Knee Pain
People of our country are famous for being resilient and hard workers. Working hard is a good habit and is your key to success. However, you need to take care of your joints while you are working hard to avoid early wearing out of the protective cartilage of your joints in addition to supportive structure around them, in our example your knees.
Marie-Anne is a nice well groomed 73-year-old lady, a retired French teacher, living with her son in her own house, 15 minutes walk from my office. She came to me few months ago seeking for natural treatment for her knee pain. She complained of debilitating knee pain and swelling mostly behind her both knees. She had history of osteoarthritis of knees for years, but now the pain and inability to move the knees was limiting her functionality. She had the pain all day even with pain killers. During her night sleep, the pain in both knees waked her up and kept her awake for a while. So the pain became the reason of her insomnia and lead to her next day feeling of tiredness. She used to enjoy gardening in her small yard and was proud of the fresh vegetables she had in her little garden. Because of the knee pain, she was not able to continue gardening either.
She came just to ask if we could do something naturally to reduce the pain until her knee replacement surgery be done.
It was osteoarthritis, the most common cause of knee pain particularly in elderly. The repeat wear and tear of the knee results in inflammation, stiffness and pain that make moving the knee, both flexion and extension painfully difficult. For Marie-Anne, being an enthusiast teacher, standing all day, raising 4 successful children, and not having time to pay attention to posture and joint strengthening exercise, ends up to losing her joints' supportive elements, both inside of the joints’ space and surrounding tissues.
Treatment plan:
We explained at the beginning to her that our treatment is not a substitute for her replacement knee surgery. We can and are willing to work alongside her medical specialist to reduce her pain (naturally from our side) until her time of her surgery. We mutually agreed to do so.
Natural treatment plan:
we decided to have a holistic approach in addition to locally focused helping with the pain.
- We have already known, and we shared with her in detail that we can not create anything new in her joints, but we can assist her to improve the function of what was remained for her in her knee joints.
- We started with diet and food by adjusting her diet to a bone and joint health improvement foods.
- We prescribed some age-appropriate joint movements at home to provide better circulation to the viable parts of her knee joints. Starting from once a day and moving up to three to five times a day according to her own pain tolerance and possible range of motion.
- We prescribed her some easy to do hydrotherapy at home to increase local blood flow and promote better lymphatic drainage for the knees to take the debris and inflammatory substances out of the joint faster.
- We recommend her to add some special well researched nutrients to her daily routine to help with reducing the inflammation from inside, in addition to help with re-building the viable structure of the knee joints locally.
- We prescribed a weekly specialized massage therapy sessions to improve the lymphatic drainage and detoxifying while helping with redistribution of Qi and blood and in addition we educated her for a few simple massage techniques to be done at home for continuation of treatment.
- We did a bi-weekly simple acupuncture treatment with three points around the knees and two distal points to address meridians related to her concern. The goal was working locally to reduce pain while addressing internally the route causes of the problem according to Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective.
Fortunately, her teacher mindset was very helpful. As she had an open mind to learn about our treatment plan and was dedicated to do whatever she was able to. These two characteristics of her contribute greatly to the success of our treatment plan for her!
Our further plan to add, in case of no-response, was electro-stimulation acupuncture after 4-6 weeks continued simple treatment.
However, her response to the simple treatment plan was awesome. The swelling of her knees was reduced. According to her own words she could sleep all night and she felt less sore in the knee during the day. But she still needed the help of stair rails to climb up and down the stairs of the entrance to her home. With these good results, we finished the course of intense treatment. and we set up a maintenance visit of once a month to do follow up with her progress. Last week she brought a basket of basil, cilantros, and parsley from her own yard garden for me, to show her gratitude which in my view was priceless!
Acupuncture is a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine practice. Like any other treatments, not two people respond the same for one treatment. But it seems people with knee osteoarthritis respond well more and less to acupuncture. Those who have mild to moderate OA need few sessions of treatment. But those with more advanced osteoarthritis, need more continuity of the treatment.
Acupuncture locally promotes anti inflammatory action and systemically help with release of the body's natural pain-relieving elements. So, hands-in-hand with other natural remedies work well to help with reducing pain of knee due to osteoarthritis.
The important points that I need you to keep in mind!
Prevention is always easier than Treatment.
Pay attention to your food and fluid intake,
Include variety of fruit and vegetables in your daily diet.
Proteins are building block for the
Pay attention to your posture while sitting, walking, driving, doing your job even lying down...
Do exercise regularly to strengthen the structures surrounding your bony joints.
Osteoarthritis happens to everyone. You can postpone its happening!
However, in case you had the knee pain, we might be able to help reduce your pain. Do not let the knee pain of OA affect your smooth sleep, your life enjoyments, and your functionalities.
If you chose coming to us, I would like you to know that we are always ready to help. Our first visit is typically longer than the treatment sessions, to do a holistic assessment, and build a treatment plan that suits you and your special needs.
Call us today to find out how we can help you to reduce your knee pain. We can Include acupuncture in your treatment plan as a good option to reduce pain, and inflammation and increase range of motion of your knees. Being able to walk easier inside of home and outside on street and being able to attend your daily choir independently, make you feel good and improve your quality of life overall.
To book your initial appointment you can call at 416-249-4567 or send an email to info@drmanesh.ca or book online at https://drmanesh.janeapp.com/#staff_member/1.
* Disclaimer: The information in this article is property of Dr. Masoumeh Shayesteh Manesh, Naturopathic Doctor and is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any diseases or promote any products or services mentioned on this website.
Comments