Knee Pain Treatments At Home From San Diego Chiropractor

Effective At Home Knee Pain Treatments

Knee pain can be debilitating.  Thankfully, knee pain treatments at home can be very effective.  Since knees are weight bearing joints, they are exposed to lots of stress.  Stress on weight bearing joints causes irritation, inflammation and pain.  The knee joint is made up of bone, cartilage, ligaments and tendons – all of which can be injured and become a source of pain.  That being said, there are many causes of knee pain that are simply do to superficial tissues that have become irritated an inflamed.  If you can cause an increase in your knee pain simply by pushing on the outside of the joint with your thumbs or fingers, then chances are that your pain is minor in nature.

Helpful at Home Knee Pain Treatments

When patients come into my office for knee pain treatments, I almost always give them two treatments to do at home.  These treatments are focused on reducing inflammation and decreasing the effects of myofacial pain.

1. If your knee is stable, one of the best at home knee pain treatments is icing.  Icing helps reduce pain, eliminate inflammation and speed healing.  For best results you should ice your knee at least four or five times daily in 30 minutes sessions.  When icing your knee make sure to use your ice pack through a towel or a thin t-shirt.  This is important because icing this often can give you frostbite if you’re not careful.  Icing is a conservative but effective treatment and must be done consistently in order to provide knee pain relief.
2. A second of several at home knee pain treatments that I give to my patients addresses the myofacial part of their pain.  Myofacial pain can be deceiving because it can feel like it’s coming from deep in the joint.  Treating myofacial pain at home is easy and effective.  A simple technique involves putting a little hand lotion on your thumb and a gliding it over the sore parts of the joint for a minute or so each day.  When doing this treatment you should use enough pressure to feel as though you’re getting to the pain but not aggravating it.  Just like icing the key to effective treatment is consistency.  Because this treatment breaks down adhesions, it is best to ice your knee when you’re finished.

Last updated by Allison Yardley at September 19, 2017.