TAKING KNEE PAIN AROUND THE BASES: COMPREHENSIVE CLINICAL CARE
We see it every day; people have had chronic knee issues despite years of interventions. They have had injections, meds, rest, braces, tape, crutches, ice, more rest, and yet when they get to a significant level of exercise, that knee “goes” yet again.
What we are seeing is an inappropriately diagnosed and insufficiently treated knee issue! My job is to go deep and figure it out, take it around the bases so to speak.
Getting Down to The Root of the Problem with Knee Pain
The most basic orthopedic texts have diagrams pointing from the painful joint to the joint immediately above and the one immediately below for consideration as to the real problem, not just the painful one.
In our experience, it goes further than that. Sure, the ankle or hip can cause the knee to act up. It can also be from more distal problems, like the flexibility and alignment of the feet and the spine, often it is both, and a knee specialist doesn’t often go that far and wide is getting to the root. This is why we see the same brace being worn all the time by the same people, the underlying issue was there all along, just waiting for the straw to break it!
Knee x-rays don’t often tell a big story unless there is an obvious fracture or lesion, which is rare, so we often advice more advanced radiology to see what is going on with ligaments, menisci, and tendons of muscular insertion.
We look to the spine as the mid-lumbar nerves traverse down to innervate the muscle hold of knee stability. Too much, too little, or asymmetrical innervations gives imbalance of muscle tone and unstable joints! We want the bony nerve openings wide open as possible, free of misalignment, arthritic spurs, or disc lesions. You might be amazed how much knee pain can emanate from a back that doesn’t even hurt! Spinal adjustment, as well as perfect knee alignment and balance, is critical for strong and healthy knees.
We have been adjusting knees for over 30 years, in or out of the office!
We also use Digital 3D foot scanning technology which quickly demonstrates asymmetries of the 3 vital arches of the feet. This high-tech system also produces a biomechanical model that projects what these imbalances do to the rest of the body as far as biomechanical compensations. There is usually a knee deforming to offset the pressure. This scan gives us information for diagnostics and therapy! We can rehabilitate and support the foundational issue, sometimes with custom orthotics, often with simple tape and exercises.
We have a Digital X-ray on our site so that we can take images of the pelvis or lower spine to compare to those projections at lightning speed. I am pleased to have these images not just to give a diagnosis but to actually use immediately for correction.
None of this would be complete without chiropractic alignment of all the joints, particularly the hips. In addition, we offer appropriate and specific nutritional support to the injured or weak tissues. We offer targeted nutrition that builds muscle, ligament, tendon, disc, nerve, blood vessels, as the case may be, and addresses inflammation without the use of damaging drugs.
We provide therapeutic exercises that can be done at home which target the at-fault structures. Exercising the painful ones is often impossible and not a therapeutically useful activity. Balance and flexibility drills that we have learned from working with US Olympic Running Trainers and Physicians are particularly useful. We teach these exercises to all our extremity patients in our Functional Movement Suite.
We are happy to get comprehensive with that chronic knee and get it to stand, hold and bend properly for pain-free living with endless fitness potential.
Have a knee that is holding you back from being your best? Come see me in my Timonium office, and we can tailor a program to suit you perfectly. Let’s talk!
Downes Chiropractic & Holistic Solutions, Inc
(410) 628-2600
