Knee Pain: A Common Complaint

“You cannot go through life allowing pain to dictate how to live your life.”

Knee pain is one of the most common complaints from people of all ages. The reasons for knee pain could be an injury leading to ruptured ligament, or cartilage tear or a medical condition like arthritis, infections. Sometimes, being overweight is also a reason for severe knee pain.

There are many types of minor knee pain that can be treated by self-care measures. Physiotherapy and knee braces can also be helpful in relieving pain. There may, however, be instances in which you will need to undergo surgery in order to repair your knee.

Causes:

Knee pain can be caused due to a number of reasons which can be injuries, bone diseases, or medical conditions. Also, if you are at a risk of knee pain in case you are overweight. Some of the causes for knee pain are listed below:

Knee injury-

A knee injury occurs due to the wear or tear of the ligaments, tendons or fluid-filled sacs (bursae) that surround your knee joint as well as the bones, cartilage and ligaments that form the joint itself. This could happen due to fractures, sprains, strain, accidental fall, dislocations, sudden twisting while walking or running.

Bone diseases-

The major cause of knee pain due to bone disease is arthritis. There are many types of arthritis. The varieties that cause knee pain include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Septic arthritis and gout.

Mechanical Problems-

Mechanical problems like loose body, iliotibial band syndrome, dislocated kneecap or hip or foot pain, can cause change in your walking posture leading to increased stress on the knee joint causing knee pain.

When to consult a doctor-

You should go the doctor immediately if:

• You feel your knee being unstable
• You are not able to bear weight on your knee
• You have marked swelling on your knee
• You are not able to extend or flex your knee fully
• You can see a deformity in your knee or leg 
• You have fever accompanied by redness, pain or swelling in the knee
• You have acute pain due to some sort of injury.

Risk Factors-

There are multiple reasons that can be considered as the risk factors for knee pain. The most common is excess body weight. Also, lack of muscle flexibility, lesser muscle strength of the knee joint, engagement in sports activities, running, football, basketball, or any previous injury are generally counted as the risk factors for knee pain.

Prevention-

As we all know, prevention is better than cure. 

Knee pain can be prevented to some extent with the following ways:

• By maintaining a healthy weight
• By performing proper warm up before any sport activity
• By using correct techniques and movement patterns while playing any sport
• By maintaining the correct posture while walking or running to prevent or minimize accidental fall
• By performing regular exercises involving stretching of muscles
• By yoga 
• By eating a healthy, balanced diet rich in Calcium & Vitamin D

Treatment Options-

Treatment options available for knee pain include regular exercise, yoga and physiotherapy at the earlier stages. 

Your doctor or therapist may recommend intake of supplements like collagen to help you gain muscle strength and relief. 

But in later stages, where the cartilage or bone become affected or damaged, partial or total knee replacement surgery would be the option, your doctor might go for, when all the other measures fail to relieve the knee pain.