Help! My Knee Has Been Hurting for Months

Knee pain that continues for months should be a concern, especially when it persists after home care and other treatments. Various conditions lead to knee pain, including injuries and chronic conditions like arthritis.

When your knee hurts for weeks to months, you just want to find something — anything — to take the pain away. Permanent pain relief is hard to come by, so our team at Integrated Body and Medicine offers multiple treatment options.

Our providers take a holistic approach to total body wellness and provide supplements, physical rehabilitation, and other noninvasive options for long-term knee pain relief.

Causes of knee pain

Knee pain may be constant or come and go, and it may get better or worse with rest. Most people experience knee pain at some point because knees are joints you use frequently. But most knee pain disappears on its own or within a few days of rest and home care.

Knee pain that hangs around for months could be a sign of a more significant issue within the joint. Common causes of chronic knee pain include:

• Osteoarthritis
• Tendinitis
• Bursitis
• Patellofemoral pain
• Dislocations
• Fractures
• ACL injuries
• Meniscus injuries
• Sprains or strains

Athletes and people who exercise regularly are at a higher risk for knee pain than those who are less active. But osteoarthritis can strike anyone, including those who are overweight or have a family history of the disease.

When to seek treatment for knee pain

Minor causes of knee pain typically don't stick around for long. You likely will get relief with a few days of rest and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications.

If you have pain that continues for more than a week, it's a good idea to seek treatment. Other reasons to get help for knee pain include:

• A feeling of instability in the joint
• Inability to put weight on the affected side
• Severe knee swelling
• Redness, fever, or inflammation
• Inability to fully move the joint
• An obvious deformity around the joint

Get help for knee pain after a severe injury. If you've been in a car accident or suffered an injury while playing sports, you should get treatment right away to prevent long-term damage to the joint.

What treatment options do I have?

At Integrated Body and Medicine, our team takes a holistic and nonsurgical approach to knee pain. We thoroughly evaluate your pain and the affected joint to develop a personalized treatment plan for your needs.

We may suggest chiropractic care and massage for minor to moderate cases of knee pain. Chiropractic adjustments realign the bones and tissues around the joint, which can relieve chronic pain. At the same time, massage increases blood flow to the joint to speed healing.

If you're active and want to not only eliminate pain but improve mobility and strength, we offer physical medicine and rehabilitation, a medical specialty also known as physiatry. 

This integrated, multidisciplinary approach to treatment addresses your specific needs related to knee pain, while rehabilitative exercise allows you to regain joint function.

More severe cases of knee pain due to osteoarthritis may require joint injections with stem cells to regenerate damaged tissues within the joint. Although it's not an immediate fix, the stem cells provide long-term relief from chronic arthritis pain.

Sometimes a combination of all of these therapies is what you need to eliminate discomfort in the knee joints.

If you're tired of living in pain, don't hesitate to call us at Integrated Body and Medicine today at our office in the greater Highland and Hammond, Indiana, area or request an appointment through this website.