Well I’ve gone and done it, a couple of months ago I hurt both my knees pretty badly attempting to run after not doing so in a while. I’ve heard about a lot of woo when it comes to knee treatments, and I want to be ahead of the game when different suggestions are given by doctors.

Treatments we’ve tried (PT, ice, rest, and cortisone shot into the knees) are not working. Next we will have to try something else, and I see some weird treatments listed on the sports medicine guy’s website. Plasma therapy and such? I don’t know what is woo, and what is proven. I do want to try other things before resorting to knee surgery to clean out all the chipped cartilage and realign kneecaps, but I don’t want to try things that are not proven. I want to be informed when I have my next visit and they propose next steps. I hear even some of the surgeries done on knees are not entirely proven?

I can’t even do stairs, it’s pretty bad. Both kneecaps are screwed up. They both hurt and both make horrible noises like gravel is inside them. I have been doing the physical therapy exercises they gave me for three months exactly as prescribed. There was no improvement so 3 weeks ago I got a big cortisone shot under the kneecap of the worst knee. Again no improvement.

I just had to switch last month to a PPO insurance plan (husband started new job) so I’m waiting until January to get an MRI on the other knee which has gotten much worse doing the PT exercises! If I wait until January the $1000 knee MRI can go toward my insurance deductible for 2011. I’m not spending $1000 now to have a new deductible reset in January. I can wait 2 months and blow my deductible out for the rest of the year.

So does anyone have experience with knee surgery, knee treatment, and all the scams out there? When I even Google it, I get dozens of links to nonsense treatments. I recall reading about how sports medicine doctors were sometimes using unproven but expensive treatment on athletes and anyone else willing to pay for it? How do I know what’s proven, and what is either unproven or still experimental?

essentialoils - 15 December 2010 12:12 AM

Hello Jules

That is a serious problems of yours what i can tell you is not about treatment but is to prevent knee pain by strengthening the leg muscles may help prevent knee pain caused by overworking the joint. In addition, a stronger knee may prevent injury to the joint. Squats are an easy exercise that will strengthen the quadriceps (front thigh muscles) and hamstrings (back thigh muscles). The yoga warrior posture strengthens the muscles around the knee and increases range of motion. Much better if you consult a doctor
who is a specialist in knees. 

bye, bye troll!

Asanta, I have a question regarding the deleted post.  I only have personal experience from the mid-1980s when I hurt my knee rather severely.  I had PT, not to “cure” the problem, but to strengthen the muscles of my leg (quads, etc) to compensate for my injury (damaged cartilage on the underside of my knee).  What is essentialoils saying that my therapist and orthopedist weren’t saying?  And why is it “woo”?  Thanks.

And Jules, I’m sorry for your injury and insurance woes.  My knee still gives me trouble 25 years after the fact (and I had great care covered by Workers comp, including surgery and a year and a half of PT).

asanta - 15 December 2010 12:34 AM

bye, bye troll!

What???

I didn’t see anything in that post that was trollish.

TromboneAndrew - 19 December 2010 03:10 PM

asanta - 15 December 2010 12:34 AM

bye, bye troll!

What???

I didn’t see anything in that post that was trollish.

Sorry, he was selling stuff, he had links which did not show up on my post.

Doug is really on the ball about deleting and banning spammers and trolls, so that’s probably why you didn’t see anything odd, T-A.

Occam

Ahhh, that explained it. 

Thanks!

Gotcha.

Back on topic:

I’ve seen some people have knee problems become permanent, and I get the impression that the general medical community doesn’t really know a lot about how to effectively fix them.  Especially problems that seem to be long-term developing problems.

I do know that running is a significant cause of knee problems, and most of the time it boils down to having incorrectly fitted running shoes.  Unless you get shoes that are professionally matched to your body, it probably is much better to run barefoot, or to pick a different cardiovascular exercise.

I also know that once your knees develop a certain kind of problem, getting good shoes will not fix it.  Surgery is probably required, and from what I’ve seen, having various parts of the knee (kneecap, cartalige) decay means a very serious ligament problem that is causing the knee to be misaligned.  That expensive MRI is probably worth the cost.

Sorry, not my area of expertise (bad knees don’t get you into an ICU ), I would not know where to start, other than a trusted orthopod.

Jules,

The best advice I can offer is, “Find an orthopod or sports medicine MD who communicates clearly and is able to articulate the reasoning/evidence behind their recommendations.” A good doctor should be able and willing to cite the research that supports their recommendations, or at least be willing to tell you when what they want you to try is just anecdotal and you and essentially rolling the dice. Testimonials and the clinical experience of individual doctors isn’t worth much, though in the absence of good clinical trials it may be all you have to go on. But osteoarthritis and injury of he knee is an incredibly common problem, likley mostly because we do this wierd thing where we only use two of our legs to walk on, so there are a lot of evidence-based options. Unfortunately, the symptoms are most often chronic, which means they can come and go regardless of what you do, so it can be really hard to know what is actually helping.

Trombone,
Running is often thought to be a common cause of knee problems, and it certainly can cause some, but at least one study suggests on balance that runners, even if they don’t have perfect equipment or technique, have fewer orthopedic problems and less disability as they age than non-runners.

mckenzievmd - 20 December 2010 10:47 PM

Trombone,
Running is often thought to be a common cause of knee problems, and it certainly can cause some, but at least one study suggests on balance that runners, even if they don’t have perfect equipment or technique, have fewer orthopedic problems and less disability as they age than non-runners.

True.  Is this because running makes joints stronger, or because people who start with stronger joints run more?

That study didn’t really separate that possibility according to what I read in your link.  And that link doesn’t directly mention knee health.  But, yes, running has definite health benefits.  And if a runner’s shoes fit correctly, things are golden.  But I’ve seen lots of people get knee injuries even while running, and I think that too many of those are caused by badly fitting shoes which cause angular stress on the knees and other joints.

There are even studies out there investigating whether running with modern shoes is paradoxically worse than running barefoot:

http://www.pmrjournal.org/article/S1934-1482(09)01367-7/fulltext

but the juries seem to be still out on this, IMHO.