The most basic daily activities, like grocery shopping, climbing the stairs, walking to your job, or just getting out of bed, can become difficult when experiencing knee pain. Knee pain can hurt your ability to function normally throughout the day. The great thing is, you don't have to live with the pain or take dangerous pain medication. Consider chiropractic care at Neck, Back, Arm, Leg and Headache Pain Relief Clinic of Marin.

What Can Cause Knee Pain?

The knee is a complicated, weight-bearing joint that can experience pain for several reasons. The goal of chiropractic care is to find and treat the underlying causes, rather than just focusing on the symptoms. Common causes of knee pain include:

• Injuries (ACL tear, torn meniscus, knee bursitis)
• Mechanical problems (loose cartilage or bone)
• Biomechanical problems (one leg is shorter, flat feet)
• Excess weight
• Arthritis
• Lack of flexibility
• Repetitive use injury
• Sports injuries (running, football, soccer, skiing)

How Can Chiropractors Help Knee Pain?

At our San Rafael office, we get a full overview of the causes of your symptoms. We generally start with a physical inspection (including the knee joint, low back, pelvis, hip angle, and feet) and look at your full medical history to determine when your symptoms began. Knee pain can be caused by a condition somewhere else in the body, like the lower back and hips. Also, if the joints in your body are not correctly aligned, the knee joint tends to help your body compensate for those structural changes, resulting in injury over time.

Once we understand the cause of your knee pain, our doctors will put together a plan tailored to your needs. Some conventional treatments for knee pain include using ice to reduce inflammation around the joint, as well as soft tissue massage, which can help improve your knee's range of motion. We use these techniques with chiropractic manipulation in areas of restricted movement in the knee and the surrounding joints. These methods can help reduce knee pain, increase range of motion in the joint, and improve your knee's overall function.

When you first start noticing knee pain, consider calling our chiropractors. They'll be able to help you figure out whether simply icing or applying heat to your knee will help you or if you need spinal adjustments. They can also recommend switches to a different type of footwear. More than anything, they'll be able to help you climb those stairs, run that track, or get in and out of bed without any pain. Give us a call today at (415) 223-9060.