01 Aug Help for Knee Pain with Chiropractic Care and a Healthy Lifestyle
No joint or muscle in your body is an island. When one isn’t performing well, others can falter, too. One common example of this that we see at Eastern Oklahoma Chiropractic is the link between knee and back pain. Fortunately, if you’re suffering from knee pain, you have options to prevent and relieve it.
Causes of Knee Pain
As your body’s biggest joints, your knees carry its heaviest load. It’s no surprise that all the wear and tear of daily living, sports activities, and diseases will catch up with your knees.
Some of the most common sources of knee pain include:
- Deterioration due to aging
- Being overweight
- Infection
- Low strength or flexibility in muscles around knee joints
- Dislocated kneecap
- Current or previous injuries such as fractures or torn ligaments
- Tendonitis
- Bursitis
- Inflammation of the joint lining
- Osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis
The Connection Between Knee Problems and Your Back
It’s extremely common for chiropractors to see patients who suffer from both back and knee problems.
Your spine is the central coordinator of your movement. When you compensate for pain in your knee by moving differently, you risk throwing off your back’s alignment. On the flip side, a misaligned spine can impair your knee position when you walk, painfully straining the components that support your knee.
Pain makes you limit your physical activity, causing problems like:
- Weight gain
- Loss of muscle
- Anxiety and depression
- Vulnerability to injuries
- Decreased balance, coordination and mobility
Can You Prevent Knee Pain?
Sometimes, knee disorders or injuries just happen. But there’s a lot you can do to help your knees ward off painful problems.
Two big factors in preventable knee problems are body weight and exercise:
Lose excess pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Losing even 10 pounds can take up to 40 pounds of stress off your knees. A nutritious diet—fruits and vegetables, cutting back on sugar and processed foods—supplies your body with anti-inflammatory agents that keep muscles and joints healthier.
Regular exercise is crucial for healthy joints. You can actually lose protective cartilage in your knees from lack of exercise. When you stretch and strengthen the muscles and other soft tissues around your knee joint, you’re helping to protect it from damage due to arthritis, injuries, and other problems.
Components of a good exercise plan for strong knees include:
- Aerobic exercise like walking or swimming
- Resistance exercise to strengthen and stabilize knee and core muscles
- Stretching and warming up to help increase your range of motion
- Alternating exercise activities to prevent overuse injuries
Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Your Knees
Getting help as soon as possible will break the downward cycle of knee and back problems.
Because of this knee-back connection, chiropractic care is uniquely suited to address the root causes of your knee pain. Chiropractic adjustments correct misalignments of the spine, helping to relieve pain and restore normal range of motion throughout your body.
We customize our toolbox of noninvasive therapies, exercises, nutritional advice and more for you to promote healing, greater mobility, pain relief—and keep you active.
Contact Eastern Oklahoma Chiropractic for a Free Consultation
For pain relief today, call our Broken Arrow office at 918-940-4630.