If it is important to you to save your knees, and maintain your ability to walk, read on and learn what most people don’t know about getting rid of knee pain. (Knee replacements will be covered later.)
Knee pain, as with most conditions, is divided into two classifications, acute and chronic, which are based on how long ago the pain began, how it began, and its intensity. Chronic conditions are those that continue or recur over an extended period, often come on gradually, or may be the result of an incompletely healed injury. Acute conditions are those that begin or worsen suddenly, and are often caused by injury, infection, allergy, or abrupt change in a chronic degenerative process like arthritis. This article is primarily about chronic and acute non-injury induced knee pain.
First, let’s deal with the arthritis confusion, recognizing that knee pain invariably includes, or is, an arthritic condition. During my practice career (began 1983), I have interviewed and treated many patients suffering with chronic knee pain. I routinely ask patients what they believe to be the cause of their pain. Overwhelmingly, their response has been “arthritis.” At that point, I ask if the patient knows what arthritis is. Most know nothing. They erroneously believe that “it just happens”, that it is inevitable following injury to a joint, or that it is a result of aging. Even young people with chronic knee pain will answer that getting old causes arthritis. For some of these patients, my questions create a beginning for consideration of their condition relative to its causes and to the approaches that can be used to restore the health of their knees.
-to be continued tomorrow-
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