Why Do Both My Knees Hurt

How To Treat It

Treating this knee pain is all about pain management and what you can do to reduce the stress on those joints. Losing weight is a helpful start. Besides being a key to overall good health, cutting excess pounds lessens the everyday stress on those knee joints and ligaments.

But there are plenty of other ways, too.

Exercise smart

A lot of joint stress is caused by high-impact exercising, especially running on pavement. But there are ways to exercise that can keep you healthy and keep that load off your knee joints. Low-impact exercises like swimming, bicycling and elliptical are good because they exercise the knee joints but dont pound them, says Dr. Stearns.

Knee braces can also be a tool, he adds. There are special braces that work to keep pressure off of certain parts of the knee unloader braces that can sometimes help alleviate arthritis pain.

Medication

If youre considering over-the-counter painkillers to help ease the hurt, Dr. Stearns says its best to take naproxen or ibuprofen because they have anti-inflammatory properties that can help ease the swelling thats causing your knee pain.

Acetaminophen medications, like Tylenol, dont work as well because they mask the pain but do nothing about the source of the pain, he says.

He also recommends taking the dose after dinner as that allows you to have the maximum dose before you head to bed.

Cold versus heat

How to sleep comfortably

Can Dehydration Cause Pain In The Back Of The Knee

In general, dehydration does not cause pain in the back of the knee. However, if you are dehydrated, you may experience cramping of your muscles. This is due to electrolyte imbalances leading to muscle irritation. This can lead to pain in the back of your leg if those muscles cramp. Most commonly, dehydration leads to exhaustion, thirst, muscle cramps, and dizziness.

Why Does My Knee Hurt

If you are experiencing knee pain when walking, knee pain when bending, knee pain when resting, or are hearing popping/clicking in your knee, etc., it may be a minor concern or indicator of a serious issue.

Knee pain is usually caused by traumatic injuries, repetitive motion injuries, long-term wear & tear, or tissue disorders. Below are injuries that are common causes for knee pain, but it is best to enter your symptoms into our Knee Pain Diagnosis Symptom Checker to gain a better understanding of your injury.

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What Painkiller Is Best For Knee Pain

Seeking interventional orthopedics treatments to address the source of your knee pain and injury should be the specific goal. If a painkiller is needed in the meantime, ditch the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for pain and swelling and all of their dangerous side effects and opt for supplements that have been shown to be effective for knee pain and swelling in the joint, including curcumin,glucosamine, and chondroitin .

What about steroid injections for knee pain and swelling? Just dont do it! There is a long list of toxic side effects associated with these drugs, including spinal fracture risk, vaginal bleeding, adrenal problems, joint cartilage loss , diminishing relief with each injection, and so much more .

The upshot? You can likely diagnose your own cause of side of knee pain. Just realize that almost everything Ive discussed above doesnt require a big surgery to fix. Instead, highly precise injections of our own platelets or stem cells can usually heal these problems with minimal downtime.

However, be cautious out there as youll find lots of clinics that know very little about treating these issues and that want to charge big bucks to inject magic amniotic or umbilical cord stem cells in this area and then often IV. This is not legit treatment as these are dead tissues being hawked as live stem cells. So buyer beware!

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References

Ann Intern MedChris Centeno, MD

Is It Possible For Adults To Have Growing Pains

No one knows for certain what causes âgrowing pains.â They are defined as self-limited and recurrent pains in the extremities of children with no other explanation or clear musculoskeletal causes. These usually occur during sleep and may awaken the child. Some physicians believe they occur due to fatigue, overuse, and mild orthopedic abnormalities, but the cause is still unknown. No matter what causes growing pains, we know that adults do not have them â most growing pains occur between age 2 and 12. It is possible to have similar pains, however, due to very mild injuries or overuse of muscles.

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Why Do My Knees Hurt When Bending

Knee pain has many origins unrelated to an underlying disease. Injuries due to trauma, overuse or overexertion are common causes of knee pain. Many Americans experience knee pain when bending specifically, which can be troublesome when we dont know the exact reason behind it.

Experts estimate that for every pound we weigh, our knees can be subject to four to six times that pressure when we bend them and/or place them in a weight bearing position. Therefore, bending, climbing stairs and squatting can make certain areas of the knee ache with pain.

Why Do I Have Pain In The Front Of The Knee

The most common cause of anterior knee pain is often felt to come from a muscular imbalance or a particular pattern of weakness. This will be the case for the majority of you reading this. At least thats what we think is the most common cause. We have come a long way in evaluating runners and other people who present with pain in the front of their knees. They often show the same findings when we use high-speed cameras to videotape them while running or walking. Now, this might be a chicken vs. the egg thing. Right? Which came first, the weakness pattern or the pain? We like to think it was the weakness that came first. We are still working on proving that.

If you are a runner or cyclist, etc then your training may influence your anterior knee pain. If you train too hard, too fast, and too often then you are at a higher risk of developing anterior knee pain. Most amateur runners run too fast on their easy days and too slow on their hard days. Proper base building, for strength, endurance and conditioning our joints to adapt to distance is of paramount importance. Zone 2 running programs are extremely important even for elite runners. Try to keep your training at a continuously progressive pace. You should be slowly increasing the load, distance, or speed over time. Try not to increase your load, eg. distance, speed, etc more than 10% per week. Most runners overuse injuries are training errors.

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Pain In The Front Of The Knee: 6 Common Causes

Pain in the front of the knee or anterior knee pain is very common. Do any of these scenarios seem familiar to you? You come to a stairway and cringe at the thought of having to walk downstairs. You love to run, but the anterior knee pain you have when running downhill has taken the joy out of running. If youve been sitting for a while, the thought of having to get up is becoming too much to bear. While I could say youre not alone, thats not very comforting. You are here for answers. Lets see how we can help educate you on why the front of your knee hurts so much.

Getting Rid Of Your Knee Pain

If you are lucky, your knee pain may get better on its own with rest. However, more than likely you will need to engage in rehab exercises to overcome the injury. Physiotherapists specialize in providing specific exercises and treatment regimes that increase the strength, stability, and mobility of your joint.

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How Do You Stop Knee Pain At A Young Age

Very often, knee pain in younger patients can be treated with conservative options, like:

• Resting the knee
• Physical therapy and stretching exercises to rebalance the knee

Depending on your symptoms and your activity level, you might also benefit from:

• Making sure you wear footwear thats designed for your specific sport or activity
• Making sure you warm up thoroughly before any activity
• Sticking to a regular leg exercise routine to keep your knee muscles strong and flexible
• Avoiding activities that cause pain in your knees
• Paying attention to early signs of pain to avoid overdoing it

Although knee pain in adolescents and young adults typically can be treated conservatively, you still need a medical evaluation. Delaying medical treatment can increase your risk of developing arthritis and other serious problems in the future. Dr. Van Thiel is skilled in diagnosing and treating knee problems in patients of all ages, including kids, teens, and patients in their 20s. If youre having knee pain, get the care you need to feel better and to prevent permanent joint damage. Contact the office and schedule a knee evaluation today.

Dr. Van Thiel treats patients from all over Wisconsin and Illinois including Rockford, Elgin, Huntley, Dekalb, Crystal Lake, Barrington, McHenry, Beloit and Algonquin.

Three Possible Causes Of Knee Pain After Hip Replacement Surgery

Dr. Peck explains, Biomechanical measurements before and at six weeks after surgery did not demonstrate significant differences.

Reasons for this phenomenon remain unclear, but may include changes in gait and leg length, and elimination of a greater pain-generator , leading to more noticeable discomfort in the knee.

Patients with severe hip osteoarthritis may develop a gait abnormality, known as Trendelenburg gait, due to weakness in the hip abductor muscles.

This gait can lead to uneven pressures across the knee joint, and resulting arthritis in that joint.

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How Do You Know If You Have A Blood Clot Behind Your Knee

A blood clot in the veins of your lower leg is called a deep vein thrombosis or DVT. You may have a blood clot behind your knee if you have one-sided leg swelling, pain, warmth, and redness below the knee. Sometimes these clots can occur on both sides at once, but this is uncommon. Some blood clots in the legs, however, do not present with any symptoms. A DVT requires immediate treatment to reduce the risk of embolizing to the lungs.

Coping Strategies For Runners With Anterior Knee Pain:

• A shorter stride: a shorter stride allows you to control your pelvic drop better.
• A higher cadence : This also minimizes your pelvic drop and other gait abnormalities.
• Avoiding hilly terrain until the pain has lessened.
• Progressive, intelligent training. Consider using apps such as HRV4Training, Training Peaks or TrainAsOne.
• Patella taping: See the video at the end of this post.
• Orthotics or shoe inserts: These have been shown to work in some of you.
• Prevention: Keep your glutes/ hip abductors / core strong. See the exercise videos at the end of this post.

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Can Growing Pains Occur In Just One Leg

Usually growing pains occur bilaterally or in both legs. These pains usually occur deep in the thigh or calf in school-aged children. They generally occur at night with resolution by morning. If your child is experiencing pains in just one leg, consider bringing them for medical evaluation. One-sided leg pain can be indicative of infection, musculoskeletal injury or deformity, or other serious conditions such as a tumor.

There Is No Easy Surgical Solution For Anterior Knee Pain

The mere fact that there are likely to be ten or more described surgical techniques to try and treat pain in the front of your knee should give you pause. That usually means that none have been very successful, so we keep trying new ones. Surgery for anterior knee pain has not been proven to be more effective than a proper exercise program.

Drilling:

Some procedures have drilled holes into the patella, thinking that excess pressure may have been the cause of pain. Did it work for some people? Maybe but with that pesky placebo thing, we always hear about, we dont know because this procedure was never tested against control or sham. Besides having holes drilled through your patella might cause it to break if you fall on it or if you are hit in front of your knee.

Burning:

One prolific Spanish author wrote about burning the tissues around the patella. We call that a denervation procedure. Thats because when you heat the tissues, you will fry the nerves to that region. The thought behind this procedure was that the patella is fed by nerves that could easily be burned using an arthroscopic approach. This procedure was also never evaluated against a control group or a sham group- so we just dont know if it works.

Cutting:

Moving:

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Years Of Wear And Tear Can Take A Toll On Your Knees But There Are Strategies To Relieve Pain

Whether it’s a sharp pain or a dull ache, knee pain is a common problem in women particularly older women. One study of women ages 50 and older, published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, found that nearly two-thirds had some type of knee pain during the 12-year study period.

Dr. Rebecca Breslow, a sports medicine doctor and an instructor in orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School, says many of the active older women and the female athletes she sees in her practice have knee pain. While there are numerous pain-inducing knee conditions, three seem to be the most common culprits in older women:

• patellofemoral pain

Below is a guide on how to recognize these conditions and how to treat them.

What Is Wear And Tear Arthritis

How can you tell if you have osteoarthritis?

If you have pain inside your knee, under your kneecap,especially when kneeling, squatting or going up and down steps, its usuallywear-and-tear arthritis, says Dr. Nickodem.

Cartilage, the cushioning betweenbones, deteriorates throughout life. It can erode more quickly in some peopledue to injury or genetics. As cartilage thins, your bones begin to rubtogether, causing pain, swelling and stiffness.

Sometimes the level of pain does notalways correlate to the severity of the condition.

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How Do You Treat Anterior Knee Pain

Pain in the front of the knee is usually treated successfully without surgery. This may take some time. It is not unusual for the pain to last for many months. Many of you will respond to physical therapy, which should focus on your hips, yes, your hips and pelvic muscles as much as it focuses on your thigh muscles. Runners who focus on a strengthening program might repeat might have a lower incidence of anterior knee pain.

Urgent Advice: Get Advice From 111 Now If:

• your knee is very painful
• you cannot move your knee or put any weight on it
• your knee is badly swollen or has changed shape
• you have a very high temperature, feel hot and shivery, and have redness or heat around your knee this can be a sign of infection

111 will tell you what to do. They can tell you the right place to get help if you need to see someone.

Go to 111.nhs.uk or .

You can also go to an urgent treatment centre if you need to see someone now.

They’re also called walk-in centres or minor injuries units.

You may be seen quicker than you would at A& E.

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Why Do My Knees Hurt When I Squat

There are many potential causes of knee discomfort while squatting. But according to Jason Mulvaney, an NASM-certified corrective exercise specialist and performance enhancement specialist, and owner of Ascension Athletics in Dallas, TX, limited ankle and hip mobility are common culprits. “Unfortunately, our lifestyle involves mostly sitting at a desk, which doesn’t help us move in the most optimal way,” Mulvaney told POPSUGAR. He explained that, as our hips and ankles tighten, our natural movement patterns are compromised, and our knees often pay the price.

PJ Shirdan, an NASM-certified personal trainer and founding coach at FightCamp, explained that your body is a system. When there’s an issue with one part, it can negatively affect others. Shirdan said that knee pain while squatting could result from problems with the patellar tendon, anterior tibialis, hamstring, or quadriceps. Other possible culprits include incorrect form while squatting, improper footwear, too much weight, too many reps, or an inadequate warmup.

Video: How to Master the Squat

Treatment Of Knee Pain

You can treat most knee pain by remembering the word R.I.C.E

• Rest: If you have knee pain, stop using the joint as much. Yes, youd be able to perform limited sports and movement but dont stress the joint. Rest will allow it to heal and clear the inflammation.

• Ice: Use ice or cold compresses to ease your pain. This will cause the blood vessels to constrict and decrease the inflammation in the joint.

• Compression: Use a brace or a compression bandage to keep the swelling at bay.

• Elevation: Allow gravity to work for you. By elevating your leg, you encourage increased blood return to the knee joint and dont allow any weight on the joint. This will hasten the recovery process.

Pain medications like ibuprofen and acetaminophen are also great for acute pain. You can take these medications if the pain is unbearable.

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