What is Knee Pain?

What is Knee Pain? What are its symptoms and causes?

Knee pain is a common problem faced by people at all ages. There are many reasons for knee pain. Most of the knee pain needs treatment to cure or subside. Pain management plays a major role in such conditions.

Types: General knee pain can be classified as

1.Severe, shooting, throbbing pain

2.Dull and intrinsic pain

Causes: You may experience knee pain due to many reasons like – osteoarthritis, tendinitis, bursitis, chondromalacia patella, gout, Baker’s cyst, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), dislocation, meniscus tear, torn ligament etc. It is always recommended to understand/know the reason of your pain.

Symptoms: Redness & warmth to touch, Weakness or instability, Popping or munching noises, inflation and stiffness, Inability to fully stretch knee. it should be noted that symptoms vary depending on condition mentioned above.

Acupuncture Perspective: Considering the most common reason for Knee pain as Osteoarthritis, I would like to brief on it. According to Acupuncture, we can categorize Knee Osteoarthritis into 3 main patterns.

Yang deficiency or Cold coagulation: In this type of condition, yang energy deteriorates and yin starts dominating. Patient exhibits pain, stiffness, and impaired function in the knee joint. The condition is worse with cold, and alleviated by warmth.
Kidney Qi deficiency: Energy (Qi) of Kidney reduces which impacts mostly on bones. However, dizziness and tinnitus may also accompany. Most common complaint during Qi deficiency would be movement restriction.
Blood Stasis and Collateral stagnation: It is believed to have good health with stagnation free energy flow. When there is any obstacle in the flow, symptoms manifest on meridian line, related organ, related part etc. In such conditions, patient experience continuous and fixed pain, restricted movement & tiredness.

Home Remedies:

Take 200 ml of coconut oil, 20 cloves of garlic. Fry garlic to golden color using coconut oil. Let it cool, store in a glass container. Apply the oil on both the sides of knee (patella) before going to bed. This helps in relieving stiffness and reduces pain.
Take 4 pieces (medium sized) cinnamon, 1 medium size dry ginger, 1 spoon of gingelly oil. Make powder of cinnamon and dry ginger, mix it with gingelly oil. Apply it to the area of pain and swelling. This helps in reducing pain and swelling.
Hot pack, massage, regular exercise helps in managing knee pain.
Grind the capsicum thoroughly. Apply the paste on the knee and wrap it with a cloth, leave it for 2-3 hours.

Other Suggestions:

1.Avoid sour food.

2.Consumption of potato, pumpkin, channa, toor dal etc. can trigger the pain as it belongs to vaayu tatva.