About a dozen years ago, the prevalence of knee pain in the United States climbed to 25% of adults, attributed to increasing obesity and an aging population. As Americans hobble around on less-than-comfortable knees, far too many aren’t taking proper steps to deal with knee pain and get a spring back in their steps.
As a sports medicine specialist, Dr. Moisés Irizarry-Román focuses on helping patients at No Mercy Sports Medicine better navigate musculoskeletal injuries and damage, which tend to crop up in the knees more than any other joint. Here are five best practices that everyone who’s limited by knee pain should know about.
Most everyone has experienced a tweaky knee, and many people wait to see whether the problem will quietly go away on its own or settle in for the long haul. If your knee pain shows no signs of letting up or it’s getting worse, it’s imperative that you see a specialist for a diagnosis.
Your knees are the largest joints in your body and among the most complex, and there are many different paths to knee pain. Understanding which one you’ve taken is important in figuring out next steps to resolve the pain. For example, treating a meniscus tear versus knee osteoarthritis is very different.
Armed with top-notch digital imaging technology, including musculoskeletal ultrasound, Dr. Irizarry-Román can quickly identify the problem and get you on the correct track toward healthier knees.
Pain is your body’s way of signaling a problem, and it’s one signal you shouldn’t ignore. Gritting your teeth and playing through the pain isn’t heroic — it’s a fast track to more knee pain and potentially more damage. To underscore this point, it doesn’t take much for a partial tear in one of your connective tissues to become a full tear.
When you’re dealing with painful knees, please give them time they need to heal properly. Skipping a few weeks of your favorite activity is far better than being sidelined for months or years if you do more damage by not resting and modifying your activities.
Ice therapy is pivotal for your knee pain. Not only can the icing numb the joint and relieve your pain, but it reduces inflammation, too.
Addressing musculoskeletal damage is changing as there’s more focus on regenerative treatments over interventional ones. Using your body’s own resources whenever that option is available is a far better and more sustainable way to heal. Regenerative medicine features exciting new treatments like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy and stem cell protocols.
Whether you’re among the 365 million people around the globe who are dealing with knee osteoarthritis or you’re healing from a ligament or meniscus tear, the odds are good that regenerative medicine can improve your outcome.
Is knee pain dogging your every step? To get started on a better path, please contact No Mercy Sports Medicine in Miami, Florida, by calling 305-614-6757. You can also send a message online to request an appointment.
