The Most Common Causes of Knee Pain… and a New Treatment You May Not Know About

If you have knee pain, it’s essential to know what’s causing it before finding the right treatment. Here are some of the most common causes of knee pain, plus information about a revolutionary treatment you may not have heard about yet that’s safer than surgery and more long-lasting than quick fixes that mask the pain.

As we age, our body’s structures lose elasticity, and joints don’t function as smoothly as during youth. Nowhere is this more common than in the knees. Due to advancing age, you may have general wear and tear in your knees coupled with less lubrication in the joint.

You may also have arthritis (joint inflammation, usually with pain, swelling, and stiffness), especially as you get older, although certain forms of arthritis can also be found in young people. Types of arthritis include:

• Osteoarthritis
• Psoriatic arthritis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Juvenile arthritis
• Fibromyalgia

Trauma from a sports injury, car accident, or fall can often result in knee pain. You may have acute pain at the time of the injury, or you may also have pain that resurfaces at old injury sites, such as a knee that aches when it rains.

Common traumatic knee injuries include:

• Dislocation
• Torn ligament (the tissue that connects bones, like the ACL or anterior cruciate ligament)
• Torn cartilage, such as the meniscus, which is the shock absorber in the knee
• Fracture (bone break)

It’s important to get treatment for a new knee trauma right away, or you risk having long-term complications for a lifetime.

Your unique anatomy may contribute to knee pain. For example, if you have wide hips or weak hip muscles, you may experience inflammation of the IT or iliotibial band that runs along the outside of the thigh from the hip to the knee. Iliotibial band syndrome can often cause knee pain; if you’re predisposed to it, certain sports may aggravate it.

Likewise, pronating or rolling your feet inward, which is common with “flat feet” or poor arch support, can put excess pressure on the inside of the knees.

You may have sciatica from a herniated disc in the spine or pseudosciatica from piriformis syndrome, both of which cause inflammation of the long sciatic nerve that runs from the lower back to the ankle. If the nerve is irritated near the knee, it can result in knee pain.

Sometimes calcifications or bone spurs can break off and become loose bodies in the knee joint, worsening pain and reducing the range of motion.

Manual labor, sports, and other activities that involve repetitive motion are known to cause knee injuries too. Certain movements can be worse for your knee than others, like twisting or improper lifting. Even driving for long hours can sometimes stress the knee.

You may get tendinitis or inflammation of a tendon that connects muscle to bone. Sometimes a bursa can get irritated too. Bursae are little fluid-filled sacs that help provide lubrication in many joints.

Carrying excess weight is hard on the lower body, particularly the knees. With every step you take, your lower limbs exert much more pressure on them, as if you were holding a dumbbell weighing many pounds. Sometimes, simply losing weight can eliminate knee pain.