Conquering Knee Pain: Steps to Heal and Prevention of Knee Joint Pain

Experience from my Yoga therapy and Ayurvedic Clinic

Mar 11, 2024

Knee pain is a frustratingly common complaint, affecting people of all ages and activity levels. It can stem from injuries, overuse, or age-related wear and tear. But fear not, fellow knee-havers!

There are many steps you can take to heal existing pain and prevent future discomfort.

Here's an action plan to get your knees feeling happy again:

Healing Steps:

RICE: This stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. When knee pain strikes, take a break from activities that aggravate it. Apply ice packs for 15-20 minutes at a time, several times a day, to help reduce inflammation. Use a compression bandage to reduce swelling, and elevate your knee above your heart whenever possible.

Natural Alternative: Castor oil packs, Arnica homeopathic remedy.

Pain Relief: Over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen can help manage pain and inflammation, however they can have serious side effects.

Seek Professional Help: If your pain is severe, persistent, or accompanied by swelling, bruising, or instability, consult a doctor. They can investigate the cause of your pain and make a more accurate diagnosis.

Strengthening: Once the initial pain subsides, focus on strengthening the muscles around your knee. This improves stability and support, reducing stress on the joint. Exercises like squats, lunges, and calf raises are great starting points. Exercises should be progressive and adapted to individual ability and condition.

Identifying the causes gives the best chance to recovery; a holistic approach combined with medical assesment often gives the best results.

Preventative Measures:

Maintain a Healthy Weight: Excess weight puts extra strain on your knees. Shedding extra pounds can significantly improve knee health.

Warm Up and Cool Down: Always dedicate time to dynamic stretches before exercise and static stretches afterwards. This prepares your muscles for movement and helps them recover properly.

Choose Impact-Low Activities: Opt for exercises that are gentle on your joints, such as swimming, cycling, or walking on soft surfaces.

Shoes: Barefeet shoes are the best in building strength, however during recovering or when practicing impact excercise, a well-fitting shoes with good arch support and cushioning might be a good choice.

Below is based on experience from my Yoga Therapy and Ayurvedic Clinic in treating knee pain.

Yoga therapy and Ayurveda can offer a complementary approach to managing knee pain.

This is how yoga therapy has been helping with knee pain:

Yoga Therapy:

Improved Mobility and Flexibility: Gentle yoga poses can increase range of motion of legs and hip joints, protecting the knee joint from further damage. It is an important part in the recovery process. Clients from my clinic and under my close guidance have managed to reduce swelling, stiffness and pain, slowly regaining full movement.
Strength Building: Specific targeted yoga exercises can strengthen the muscles around the knee, gluts, abdominal muscles, this helps with stability and support of the knee joint, as well as improves posture.
Pain Reduction: Yoga practices can promote relaxation and mindfulness, which can help manage pain, stress, and trauma. Trauma from chronic pain is hugely under-treated and not recognised. For full recovery, this needs to be addressed too.
Reduced Inflammation: A careful plan of yoga postures targeting circulation, movement of the lymphatic fluids, and drainage around the knee, has the potential of reducing inflammation and pain.
Understand Physiotherapy Excercises: I often review the excercises given by the physiotherapist (mostly are yoga or pilates poses), to make them more accessible and address any misalignment or misunderstanding. I record the session for home practice, because more often than not, once practicing alone, one forgets the correct way to practice, including correct alignment and sequence, including proper warm up and cool down.
Experience from my Ayurvedic Clinic:
Herbal Remedies: Ayurvedic practitioners can prescribe herbal formulations to reduce inflammation and pain, herbal combinations to promote tissue repair, and specific herbs to manage stress.
Dietary Guidance: An Ayurvedic approach often includes dietary recommendations based on your specific needs, aiming to address imbalances that contribute to pain, inflammation, and strength. If there's a problem with weight and digestion, accumulation of toxins, and other related or “unrelated” symptoms, this can be managed with a personalised diet, herbal medicine, and yoga therapy.
Janu Basti: This Ayurvedic treatment is specific to treat disease and injuries of the knee joint. Specific Ayurvedic medication is applied around the knee joint, with massage of the area around to complete the treatment. Often full leg massage and back massage is also recommended.
Panchakarma: In some cases, a Panchakarma cleanse may be recommended to remove toxins believed to contribute to joint problems.

Combined Benefits:

A yoga therapy and Ayurvedic clinic working together can offer a more well-rounded approach:

A yoga therapist can design a personalized practice that complements the Ayurvedic treatment plan.
An Ayurvedic Practictioner provides guidance on managing and treating the root causes, including any additional stressors contributing to the knee joint problem.
The holistic approach of both disciplines can address not just the physical symptoms but also any emotional/stress factors that can worsen pain, including lifestyle and relationships.

Important Considerations:

While these therapies can be beneficial, it's crucial to consult an experienced yoga therapist and Ayurvedic practitioner.
Be upfront about any pre-existing medical conditions you have.
Both yoga and Ayurveda can be complementary to doctor treatment and physiotherapy.

Wholistic Healing

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