3 worst things to do for Knee pain
Hello
This week I am going to tell you the 3 of the worst ways to manage knee pain. Some of them might even be very common advice that is doing the opposite of what it meant to.
Rest more
I know. The first thing everyone does for knee pain is to find a comfortable position and rest or try to use it as little as possible. As we hope that will help make it better.
This makes perfect sense for the first time you had knee pain. Even more so when there was a specific event that caused the pain. Like falling on it or spraining it.
However, when your knee pain keeps on coming back out of the blue. Nothing seems to have caused it this time, and every time it comes back it gets worse is different. Or maybe there the whole time. More rest will cause more issues. It’ll make you weaker, less able to do things like get up from the chair or in and out of the bath.
You may reach the point where your knee becomes so weak that you will feel it will give way at any moment.
Taking more anti-inflammatories
When your knee is hurt taking an anti-inflammatory for a short while would make sense. To decrease the “inflammation”.
The problem with that idea is that inflammation is actually a good thing. It is the natural process by which the body heals itself. Inflammation is the medical term for the whole process. IF you have been injured, taking anti-inflammatories is like blocking the fire trucks on their way to put out a burning building.
It impairs our body’s ability to heal effectively.
If your pain came out of nowhere, no injury or anything, taking an anti-inflammatory will do nothing for you other than exposing yourself to the side effects of this medication without any potential upside. As there is no inflammation because there is no injury.
These types of medications have very serious side effects. That is why it is only supposed to be taken for a short time.
If you keep taking it, when you don’t need to, you will end up with severe problems like bleeding stomach ulcers.
Having surgery
It is no secret that I am against people having surgery for knee pain. Often only the consequences of the knee pain are addressed but not what caused it. Worse still, I feel that removing those rough edges only makes the protective cartilage thinner making it wear out faster. That will lead to the bone on bone much quicker.
I have so many examples of people coming to me after their knee operations where their pain is now worse, they struggle to bend it. Climbing stairs is almost impossible.
I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone if there is literally any other options.
Wait another week to see if it’ll get better.
This is definitely the right move when it is the first time you had knee pain. If your pain keeps coming back, again and again, getting worse every time it does. Waiting another week before you get professional help will not work.
Did waiting longer to fix the leak in the roof make it easier to deal with?
Jason
