improve your symptoms within as little as two weeks or as much as 6-8 weeks, depending on many factors. During this period, you’ll need to avoid certain over-the-counter pain relievers that interfere with clottings, such as aspirin or ibuprofen.
What Is PRP Used For?
PRP is used to treat many different conditions. With knee pain, we often recommend it for soft tissue injuries that haven’t responded to other treatments, such as tendonitis and muscle injuries.
Additionally, it is sometimes used to treat nerve damage or inflammation.
How Can You Get Help With Knee Pain in Hiram?
Please contact Optimum Health Rehab for a consultation about your knee pain. Our medical experts will take your pain seriously, study your medical records, gather a full history, examine you, and run tests if needed.
These could include X-rays, an MRI, a CT scan, nerve conduction studies, and more. Once we’ve reached a diagnosis, we’ll formulate a treatment plan to get you back on your feet.
The sooner you get treatment for your knee pain, the less time you will have to spend in discomfort, and the easier it will be to treat your symptoms.
Our helpful administrative staff members are standing by to assist you with insurance coverage, scheduling, and any other concerns you have, so please call (770) 439-6997 today.