knee pain Archives - Center for Holistic Medicine

As you age, the likelihood of your knee joints causing pain and discomfort will only increase. Often, this is a result of osteoarthritis — the natural wear and tear of the cartilage between your knees causes it to wear away, decreasing the protective space between your bones. However, many other factors can lead to the chronic pain and stiffness that prompts knee surgery, including overuse, an injury, or a poor diet.

Luckily, many natural remedies exist to increase your mobility, reduce pain and swelling, and build your knee strength. In many cases patients who opt for natural solutions can avoid knee surgery entirely or significantly delay it.

Here are some natural treatments you can try for your knee pain at the Center for Holistic Medicine:

1. Cold Laser Therapy

Cold lasers are non-thermal lasers that are powerful enough to affect the structures of the cells beneath your skin. FDA-approved, cold laser therapy is a non-invasive knee treatment option that involves sending photons of light to tissue cells up to five centimeters below the surface of your skin.

The photons from cold lasers cause a chemical reaction in the injured cells of your knee that helps restore their mitochondrial function. This reduces your knee pain and inflammation in just a few minutes, and the procedure is painless!

Dr. Richard Bisceglie, a naprapathic practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine, has seen great results with cold laser therapy. “Laser therapies will reduce inflammation, increase blood flow, and increase lymphatic drainage,” he says. Bisceglie says cold lasers can also cause an increase in the growth of new soft tissue cells in muscles and ligaments, as well as the growth of new bone and joint cells.

2. Chiropractic Adjustments

You might think that chiropractic adjustments are only good for helping your back, but in fact, adjustments to your ankle and hip joints can do wonders to relieve knee pain as well. That’s overuse, poor posture, and injuries can cause your ankle and hip joints to get out of alignment, which can cause pain in your knees.

“Any dysfunction in the hip or the foot can transpose right into the knee,” says Dr. Mitchell Katz, a chiropractor at the Center for Holistic Medicine. “For knee pain, there is a protocol where we use the decompression table to apply gentle traction to the knee joint to separate the bones a bit, creating more space and allowing nutrients to be absorbed to nourish the disk and the cartilage,” he adds.

However, another cause of your knee pain may in fact be your feet. “Before we do anything, I look at the structure of the foot for flat-footedness, to make orthotics if appropriate,” Dr. Katz says. “If the foot is flat, it can cause some bones to rotate as a result. If the structure is not right, everything else you look at is an illusion before you fit the foot with some arch support.”

3. Anti-Inflammation Diet

Eating foods that reduce your inflammation is an effective and affordable treatment option for knee pain as well. “Awareness of inflammatory foods is important for people with arthritis,” says Patricia DeAngelis, a functional medicine practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine.

A diet of fresh vegetables high in foods containing omega 3 fats will provide the best benefits. “Eat organic as much as possible,” DeAngelis notes. Patients can check out the Environmental Working Group’s Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen guides when shopping for produce.

Foods to incorporate into your diet if you are experiencing knee pain include:

Salmon, tuna, cod, and sardines
Leafy green vegetables
Olives and extra virgin olive oil
Walnuts and almonds
Spices: cayenne, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, and oregano

4. Supplements

In addition to changes in your diet, consider adding these daily supplements to ease knee pain.

Glucosamine & chondroitin sulfate: Dr. Bisceglie advises taking this supplement “to provide more ‘food’ for the joint” if you have osteoarthritis, along with a specialized bone formula.
Omega 3 & turmeric: “We do an omega 3 or fish oil supplement along with a turmeric supplement for inflammation,” Dr. Bisceglie says. Turmeric is a popular spice that contains curcumin as an active ingredient, which possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Omega 3 fatty acids, found in fish oils and walnuts, also have a proven track record of reducing inflammation.
Magnesium: When your joints are injured, your body will induce muscle spasms to contract the muscles around the joint. While this stabilizes the joint, it also blocks blood flow to your knee joints. Magnesium supplements naturally relax your muscles to get the blood flowing again. Dr. Bisceglie recommends patients “use supplements related to the modeling of the bone and soft tissue” in addition to supplements for inflammation to target both the joints and bone simultaneously.

Before you take any supplements, however, it’s best to check with your doctor for specific recommendations.

5. Gentle Exercise
Although you might think exercise will exacerbate your knee pain, in fact, Dr. Bisceglie says doing the right kind of exercise can actually strengthen the muscles that support your knee and lessen your pain.

“Movement has an amazing healing property because it keeps the joint fluid flowing and the joints a little more free, reducing the pain,” he says.

Dr. Bisceglie recommends using ellipticals and bicycling. “Bracing while doing those exercises helps additionally support your knee so you can do the exercises with less pain,” he says.

6. Naprapathy

Naprapathy is a natural method of relieving compression on your joints. When your leg muscles and soft tissues become tight from overuse, that resulting tension puts an additional strain on your knee joints and can cause your bones to rub together. Naprapathy is a technique that involves manually manipulating the soft tissue around your joints to relieve tension, bring blood flow back to the joint, and improve your mobility.

Dr. Bisceglie, who practices naprapathy at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says he also gives patients suggestions for stretches and exercises they can do at home to help relieve pain, too.

7. Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been practiced for over 5,000 years, and the ancient Chinese technique can provide serious relief for patients with osteoarthritis and knee joint pain. Kenji Aoki, a licensed acupuncturist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says by opening up your meridians and balancing your energy at specific acupuncture points, acupuncturists can alleviate much of the pain associated with common knee joint issues.

In fact, multiple studies in the last ten years have found that acupuncture was more effective than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen) for treating chronic knee pain and inflammation.

A combination of several holistic treatments can alleviate your knee pain and treat inflammation and tension without the need for surgery. Schedule an appointment with our functional medicine practitioner, Patricia DeAngelis, who can assess your symptoms and refer you to our specialists who can help you heal naturally.

If you suffer from hip or knee pain, your first instinct may be to take an ibuprofen or an aspirin for relief. But it turns out that taking an anti-inflammatory drug may actually hurt more than it helps.

In fact, Dr. Richard Bisceglie, a doctor of naprapathy at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says your body is perfectly designed to heal most injuries on its own. For example, swelling around an injury is meant to serve as a cushion, and the sensation of pain is simply the body sending a signal to the brain to pay attention to the injured spot so you don’t reinjure it.

When you get injured, or with a chronic condition such as osteo arthritis, your body goes into an inflammatory state. “Inflammation is a cascade of bio chemical reactions that happen in your body physiologically,” Dr. Biscgelie says, adding that it signals to other types of cells to come to that site and help either heal the injury or reduce the swelling. “NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) block an enzyme that stops the inflammatory cycle, instead of letting the body finish its course. When you stop taking the medication, the body goes right back to where it was.”

Dr. Bisceglie says when you take an anti-inflammatory medication, you might feel better, but the body hasn’t fully healed, so you may go out and run on your knee again, only to make the problem worse.

Instead, Dr. Bisceglie recommends using natural therapies to lessen the severity of the pain and swelling while still encouraging the body to complete its natural healing cycle.

So what are some natural things you can do to relieve your hip or knee pain without relying on medication?

Avoid Sugar and White Flour
“Your diet plays a big role in your body’s response to pain,” Dr. Bisceglie says. “And consuming sugar is one of the worst things you can do for inflammation.” According to American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, sugar can trigger the release of cytokines, which send a message to your body to produce more inflammation. That’s why Dr. Bisceglie recommends avoiding refined sugar and simple carbohydrates, such as white flour, and opting for foods that are high in fiber, such as barley or oatmeal, instead. Phytonutrients (nutrients from most fruits and vegetables), are recommended as well.
Eat More Omega 3 Fatty Acids
Eating good fats — such as the omega 3 fatty acids found in salmon, tuna, walnuts and fish oils — have been proven to reduce inflammation and help with arthritis and joint pain. Omega 3 supplementation is also a good idea.
Spice Things Up with Tumeric /Curcumin
Whether you sprinkle it onto your favorite dishes or take it in a supplement form, adding turmeric is a great way of reducing the swelling and pain associated with inflammation.
Take Magnesium
When you injure a joint, Dr. Biscgelie says your body may produce muscle spasms to contract the muscles around the joint to stabilize it, leading to pain and also blocking blood flow to the injured area. Magnesium helps to relax the muscles so you can get back to moving them again. Magnesium is a common nutrient deficiency and is involved in multiple processes.
Take Glucosomine Chrondroitin with Sulfate
Did you know that glucosamine is derived from animals with shells, such as crabs, lobster and shrimp? Seems like the perfect ingredient if we want to build up our own supply of cartilage between our joints and relieve the pain that comes from bone rubbing against bone.
Try Naprapathy
Another way to relieve muscle tension is with naprapathy, a type of hands-on, soft tissue manipulation and mobilization, which can improve mobility, direct fluids away from the injured area and bring blood flow back to the joint.
Stay Active
Although you want to rest after an acute injury, when it comes to chronic pain, keeping your muscles locked up around your joints will only prolong your agony. Gentle stretching and movement is important in relieving muscle tension and getting the blood flowing.

Want to learn more about natural ways to relieve hip or joint pain without medication or invasive surgery? Come to our free workshops on May 17 at 12:30 p.m. or May 31 at 5 p.m. at the Center for Holistic Medicine. Register today!

Tag: knee pain

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