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Knee Pain
Knee Pain and its Causes
Knee pain is the most common form of joint pain, found in a vast majority of people globally. Knee pain can arise from soft tissue injuries e.g. ligament sprains and muscle strains, bone conditions e.g. knee arthritis, Osgood Schlatters, and biomechanical dysfunction e.g. Patellofemoral syndrome. It may even be referred from your sciatica!
Here are few common conditions which most often cause knee pain:
- Osteoarthritis
- Patellofemoral pain syndrome
- Patellar Tendinitis
- Iliotibial band syndrome
- Patella dislocation
- Bursitis
- Sports Injuries
Minor form of knee pain can be easily treated with home remedies for knee pain at home while other types of knee pain require medical attention to heal. It is important to make an accurate diagnosis of the cause of your knee pain or injury so that appropriate treatment can be directed at the cause.
How do I know if my knee pain is serious?
Here are a few signs when you should definitely see a doctor or physiotherapist for knee pain:
- Knee pain continues even after 5-6 days
- There is a sudden knee pain (with or without injury)
- You are unable to walk comfortably on affected side
- There is an injury that has caused deformity around knee joint
- You experience locking or buckling of knee joint
- You get knee swelling, along with sign of infections like fever, redness and warmth
While we’d like to say that all knee exercises are beneficial to you, there are significant individual differences between all patients who present with knee pain. For example, an older diabetic overweight patient will require a very different set of knee exercises to a young high-performance athlete, or a patient who has just had a knee surgery.
Based on the significant individual differences of who presents with knee pain, it is highly recommended that you seek the professional advice of your trusted physiotherapist or healthcare practitioner who has a special interest in knee pain and injuries to guide your knee rehabilitation.
What can I do if I have knee pain?
If you have knee pain, here are a few tips that you can follow:
- Don’t be sedentary. Being sedentary will cause your muscles to weaken up, which in turn will not be able to provide the required support to your knee joint when it most needs it.
- Do exercise. Cardio exercise along with weight training and stretching helps by strengthening the muscle that support your knee and increase flexibility.
- Reduce risk of fall. If you are an elderly person reduce your risk of falling by making sure your house is well lit, using handrails on staircase, keep the floor dry to avoid fall and injuring your knee
- Do keep check on your weight. Keeping weight in control reduces stress on your knees. Hence keep a check on your diet. Anyways movement gets reduced due to knee pain.
- Do use a walking aid. Using a stick or crutch can take the stress off your painful knee. Knee braces or splints also provide good supports until you fully recover.
- Don’t do too much, too soon. As your knee recovers, take it easy and build up the activity gradually. If you take up aerobic program don’t directly start with high impact exercise as this may cause injury to knee joint. Instead, you can start with a simple walking activity gradually progressing to light jogging, running / sprinting.
- Don’t ignore your pain. If you experience knee pain which does not subside even after doing home remedies (Check for when to visit doctor in the upper section of this post), You must consult a qualified medical practitioner like a physiotherapist who understands the knee joint and movement, who will help you recover.