Did you know that repetitive motions can stress your knee overtime? In addition, subjecting your knee to one-time acute injury can also negatively affect your knee. Knee pains can cause serious distress.

Common Causes

Knee pains don’t only torment the elderly and those involved in heavy sports. They can torment anyone of any age. There are many other reasons that might affect your ability to move your knee. Many of which are discussed below.

Arthritis

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common causes for knee pain. Osteoarthritis is degenerative joint diseases which breaks down the protective cartilage located in the joints. When this happens, the bones end up rubbing on each other. As a result, there can be a lot of pain and discomfort.

Meniscal Tears

When the knee turns unnaturally also referred to as a meniscus tear. This occurs when the knee is twisted as a result of rapid movements in directions going against normal knee movement (especially when playing sports) or when you accidentally move in an awkward way. It can also occur as a result of old age.

Hip Misalignment

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction can often times be linked to anterior knee pain (pain at the front of the knee). The sacroiliac joint is a join located next to the spine and it connects the spine with your pelvic bone. The reason why this may cause knee pain is because of muscle inhibition. In fact, there was a study done with 18 patients which all had substantial muscle tightness and knee pain and they all showed a significant amount of improvement after chiropractic adjustments were made to their sacroiliac joint.

Spinal Misalignment

Even though the spine is not directly connected to your knee, it can still cause a wide range of problems with your overall body posture which can result in a variety of other problems related to your body’s overall range of motion.

Sacroliac and lumbar misalignments in the lower back can affect your hip which can throw of your body’s alignment and make one leg shorter than the other. This results in having a disproportionate amount of strain on one side of the body which in turn can create pain for the knee handling the greater amount of weight.

Knock Knees and Bow Leggedness

There is a variety of complex reasons for having knock knees or bow leggedness and although most children may outgrow these conditions, many still remain to have them into their adult years.

A study of girls between the ages of 7-11 concluded that their knee structure could negatively affect their overall posture from childhood into their adult years. This could result in pain and a variety of other chiropractic problems and this is why it’s very important to routinely visit your chiropractor to ensure optimal posture and knee health.

Combating the Pain

Exercise

You’ve probably heard the old saying “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” This is also true with your muscles and joints. Exercise can help you strengthen the muscles around your joints, maintain bone strength, give you more energy, help you control weight and much more. If you have arthritis, it’s very good to do exercises that help you maintain or increase your overall range of motion, and strengthen your muscles. A highly recommended exercise is swimming. Swimming is great because the water’s buoyancy makes you lighter and lessens the overall load and strain on your body’s joints.

Maintain a healthy weight

Research has shown that a 10% decrease in weight can cause as much as a 28% increase in knee functionality. Moreover, being overweight multiplies the odds of knee osteoarthritis by five for men and four for women. This is because fat not only increases the excess strain on the body, but it also decreases muscle strength. To start losing weight, swimming is a very good exercise as the water makes you weigh less, and as a result, you end up added much less stress to your joints.

Stretch

If you’re not very active, stretching is very important. Butt muscle can tend to atrophy or lose strength after long periods of sitting. This results in your hamstrings and inner thigh muscles overworking to compensate which adds more strain on your knees. However, by frequently stretching these muscles, you decrease the chances of them tightening up and becoming imbalanced. Ideally, what you’ll want to remember is to stretch the supporting inner thigh muscles as you strengthen your naturally weak muscles such as the buttocks.

Wear Proper Shoes

High heels are in style. However, wearing high heels can increase the amount of compressive force placed on your knee joints by as much as 23%. Wearing heels is also known to tighten up the calf muscles which in turn pull the foot forward into a pronation position. This position puts more strain not just on the knee, but the ankles as well. This is why many women experience pain after prolonged periods of wearing high heels. Flat shoes are best for knee pain.

Eat Properly

What you eat can have a huge impact on your overall health and many types of food have been known to fight inflammation and strengthen bones and muscles. Some things you’ll want to make sure you add to your diet (if not already in it) are Omega-3 (can be found in fish and soy), Anthocyanins (can be found in cherries), Vitamin D (found in dairy products) and Vitamin K (found in broccoli). For more information on foods which can help you with knee pain and arthritis, see this article at artritis.org.

Conclusion

Having knee pain isn’t a pleasant thing. It can cause a great amount of discomfort and affect your overall quality of life. However, with a few changes to your lifestyle habits, you can limit the amount of discomfort you have in your knee. Moreover, Chiropractors are trained specialist when it comes to the study of your body’s skeletal structure. If you have severe knee problems, don’t hesitate to check out and visit your local chiropractor.

Credits

This article was written by Devin on behalf of the Rosedale Wellness Centre. They’re one of the leading full service wellness centre’s located in downtown Toronto. If you’d like more information on them and their services, visit their website at rosedalewellness.com.