Treating Knee Pain with Acupuncture.
We have had very good results treating knee pain with acupuncture at our clinic in Guildford, Surrey. We often see knee pain that has been going on for years, sometimes decades.
Causes
Knee joint pain can be caused by lots of things.It can be damage to the knee joint itself, ligaments, or muscles and tendons.It can be postural, referred pain from somewhere else (see our article on back pain here), an old injury that never healed properly, or arthritis (see our article on arthritis here.)
Doctors Treatment
Knee problems are seen by doctors as difficult to treat. They often prescribe pain-killers initially. If the pain doesn’t go, then they may do an x-ray, or MRI scan,which will show if surgery is needed. Surgery can be minor (eg keyhole to clean up cartilage) or major (for severe ligament or joint damage).
Acupuncture Treatment
Often we see people after they have had years of pain, & nothing that the doctors have done has worked. We spend time going over the medical history, and do an examination. We will then use acupuncture needles around the knee & some points elsewhere. We can also advise on exercise.
Case History 1
A man came to us with 2 years of knee pain following a car accident. He was due to go skiing in 3 weeks time! So we treated him once a week for 3 weeks. The pain was almost gone by thhe time he left to go skiing, and he returned after his holiday reporting no pain despite skiing every day. We haven`t needed to treat him since.
Case history 2
Recently a woman in her 40`s came to us having suffered knee pain since being a teenager. It could get really painful if she walked any distance, and all the exercises she had been given by physios had made it worse. The doctors had done nothing other than prescribe pain relief drugs for 30 years. I treated her with acupuncture and when she came back for the 2nd treatment, she hesitantly said the pain seemed not to be there. 2 weeks& 2 more treatments later,still no pain! So I told her to come back if the pain returned. We havent seen her since!
I Learn Exercise After Surgery is Good!
Acupuncture doesnt sort ever problem. I have had keyhole knee surgery for a torn cartilage. Before having the surgery I had several acupuncture treatments that had no effect, and hobbled around for a year. Interestingly, for a year after the surgery I continued to hobble, & thought the surgery had failed Then I did some simple knee strengthening weight training in the gym & and my pain dissappeared within 2 weeks! My lesson from this was the importance of doing strengthening gym work & pilates when recovering from surgery.
So we feel it is always worth trying acupuncture if you have knee pain. Even if you are due surgery, it is worthwhile, as surgery carries risk, whereas acupuncture is risk-free.
With our affordable acupuncture clinic, where we provide top quality treatment at low cost, it makes even more sense!