arthritis

There are many causes of knee pain. To be up front, I will admit that I do not have the answer for all causes of knee pain, but I do have a safe and effective solution for some of the most common causes of knee pain.

There are over 700,000 total knee replacement surgeries performed each year in the US. The major reason for knee replacement surgery is due to osteoarthritis – or the ‘wear and tear’ arthritis. Osteoarthritis of the knee is basically caused when there is too much stress put on the joint and it begins to break down. This can be from just increased or repetitive stress to the joint or even normal stresses that are applied unevenly to the joint, putting stress in areas where it is not supposed to be.

As mentioned before there can be many causes of knee pain but a very common cause of knee pain is arthritis. Arthritis can lead to pain and disability and if it continues to progress will lead to a partial or total knee replacement.

Some of the most common medical treatments include pain medication or corticosteroid shots. But unfortunately both these treatments are used to decrease the pain without addressing the underlying cause of the arthritis – the stress on the knee joint!

How Chiropractic Can Help

As a chiropractor in Colorado Springs I see knee pain quite frequently. In those with knee pain, I often see imbalances in the muscles surrounding the knee as well as misalignments of the bones making up the knee joint. This is important because muscle imbalances and misalignments of the joint both lead to extra stress being put where it is not meant to be. This extra stress can increase the likelihood of developing osteoarthritis.

The chiropractic treatment for these muscle imbalances and misalignments is to adjust the knee and work on the muscles to restore proper balance. I have seen great success in helping patients alleviate knee pain. While current thought is that you cannot stop or slow the progress of osteoarthritis, this way of thinking does not make sense to me. There are many factors that effect arthritis for the reasons mentioned above, and I believe patients are less likely to either get osteoarthritis or have it progress because we address some of the underlying causes of imbalance and misalignment.

If you thought this was interesting or have a question, feel free to leave a comment below. If you know someone that could benefit from this information please share it. Thanks!

Reference

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/inpatient-surgery.htm accessed May 20, 2015