Alleviating Knee Pain without Surgery
Be it an injury, arthritis, or old age, there are numerous causes for chronic or degenerative knee pain. Often, patients will consider surgery as their sole option for treating knee ailments. While many patients find surgery beneficial, there are a few important things to keep in mind. Recovery time will vary greatly for each patient and could impact daily life and work activities. Infections, while rare, can also occur with any surgical procedure. Additionally, surgery can not always fully alleviate an issue and patients can still experience underlying pain. Finally, surgery is often expensive.
Luckily, there are non-surgical options for patients with knee pain. One option is working with an acupuncturist to find safe, natural, non-invasive treatments to effectively alleviate knee pain. These practitioners focus on providing patients with therapies and lifestyle changes that will allow them to return to normal life without having to endure surgery. Chiropractic treatments involve pressing or manipulating the joints surrounding the area to alleviate pain. For acupuncture treatments, the practitioner inserts tiny needles into the skin at various interconnected tissue or muscles points throughout the body to reduce pain. Acupuncture can be a good alternative to chiropractic treatments for patients who cannot take a lot of stress on their body or for whom chiropractic treatments are not an option.
Given the many causes of knee pain, it is important for patients to have a practitioner that is committed to understanding and identifying the underlying cause of their pain in order to properly treat and care for the condition. Acupuncturists will use a complete physical evaluation and comprehensive laboratory testing in order to get a full picture of the patient’s health. Getting an overall picture of the patient’s health and body systems is vitally important since the interconnected nature of our bodies can sometimes lead to pain in areas unrelated to the root cause.
Arthritis is a great example of the interconnectedness of our body systems. Inflammation in your body could be contributing to your arthritis pain which is why it is important to assess the overall picture of your body systems. Working with an acupuncturist who understands this total body focus and doesn’t simply treat isolated symptoms, offer patients the best possibility of achieving long-term success.
In addition to identifying and treating conditions, acupuncturists work to educate their patients so that they are best able to make informed decisions regarding their health goals. Patients often seek natural remedies to treat their pain rather than relying on expensive medicine, injections or surgery. An acupuncturist can offer patients alternatives that traditional medicine may not.
If you or a loved one has been told you need medication, injections, or surgery to address knee pain, you should take the time to get a second opinion by consulting an acupuncturist to determine what is your best course of care. They can educate you on options that traditional medicine does not provide and help you get back to a normal, pain-free life.