Banishing Knee Pain

Taking care of your body, for the most part, is common sense. Avoiding chronic knee pain is no exception. Follow the suggestions below and you’ll be well on your way to a lifetime of healthy knees.

Control your weight: Remember, your knees support almost all of your weight. Every extra cupcake and order of fries may seem to go to your belly or thighs, but in reality, the weight goes to your knees. Eat right and try to stay as close to your ideal weight as possible and keep the strain off of your joints, ligiments and tendons. Obesity can even lead to the development of osteoarthritis.

Get in shape: As a compliment to the previous suggestion, keeping your muscles strong and flexible is a great way to stave off the effects of chronic knee pain. Weak muscles are the leading cause of knee injuries, so instead of lounging in front of the TV, head to the gym for a workout or go for a brisk walk, your knees will thank you in the end. Also, try to incorporate flexibility into your workout regimen. Make sure you stretch before any workout, no matter how benign it might seem.

Exercise the right way: If you already have chronic knee pain or arthritis in your knees, you need to tailor your exercise regimen around your current situation. Remember, even if you have chronic knee pain, it’s not an excuse to not be active, you just have to be active in a way that will help your situation, not hurt it. Things like swimming or water aerobics can be just as helpful and are low-impact compared to jogging, or playing a game of basketball. If you love a game of hoops, try playing less often and doing other low-impact activities more frequently. The most important thing is to stay active.

Know your shoe size: This one seems like a no-brainer, but a startling large amount of people don’t wear the correct size shoes. Or they chose the wrong type of shoes for the activity they are participating in. Shoes designed for running aren’t made for the sharp pivots and turns that are common in basketball, while shoes designed for tennis are. They say the shoes make the man, and in this case, the shoes can make or break the health of your knees.

Kneepads and braces: Make sure you utilize these joint-saving pads when you need them. If you’re playing a sport that causes a lot of trauma to the knee, like basketball or volleyball, wear a knee brace. If you’re on your knees hooking up a computer or laying carpet, wear knee-pads. And believe it or not, most shattered kneecap injuries happen in auto accidents, so wear a seatbelt, and protect your knees as well as your life.

Your body knows all: Plain and simple, if your knees hurt, relax and read a book. The likelihood of injuries to your whole body, knees included, rise dramatically when you’re tired or if your joints are fatigued.

Remember, your knees can take a beating but you only get two. Treat them right and they will be there to treat you right.

For more information on treating and preventing knee pain please visit:
Banishing Knee Pain.

The word arthritis can be translated as “joint inflammation ”. It’s not very accurate of a term, however, since there really is no actual inflammation, there is, however, a deterioration of the surface of the joint, (also known as the joint cartilage) which results in the bone underneath being exposed, a shrinking of the space of the joint, and a maddening nagging type of pain that can drive the person suffering from it mad.

To be clear, the type of arthritis found in the knee is most often osteoarthritis, not the more common and more crippling rheumatoid arthritis found in the rest of the body. It can be caused in the knee by average wear or by an injury of some kind. Often it’s caused by the kneecap not tracking – or moving – properly against the rest of the knee structure. It can begin an entire sequence of inflammation, which leads to softening of the joint surface, then local destruction of the joint surface which leads to chemical substances being released into the joint. The chemicals, however, end up doing more harm than good and start off a harmful chain reaction in the entire joint.

The original cause of the arthritis is almost irrelevant, the wrong treatment or no treatment at all can lead the patient to the same suffering.

When the kneecap isn’t moving correctly within the knee itself, part of it presses against the femur in the leg too hard, while the rest of the kneecap presses against it with not enough pressure. The balance of the kneecap is thrown off, and this can cause serious problems since the kneecap is designed to need a balanced pressure to release the nutrients from the fluid from the joint it’s sitting in.

When the balance is off, the cartilage in the joint can soften and swell then minute blisters and sometimes small fissures can form, which in turn break into things called fibrils. These fibrils can then break away from the knee tissue and get stuck in the fluid around the knee. This process releases bad enzymes throughout the knee and can cause serious problems.

Where the abnormal plica (A plica is a fold of the soft inner lining of the knee joint ‘the ’synovium’) touches the bone underneath the knee, it can become red and thickened. The underlying surface of the joint can become tender and the exact same cycle of destruction of enzyme release described above that spreads damage to other parts of the knee joint.

When the cohesion of the knees’ natural cushion is reduced, the joint can become unstable. A piece of loose cartilage can also move over and immobilize the joint, damaging the front of the knee even further. The joint will then undergo essentially the same destructive course, with the damaging enzyme further infiltrating the knee.

The one positive when it comes to osteoarthritis of the knee is that it is not a sign that you will be more likely to suffer arthritis in your other joints. Most knee arthritis is caused by a physical problem within the knee itself and if identified and repaired early enough, recovery is likely and a lifetime of healthy knees is possible.

For more information about relieving knee pain caused by arthritis please take a look at the following:
JointEase Plus for Arthritis
 

Exploring the labyrinth of the knee is a daunting challenge to any doctor. Chronic pain is so common but the causes are so varied that zeroing in on the source can be difficult. Utilizing a complete record of problems with your knee and by giving you an exam, it will prove to be more important than any one test.

When seeking advice from a physician, be prepared to answer questions about the history of your knee. Most injuries to the knee come from physical activity. Everything from the exercise program you use to a sports injury that may have happened 20 years ago are all important when seeking a diagnosis for chronic knee pain. Be prepared to give as detailed as possible responses to questions about the location of the pain, when it began and what you’ve been doing to make it feel better. The doctor will probably check the knee for unusual tenderness, pain, swelling, visible bruising and flexibility. Also be prepared for several tests the doctor will perform to help your diagnosis.

A common test that helps to discover injuries to your ACL is called a Lachman’s Test. The test involves flexing leg at a sharp angle and then having the doctor try to move your calf forward. If the leg can move without inhibition, it’s quite possible that you could have an ACL tear. There are similar tests to determine tears and trauma to other ligaments in the knee, such as the PCL, as well as tests for the menisci and  tendons.

In some cases, the general tests may give a false result. If movement in the knee is blocked by things such as swelling or tight muscles in the front or the back of the leg, the doctor may request a MRI (magnetic resonance image) to help aid the diagnosis.

The MRI specializes in detecting trauma to ligaments, tendons and muscles, while the X-ray which is mainly used to detect problems within bone. The MRI can assist in pinpointing soft tissue injuries the X-ray would miss. On most occasions, however, the physical exam will be enough.

Based on the diagnosis your doctor suspects, he or she may suggest other computerized tests other than an MRI, including a X-Ray to determine if you have bone fractures that could be causing the chronic knee pain and a CT (computerized tomography) scan that creates images that are cross-sectional of the body to help detect possible cracks, fissures or loose bone particles within the three-dimensional knee area.

If the doctor believes that an infection has happened or that there might be the presence of gout, he or she may order blood tests to help determine the cause of the pain. Another possible treatment is arthocentesis, a test where a small vial of liquid is taken from the joint with a syringe, and then the fluid is analysed for possible problems.

Something that you should keep in mind is that if you’ve hurt your knee, even if it was years ago, it makes you more likely to have pain in the knee later in life.

For more information on diagnosing, treating and preventing knee pain please visit:
Banishing Knee Pain.

Of all the ailments that effect humans, knee pain ranks as one of the most common. It is very important to go to a licensed professional to help diagnosis what might be causing the pain so that the correct regimen prescribed. The most important thing for anyone who suffers from chronic pain is to consult a doctor before starting any treatment regiment. If you have chronic pain in your knee, these are a few of the possible causes:

•    Arthritis - Arthritis is probably the most well known source of knee pain, and the cures range from the practical to home-brewed remedies by the thousand.

•    Injuries to Ligaments - Strains and tears to ligaments happen most frequently while playing sports and can cause slight discomfort all the way up to complete debilitation. The most well known of these injuries are injuries to the cruciate anterior, cruciate posterior and less often the medial collateral ligament.

•    Injuries to Cartilage | Tears to the Meniscus - Cartilage tears are common in all ages, and can range from being a minor nuisance to a serious problem. While many knee injuries are most common in athletes, this is an injury that can be suffered by a slip in a puddle or a bad step jogging.

•    Tendonitis of the Patellar - The patellar tendon is the fat tendon that stretches across the front part of the knee, and it’s also a common place to develop tendonitis.  Tendonitis is when the tendon in the knee suffers from inflammation. The normal smooth motion of the tendon in the knee can then get painful and the resulting pain is referred to as tendonitis.

•    Patella Chondromalacia – This condition, which surprisingly strikes the younger age groups and not the older, is when the cartilage that is found underneath the kneecap becomes soft over time.

•    Kneecap Dislocation - A kneecap dislocation can be extremely painful and although it is an acute injury to the knee, if it is not treated properly, it can turn into a chronic condition over time.

•    Baker’s Cyst – This condition is caused by large amounts of swelling in the knee, and is often the sign of other problems present in the knee, like a torn ligament. Cysts can be common on other parts of the body, but the baker cyst is relatively rare.

•    Bursitis – Although the knee contains more than one bursa, (Bursa sacs are located between bone and skin. They allow the skin to slide over bony areas in the body, such as the knee, shoulder, and elbow) the one most vulnerable is found over the kneecap. It’s a real problem for anyone to works on their knees for a living like a baseball catcher or a computer tech who has to lay wire everyday.

As stated before, the best thing someone who is suffering from knee pain can do is consult an expert and don’t self-diagnose. The knee takes a beating so don’t take any chances treating it. For more information on identifying, treating and preventing knee pain please visit:
Banishing Knee Pain

The knee is a lower extremity joint connecting the femur and the tibia. Because the knee is responsible for supporting almost the entire weight of the human body, the knee is especially vulnerable to injury and to the development of osteoarthritis.

The knee is a very complex joint, made up of bone, cartilage and tendons. The knee is actually made up of two separate joints. The femoro-patellar joint consists of the “kneecap” or patella, which sits inside the anterior thigh muscles tendons, and the patellar groove on the front of the femur bone through which it slides. The femoro-tibial joint connects the thigh bone, known as the femur, with the tibia, the large bone in the lower leg. One unique feature of the knee is that the joint is surrounded with a thick fluid found inside a membrane.

The knee also contains the following ligaments, which most sports fans could probably list off verbatim considering the high number of incidents of highly paid professional athletes tearing one or more of them.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL). The ACL is probably the best known of the knee ligaments and is extremely important in good knee health. The ACL keeps the tibia bone from being moved too far to the front of the knee in relative position to the femur bone. The ACL is one of four major ligaments inside the knee. It connects from the back and outside part of the femur bone to the front and inside part of the tibia bone.

The Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). Not to be confused with the Pacific Coast League of minor league baseball, the posterior cruciate ligament is the second of the four major ligaments in the knee. It connects the back intercondylar area of the tibia bone to the medial condyle of the femur. An exam called the posterior drawer test is used by doctors to detect injury to the PCL. During the test, the doctor will position himself sitting on the end of the patients foot with the knee turned 80 degrees. The doctor then jerks the tibia backwards. If there is excessive movement, a tear in the PCL is probable.

The Capsular Ligament. Also known as the joint capsules or articular capsules form a space for the bone joints to move in. Each capsule is made up of two layers – an outer layer made up of white, fibrous tissue, and an inner layer which secretes fluid.

The Ligamentum Patellae. The Patellar ligament is an anterior ligament and is a strong and flat band about 8 cm long and is attached to the kneecap and to the tibia. Its fibres stretch over the front of the kneecap with the tendon from the quadriceps.

The Medial Collateral Ligament. The MCL protects the side of the knee from being bent open from a force from the other side of the knee.

The Lateral Collateral Ligament. The LCL protects the knee from a bending force from inside the knee.

The Oblique Popliteal Ligament. The OBL is a broad, flat, fibrous band.

As you can see with all these different aspects to the knee there is a high possibility of things going wrong within the joint.

For more information on treating and preventing knee pain please visit:
Banishing Knee Pain.

Hi and welcome to the Banishing Knee Pain blog. Coming up over the next week or so I’m going to start posting some great articles covering the treament and prevention of knee pain, as well as information on what sort of knee pain you might be experiencing and when its imperative you visit a doctor. Make sure you pop back soon.