Both knees, I work out on the treadmill 30 min. in intervals of speed and incline - well, it was daily, but now I alternate with the recumbent.
Starting to hate simply getting out of the car. Just achy.
Well you could always stop doing what is causing the pain.
I had a knee scoped for torn cartilage while running. I went back to cycling and my knee feels much better as long as I spin the pedals at a good RPM instead of mashing them.
Have you talked to a doctor and/or sports therapist? A lot of knee pain can be minimized through proper stretching and warm up/cool down techniques. Lots and lots of stuff can be done before a knee replacement is even on the horizon.
I’m giving this a +2 (one for each knee). Also, strengthening muscles (through weight training) can help in many cases.
But, it’s also good advice, if you’re doing something that makes your knee hurt afterwards, is to stop doing that thing. Try cycling instead of the treadmill or something.
I walk between 3 and 5 miles a day. Recently I had considerable knee pain. Oddly, it was not a problem when walking on level ground, only going up/down stairs, sitting down, etc. I exercised my quads and though it took about two weeks, the problem went away completely.
In my unprofessional opinion, if you have arthritis and your cartilage has deteriorated to the point where you are “bone on bone”, then you likely need either a total or partial knee replacement. If you are not at that point (and only a doctor can tell you if you are), you might try physical therapy first.
Everyone else has covered avoidance and exercise, so I’ll add the drugs and surgeries. The first drugs recommended when you ask your doctor are over the counter NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) aka aspirin, tylenol, etc. There are prescription anti-inflammatories, but you have to get your liver function checked twice a year if you take them chronically. The next step up is steroid injections into the knee or synthetic knee-joint juice (I know there’s a technical term for that, it’s just escaping me at the moment), also injected into the knee, but deeper.
I’ve heard rumors of physicians fooling around with stem cells, but there’s no standard stem cell therapy yet. Some people claim to get relief with chondroitin and/or glucosamine, but the study support just isn’t there. I tried it, in different formulas, and it always gave me muscle cramps, which is apparently not a typical side effect.
Then there are surgeries that are not quite knee replacements. If you have a piece of cartilage that’s broken loose and is irritating the joint, it can be removed with a scope, which is a small surgery. But a lot of the not quite knee replacement surgeries are nearly as big an insult to the body as a knee replacement. There’s been a lot of improvement in knee replacement surgery in the last ten years. If you can find the right surgeon, it’s probably better to just do that than to do a hemi replacement or tibial osteotomy.
So true. If you’re at this point, it’s obvious on an x-ray.
Go to an orthopedist and learn what it is exactly that’s causing your knee pain. The protocols vary for treating different problems, obviously. I have chondromalacia in both knees and was sent to physiotherapy to strengthen my leg muscles so that my muscles do more of the work that my knees had been doing. Surgery wasn’t even mentioned.
My wife tried an injection of synviscfor her knee pain. You have to re-do it every six months or so. The first injection was a huge help for about five months. The second injection does not appear to have helped at all.
Anyway, you’d need a doctor’s advice to get this, so you need to take that step no matter what. They should know whether it might be a good fit.
I stopped doing a treadmill and started elliptical. I’m using it longer and more frequently, and have lost pounds and all knee pain. The treadmill was really bad for me. I don’t even think about my knee anymore.
Deeper isn’t the word for it. When I had my synovial fluid replacement therapy the guy came at me with a needle six inches long. When I said “Wait a minute, the pain’s on the other side” he told me he could reach the part he was aiming for from either direction. Damn that’s a lot of needle. In any case, it helped, but not a lot and not for long enough. My insurance company won’t let me get it again, and it provided relief for less than six months.
I’m at that point (arthritis, no cartilage, bone-on-bone), but did find a means of postponing the inevitable knee-replacement surgery. I was prescribed a compound - a topical cream to put on my knee (containing ketamine, flurbiprofen, baclofen and lidocaine, etc). It has to be prescribed by a specialist (my PCP, for instance, cannot prescribe it). Anyways.
It’s pretty serious medicine and not cheap, but works amazingly well. I’m mostly pain-free when I’m using it regularly.
It may be your running style that is causing problems. If your foot lands heel-first with a straight leg, it causes a lot of impact force in your joints. The cushioning of your shoe won’t help. Instead, try a running style where you land more on the forefoot with a bent leg. Lookup barefoot, Chi, and Pose styles of running.
Don’t run for a while. Do the elliptical, stairs, or cycling until your knee pain goes away.
There are many alternatives to knee surgery. The knee has many components which need to work together. If certain muscles are pulling harder or weaker than they should, it can cause knee problems. I would recommend working with a sports physical therapist who will evaluate your running style and provide appropriate therapy and exercises to deal with your issue.
Just my 2 cents:
I’ve known some number of people who had arthroscopic knee surgery (including my spouse – 3 times). None of them have been that happy with results. The pain has remained.
On the other hand, I’ve known several people who have had knee replacement surgery. ALL of them have been happy with the results and have said after “I wish I hadn’t waited so long”.
Of course, YMMV.
J.
My wife’s knee pain pretty much went away after physical therapy. Doctor and X-ray first, but PT is relatively cheap, non-invasive, and doesn’t need recovery. It seems the thing to try first.
Band name!
A lot of knee pain is caused by weak quads, weak/tight hips and tight hamstrings. Runners are a very tight bunch (I am also a runner). I know when I don’t do Yoga and cross-train with weights, I am prone to ITB.
Yep, that’s me. Had arthroscopic surgery three times. The results were a marginal improvement twice, and a marked deterioration the last time. And I had the Synvisc stuff, once. It worked OK, for a little while, maybe a couple or three months. Then I had a replacement, about twelve years ago. I went back to work a week after the surgery, and haven’t had a moment’s trouble with that knee, or a twinge of pain, ever since then.
If your doctor recommends replacement, just do it. It really, really works. It’s amazing.
I’ve done it for my ankle twice, and both times it took a while to settle in to the joint (and the settling-in process was a real bitch and left me on crutches for a bit). But both times it helped my overall pain level and mobility quite significantly, the first time for a period of several years (the second time was about a year ago, so the jury’s still out). I’ve been told I’m bone on bone, but ankle replacements are still pretty experimental and I’m too young for one.
Either way, it sounds like you should see an ortho specialist, preferably sports medicine.
Just a few weeks ago I read Saving My Knees and found it very helpful.
After frustration with doctors and physical therapists the author sought out the scientific studies for himself. The short version is cartilage CAN regenerate. You may need to take time to heal! You might need to change your activities for a long time. You may need to experiment with what works for you. You may need (brace yourself) to stop sitting at a desk with your knees bent for many hours a day.
The author went from daily intolerable knee pain that made it impossible for him to work to full restoration of activities, including cycling, but it took him more than a year of slow progress and the willingness to trust the signals of his own body and the scientific studies over the advice of professionals.
My left knee is already feeling better (though far from 100%) after a few weeks of giving up desk sitting for more than 15 minutes at a time and taking my exercise down a number of notches.