Do you or have you ever suffered from knee pain?
Knee pain is a common complaint among most of the population, but the cause of this pain is greatly misunderstood leading to countless unnecessary invasive procedures. Those who run, or are overweight tend to be more susceptible to this type of pain.
Our natural reaction to pain is to associate the pain with its location; I cut my finger, my finger hurts, the pain is coming from the cut on my finger. With the knee the pain can be localized but the cause can come from many different places. Western medicine has a tendency to be very myopic, only seeing one little piece of the puzzle. Doctors’ today all have their specialties. The theory is that the body is so complex that to know everything about everything is impossible. Most doctors focus on one part or area of the body so that they have highest understanding of that area to best treat you.
The problem with this theory is that the body is not a bunch of individual parts but instead a complex machine which uses all these “parts” together to create the person you are today. By not looking at the big picture, we have a tendency to “chase the pain” opposed to treating the root of the problem.
The knee is a complex mechanism but is at the mercy of its upper and lower siblings the knee and ankle. When one is disturbed or out of alignment, the knee has to compensate. This compensation causes the knee to be over worked in one direction or the other which can then lead to a variety of different pains.
The best way I have found to treat the knee is to keep the hips open and aligned and the quadriceps stretched and open. This treatment is not difficult; most patients find relief, depending on the extent of the injury, within 1-3 treatments. Acupuncture also has a very beneficial effect in treating knee pain by helping to reduce the localized inflammation around the knee itself.
Below are two stretches that can help reduce knee pain dramatically:
Split Squat stretch:
Place one foot on the seat of a chair with the opposing foot out in front. Keep your chest tall. In 2-3 second intervals alternate between leaning forward and back. (Stretches Quads and hip flexors)
Pidgin:
This is a modified version of the popular yoga pose. On the bed or low table bring one leg perpendicular to your body and lean forward. (Stretches the Piriformis and glute muscles)
