Healing Knee Pain
Knee pain is often instantly noticeable. The knee joint is a special “extensor-flexor joint” nestled between two highly mobile joints––the hip and the ankle––and a lot of responsibility for our physical stability rests on our knees. This means that when the joint is compromised, pain and limping quickly ensue.
The Knee: A Fascinatingly Simple Structure?
The knee’s design predominantly focuses on maximising stability. The intricate ligament system within it, linking the lower leg to the thigh, includes robust ligaments externally, internally, and even within the knee itself. The well-known menisci expand the contact area between the thigh bone and the lower leg, distributing pressure evenly and preventing the bones from “sliding off” one another. Besides these passive components, the knee features several muscles extending over it. Their coordinated contraction can either stabilise or initiate movement.
The Origins of Knee Pain Often Lie in the Hip or Foot
Knee pain does not necessarily mean the problem is located in the knee. While knee pain may directly result from knee joint issues, which can be caused by a twist during a fall or direct impact, it’s more common that a preceding problem in the foot or hip manifests in the knee over time. The knee has a certain capacity to adjust and compensate for movement changes. Eventually, however, the muscles, ligaments, and tendons endure so much strain that pain becomes inevitable.
Why Does the Problem Transfer from the Hip and Foot to the Knee?
When you look at the sketch, you can see that the hip and foot can manoeuvre in nearly any direction, providing them with ample capacity to offset minor limitations in the joint. Conversely, the knee’s mobility is mostly limited to a forward and backward motion, aside from a slight rotational ability. This unequal distribution ensures leg stability and a firm stance and walk. However, the downside is that mechanical issues in areas above or below the knee quickly affect it, potentially causing pain.
The Importance of a Holistic Diagnosis
Given the knee’s sensitivity to tension originating elsewhere in the body, adopting a holistic perspective and combining it with a depth of understanding concerning body mechanics is critical. Whenever muscles are tense, tendons inflamed, or ligaments stressed, chiropractors delve into the ‘why’—the root causes of knee joint and structural overload.
Chiropractic Treatment of Knee Pain Versus Surgery
Knee joints are among the most frequently operated on body parts. Research indicates that many medical doctors have a hasty tendency towards recommending knee surgery, while “conservative” treatments often yield equally positive, if not better, outcomes. The latter’s success stems from understanding the knee’s integral role in the “ankle joint – knee joint – hip joint” continuum. If the knee is inflamed, under excessive strain or suffers from recurring injuries, it must be thoroughly clarified which other structures are not doing their job optimally, so that the knee is overloaded. Thoroughly identifying and addressing any contributing dysfunctions in these related structures is paramount to relieving knee injuries and pain. In most cases, these causative factors respond well to manual treatments.
How Do Chiropractors Treat Knee Pain?
First comes a comprehensive and holistic diagnosis of your condition that takes into account the knee’s vulnerability to mechanical issues in other body areas. Here we aim to establish where exactly the cause of the problem lies. Depending on what we find, the treatment then focuses both on alleviating pain and targeting the underlying causes, always with the goal in mind of fostering a long-term, well-adjusted, and optimally functioning body.
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