What Causes Knee Pain?
As we age, knee pain commonly takes place. Since our knees bear our body’s weight during any activity that executes our legs, including standing, walking, and running, these parts of our body are prone to chronic pain.
How to Get Knee Pain Relief?
It truly brings agony when you run into a sudden twitch in your muscles or an unforeseen pain from your post-workout or previous injuries. It can either last for several hours or worst, days to weeks. But you can do many things to help knee pain and below are some of the little known ways to treat it.
Take Your Vitamin D
Some studies show that people who have low levels of vitamin D often have joint pain.
Vitamin D is one of the essential vitamins needed by our body to stay healthy. Vitamin D helps with strong bones.
You can get vitamin D in a variety of ways like from the food you eat, exposure to the sun for 15-20 minutes about 3-4 days a week, and nutritional supplements. These simple ways are very useful and can minimize the pain. Vitamin D supplements are also recommended by experts for people with vitamin D deficiency and knee osteoarthritis.
Check Your Posture
The number one cause for knee pain is poor posture whether you're at work, sitting, or driving. For example, if your head posture is leaned forward for a long duration of time, there's a chance that it protrudes the shoulders forward and weakens the back muscles.
To make sure that you'll get rid of this, try to move around and take a short break. Do some stretching exercises. Sit with a straight-backed chair and your feet flat on the floor. Always be mindful of your posture throughout the day.
Wear Proper Shoes
Comfortable shoes provide excellent support for your knees. Aside from that, it helps take away the pressure off your knee joint, promoting proper leg alignment and balance.
The best alternative shoes for joint pain are athletic and running shoes. These types of shoes provide the best cushioning and support while maintaining good orthopedic health.
On the other hand, go for a flexible and bendable when picking for a walking shoe with a thinner sole. This helps ease the load placed on your knees. Too hard or too stiff shoes tend to control your foot's range of motion.
List Down Your Food
Certain foods can trigger inflammation in the body. Most of the time, it affects the knee or the joints. Some of these inflammatory foods are processed goods, red meat, refined grain & sugar products, nuts, and oily foods.
For you to be aware of what you consume daily, list it down so it can be easy for you to track all the foods you had. As an alternative, go for anti-inflammatory foods like tuna, salmon, yogurt, milk, cheese, and other rich in vitamin D foods.
Do Some Stretching
"The majority of the muscles that connect at the knee start at the hip, so you need to keep the hips loose and strong first," says Dan Giordano, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., co-founder of Bespoke Treatments Physical Therapy.
Knee pain is caused by tightness or weakness in the muscles or tendons that connect to your knees. The hips, glutes, calves, hamstrings, and quads are connected to the knees which is why when one is compromised, the rest are affected.
To prevent this, Dr. Giordano suggests performing some hip, butt, thigh, and exercises that can help build strength in the knee area. It targets the hips and the rest of the important muscles that are involved. By following the right execution of these exercises, it can help ease the knee pain in no time.
Grab A Knee Pillow
Pillows aren't just comfy, they're also made to help your back stay in great condition.
Whether you're sitting or sleeping, a lack of support can lead to unnecessary stress on your spine. It commonly leads to back pain as muscles become tense from the strain and vertebral joints are worn out.
There are a variety of pillows you can purchase anywhere that can make sleeping and sitting less burdensome for your back, and also provides knee pain relief.
If you are a side-sleeper, then you should keep a firm pillow you can put between your knees, specifically a knee pillow. Knee pillow reduces strain on your back. Without it, the leg on top will pull on your pelvis, which results in pulling your spine out of its neutral, resting position. Knee pillows support your top leg and it will keep your spine properly aligned.
Takeaway
We hope these simple knee pain relief tips had made your experience of knee pain and your everyday life a little easier. But before you go on diagnosing yourself (admit it, we’ve all done it), you should see a doctor or physical therapist for you to get a professional diagnosis. It’s way better knowing the real cause of your knee problem than doing it without consent that may only lead to harm than good.
