When the components of the knee joint become injured or damaged, the resulting pain and inflammation can make a great number of daily movements problematic.
Because the knee joint is designed to rotate, bend and straighten hundreds or thousands of times a day, and because it is such a complicated array of tendons, ligaments, bones and cartilage, it is particularly susceptible both to injury and degradation of its components.
Instead of invasive surgical procedures or medication that simply masks the pain, an integrated health approach can address the issues causing the pain and inflammation and return the quality of life you once enjoyed.
Causes of Knee Pain
Knee pain is most commonly caused by injury or the wear and tear of the connective tissues and cartilage within the joint. You might experience pain, swelling, instability, popping sensations and noises, or an inability to bend or straighten the knee properly.
Knee pain can be caused by any of the following:
- Obesity
- Tendinitis
- Sports or exercise related injuries, such as ligament strains and tears
- Bursitis
- Overuse or overextension
- Dislocation due to injury
- Altered gait due to other types of pain
- Poor posture
- Gout
- Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
- Other tissue damage
How Integrated Healthcare Can Help With Knee Pain
Most of us know that a common treatment for knee pain is surgery, either to repair the damage inside the knee or replace it entirely.
To avoid costly invasive surgery with extensive recovery times, you can visit a chiropractor for a consultation about your knee pain. Together, you and the medical team will develop a plan that addresses your needs as a human being, not just as a collection of symptoms.
The plan might include chiropractic adjustments and joint manipulation as well as massage, but there are other avenues to explore when taking an integrated approach as well.
Chiropractors can employ a variety of means to help the body heal, including approaches like Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injections at the site of the pain and inflammation and increase your flexibility.
The concentrated dose of platelets, drawn from the patient’s own blood, can send messages to damaged tissues to begin or accelerate the healing process, eliminating inflammation at the root cause of the pain.
The team may also decide on a set of exercises and a balanced diet to get some of the stress factors on the knee under control. Because inactivity and obesity can be direct causes of knee pain, this concentration on this aspect of health can have lasting benefits, not only to your knees but for your entire wellbeing.
In this way, an integrated healthcare approach takes into account all of the contributing factors to your pain and addresses the causes, rather than simply treating the symptoms or necessitating invasive surgery.
Instead of loading up on over-the-counter or prescription pain medication or giving up on activities you once enjoyed, investigating an integrated health approach to your knee pain might bring you the true freedom from pain you have been seeking by repairing the damaged tissue.
