Help for Leg and Knee Pain

People who stand, walk or run for long periods of time might find that they start to have leg or knee pain from time-to-time. This pain can become so chronic that it takes even the best athletes out of the game. It can also prevent people from getting daily tasks done because it hurts to move around. If you have sudden leg or knee pain, or chronic pain caused from a degenerative condition, we can help you! There are many chiropractic and physical therapies that can significantly curb chronic pain and help you feel like you again. Find out what those therapies are!

Dealing with Leg Pain

Leg pain can happen any moment with an injury at work, school, or even stretching more than your limit. Dozens of conditions and injuries can cause burning, aching or numbness in the lower extremities. Patients may know they have leg pain due to an injury, but pain that comes on suddenly or even over time without a cause is pain that should be evaluated. Leg pain is a sign of many health conditions, and it can affect a person’s ability to stand, walk, run, work, or enjoy other daily activities. Causes of leg pain include:

• Muscle injuries such as strains, tears, sprains, scar tissue damage or atrophy
• Tendon inflammation
• Overuse during exercise or athletic training
• Nerve damage, such as sciatica
• Medication side effects
• Stress fractures or bone/soft tissue infections
• Neuropathy complications or varicose veins
• Blood clots and artery issues

Help for Leg Pain

It’s important to know the cause of leg pain so you can remedy it. We will do a full medical evaluation at your appointment to determine the cause and location of the pain. Assessing symptoms such as swelling, weakness, cramping, loss of feeling and more, can further narrow down the cause. This is important because targeting the cause effectively and quickly is the best way to make it go away. If your pain stems from an injury, always give us a call and start R.I.C.E. protocol. This stands for “Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.” Rest your injury and ice it 10 minutes on, 20 minutes off. Follow that by wrapping or compressing the injury and elevating the limb that was injured, if it’s possible.

At our office, we can do the following for leg pain:

• Exercise, stretching and training counseling to help you train without injury
• Vibration exercise therapy to help heal injuries quicker
• Leg massages and trigger point therapy to work out knots
• Lifestyle assessments to pinpoint habits that are causing you leg pain
• Electric nerve stimulation that can reverse numbness and reduce burning sensations
• Assisted-stretching services to loosen tight calf and thigh muscles

What About Knee Pain?

When we talk about leg pain, we are sometimes talking about knee pain, but only if patients are experiencing pain in both areas. A person can have knee pain and leg pain at the same time, but they can be caused by different things. They are not the same, however, and different therapies might work for one type of pain over the other. Common causes of knee pain includes:

• Bursitis of the knee
• Dislocation and injury
• Tendinitis, which causes swelling and inflammation
• Tendon sprains and strains around the bone
• Cysts on the cartilage or muscles
• Gout and pseudogout
• Hyperextension during exercise or activity
• Wear and tear due to aging
• Infections of the knee
• Tears in the meniscus
• Iliotibial band syndrome

As you can see from the comparison of knee pain compared to leg pain, the causes are vastly different. Don’t ever assume that knee and leg pain are caused by the same thing. Make sure you have a health evaluation to ensure you know what the problem is. If knee pain is bothering you, we can provide simple, but effective treatments such as:

• A schedule for physical rehabilitative exercise and rest to heal the knee
• Soft massage to reduce tenderness and inflammation, while increasing blood flow
• Guided movements and calibrated stretching that relieves muscle stiffness
• Joint injections to eliminate inflammation for months at a time
• Supplemental recommendations and rehabilitative regimens to improve joint mobility

Your Knees and Arthritis

When you hear about arthritis, you probably hear about it happening in the hands and the legs. Arthritis in the legs in normally arthritis in the knee. Millions of people experience leg or knee pain because of the effects of arthritis. This condition affects at least 54 million American adults, but that number only reflects people who have been doctor-diagnosed. There are over 100 different forms of arthritis, which makes sense as the term “arthritis” means “inflammation of the joints”.

There are over 360 different joints in the body all throughout your musculoskeletal system. That means literally any joint can be affected by chronic pain and inflammation. With this type of knee pain, a patient’s joint cartilage either deteriorates from wear and tear or the body’s immune system attacks it. With both of these types of conditions that cause knee pain, anti-inflammatory joint injections can relieve chronic pain. This anti-inflammatory solution also stops cartilage and joint deterioration by providing lubrication for the joints. No matter if you have arthritis in the knee, or leg and knee pain caused by another reason, call Texas Spine & Sports Therapy Center at (512) 806-0015) to treat your pain and symptoms!