From Lab to Life: Healing Sore Knees |
A few weeks ago, after a long sit at my desk, I got up and rushed down a set of stairs, heading to the fitness center. Crack! My knee twisted, probably because my hip muscles were cold and stiff. What followed were several weeks of pain, limited knee movement, and a debate – what to do?
First tendency when a limb is hurting – don’t use it, favor it, treat it with caution. Makes sense – if the knee hurts when you walk, so walk less.
Turns out to be wrong. I did some research. Here is the result. Keep in my mind: I am economist, not a doctor. Economists break things, rather than heal them. (That’s a true saying in Silicon Valley: “Move fast and break things”. Lately, they sure have).
I chose to exercise my sore knee, rather than immobilize it. Cautiously, but steadily – lots of walking (our dogs helped!), some knee lifts with a weight machine… and, today, the knee has healed. I looked into why this happened. Here’s what I found:
The knee is not directly connected by bones to the thigh and shin bones. Instead it is held in place by a complex network of tendons and ligaments. They can be pulled, stretched, strained, even torn. Why? The knee takes huge stress, when walking — some four times the weight of the human body itself. There are 10 different knee muscles. The kneecap has a thick layer of cartilage, which is the cushioning between the various parts of the knee. Cartilage is amazing stuff. It has no direct blood supply. It gets nutrients from the synovial fluid circulated by moving the joint. (This turns out to be a key fact!). When the knee moves, the cartilage releases its waste products (dead stuff that accumulates) and absorbs synovial fluid with nutrients. To keep your cartilage healthy, and to help it regrow worn cartilage, movement is crucial.
What caused my sore knee? Probably stiff or weak hip muscles, on the outside of the hip that help move the leg. Knee pain can occur when the knee twists, because the hip muscles are cold, weak, flabby or not doing their job.
So, I looked up the research. A study of 10,000 participants examined a variety of sore knee treatments.
What didn’t work? Laser therapy (those gadgets are advertised heavily on TV, with endorsements by athletes, who wouldn’t dream of actually using them), electrical stimulation, insoles, kinesiology tape, ultrasound.
What DID work? Water therapy (motion in water); knee braces (keeps the knee from twisting while you are working out those key knee and hip muscles), and ….EXERCISE! Counterintuitive – because at first, it is a bit painful.
Caution – this is just my own opinion. But – I have been a jogger/runner for 68 years, and some of my running friends quit running, at the first onset of sore knees…and I feel that was a huge mistake. Had they kept running, slowly, limited, short distances, the exercise may have helped the cartilage restore itself.
When I need to visit a pharmacy, I am stunned by the massive amount of stuff on the shelves, with people loading up shopping carts. The global pharma industry has annual revenues of $2 trillion! We have come to believe that an ailment demands a trip to the pharmacy. Like sore knees. Sometimes, it helps. But other times, it doesn’t. Maybe sore knees is an example. Often, if you listen carefully to your own body, it will tell you what is working and what isn’t….