Staff Writer
Most people know that chiropractors help patients with back and neck pain, but many don’t realize they can help with extremity problems as well. Summer’s arrived, and Kansas City’s weekend warriors are heading outside to play the sports they love as much as they can. There will also be a fair amount of feeling pain in areas that haven’t been worked as much in a while.
Knee pain is one of those areas, and your doctor of chiropractic, as a musculoskeletal specialist, is a great first resource for any knee discomfort or pain that begins.
Let’s talk about some common knee issues and causes of knee pain:
Ligament tears
Basketball, football, and soccer are a few examples of sports that require quick acceleration/de-acceleration and twisting movements that put the ligaments of the knee at risk. The ACL, PCL, and lateral and medial collateral ligament of the knee are common areas injured in these sports.
Meniscus
The meniscus is a fibrocartilage that separates the bone of the knee and is subject to injury in sports or activities where you suddenly twist your knee.
Bursitis
The bursa sacs are small, fluid-filled sacs that allow the tendons to glide over them without rubbing directly over the bones. Inflammation of the bursa sacs of the knee can occur from some injuries.
Patellar Tendonitis
Athletes involved in jumping activities, cyclists, skiers, and runners can suffer from an inflammation of the patellar tendon, causing knee pain.
IT Band Syndrome
This typically occurs in bicyclists and distance runners, although it also happens in other sports or strenuous activities.
The IT band (iliotibial band or iliotibial tract) is a long piece of connective tissue, or fascia that runs along the outside of your leg from the hip to the knee and shinbone. IT band tightening can result in feeling pain on the outside of the knee or the knee locking and not wanting to extend or retract normally.
Chiropractors receive training to appropriately and accurately diagnose musculoskeletal conditions. They are allowed within their state scope of practice to use a number of treatment modalities designed to not only treat pain but manage it, rehab it and prevent it.
To obtain an accurate diagnosis, your doctor of chiropractic will assess knee injuries and pain by obtaining a comprehensive case history, then performing a physical exam to rule out non-musculoskeletal reasons for your knee pain.
Elements of this physical exam include:
You might notice that prescription medicines are not among the options, and that goes to the heart of chiropractic care. The chiropractic perspective views health as an expression of biological, psychological, social, and spiritual factors. The profession’s principles value the intrinsic biologic ability or innate tendency of the body to self-regulate.
Depending on your diagnosis, there are multiple treatment options. Manual therapy soft tissue modalities, laser therapy, radial pulse wave therapy, interferential therapy, ultrasound, K-taping, manual adjustments, and active care exercises are a few examples.
If it’s determined that the reason for your knee problem is something that a chiropractor cannot treat, your doctor of chiropractic can refer you to a medical doctor or other healthcare practitioner.
Another treatment method chiropractors use is exercise or rehabilitation exercises. Properly individualized for each patient, exercise has also been shown to help decrease pain levels for knee pain.
Finally, learn more about knee health, and see what you can do on your own time to keep those remarkable knee joints in the best possible shape.
If you have been suffering from knee pain for a while, have had a recent injury causing knee pain, or you don’t have knee pain and want to know what you can do to help prevent it, see a doctor of chiropractic.
Today, chiropractors are recognized and reimbursed through Medicare, and most state Medicaid acts include doctors of chiropractic as primary health providers. Chiropractic services are covered by a substantial majority of health insurance policies.
Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC), founded in 1922, is a private, nonprofit chiropractic and health sciences university in Overland Park, Kansas. Our mission is to educate and develop leaders in chiropractic and other health science professions.
The CUKC on-campus Chiropractic Health Center is open to the public and treats patients from Kansas City’s 15-county metro area. Our goal is to provide chiropractic care and solutions for a better, more productive life for our patients.
