You Can Fix Your Own Knees
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
E-mails have been coming in how readers quickly fixed their own pain and got better strengthening using the simple principle here on Fitness Fixer and my website.
Last week's post Each One Teach One showed how reader Ivy from New Zealand fixed a neighbors back pain.
This week is an e-mail from KMLash who quickly stopped 15 years of knee pain:
"Your paper on how to fix your knee pain is by far the most important thing that I've done for my knee since I injured it 15 years ago. I've tried every supplement that has good statistical results behind it (e.g. ASU), custom orthotics, physical therapy, message, leg strengthening, weight loss and any other cure that I read about and still I've been suffering with knee pain for years - especially when standing in 1 spot. It's put a damper on countless vacations, social engagements, etc.
"I read How to Fix Your Own Knee Pain and within a few days of implementing the techniques for both walking and standing I got results in my knee and surrounding muscles that I have not been able to get in 15 years. The first day I began using the techniques in your paper I began to experience relief and the second day it was obvious to me that I had come upon something that would do for me what nothing else did in 15 years of trying. I have never come across the concept of proper leg posture and its potential to relieve knee pain until I came across your paper. But the minute I read it and took a walk to try the techniques it became obvious to me that my leg posture was terrible and that all my weight was being placed on my knees with minimal support from my leg muscles. The concept of using my heels has been especially helpful. Additionally, keeping my body weight slightly backward from where it use to be during walking and standing has allowed me to place my weight on my heal and maintain proper posture. With that I immediately felt my leg muscles begin to spring into action and my body weight taken off my knees. The relief to my knee and surrounding muscles that has ached for years was very noticeable.
"Thanks for sharing this paper on the internet. It's a major find for me that's relieved knee pain that's hampered my life for 15 years. I really appreciate it."
KMLash
"One other point worth mentioning - In becoming aware of my leg posture, I became conscious of the position of my feet when standing. The foot on my "bad knee leg" pointed outward a good 15-20 degrees. The foot on my "good knee leg" pointed outward less than 5 degrees. I have consciously been pointing the foot on my bad knee leg straighter and it has allowed me to stand in one spot for long periods of time without my knee and the connective tissue above the knee hurting. So, just becoming aware of the concept of leg posture has made me conscious of various aspects of my posture including my feet.
Thanks again. "
KMLash
More Fitness Fixer to help get your knees in shape:
- Healthy Knees shows how to easily use your leg muscles when landing from jumps, to prevent inward knee sagging that gradually grinds the joint. Easily apply this to descending stairs, walking, running, and regular daily life activities.
- Improve Stretch and Strength With Better Kicking shows preventing hyperextension that hurts knee cartilage.
- Which Shoes Help Exercise, Fall Prevention, and Ankles? shows how positioning (body mechanics and ergonomics if you like bigger words) prevent many problems that strengthening alone does not.
- Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending shows good bending using the half-squat, so you can bend knees without pain.
- Strengthen Legs Without Knee Pain - Standing Lunge shows more good bending that saves your back without hurting your knees.
- What Works Better Than Knee Surgery? - If you don't want knee surgery.
- Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery and Health & Fitness THIRD ed (How to be Healthy Happy and Fit for the Rest of Your Life). Good books at www.DrBookspan.com/books.
It can be easy. You can get better use of your muscles during all your regular activities without stopping your day to "do exercise."
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Labels: fix pain, knee, readers inspiring story
10 Comments:
At Wednesday, February 28, 2007 2:20:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Dr Jolie - This morning I had reason to phone the bank and somehow got talking to a lady who told me that she suffers from knee pain. I gave her some advice then referred her to both yours and Healthline's websites. I was able to tell her briefly of my own personal experience and of others, in particular the man who has written a blog re fixing the knee pain that he suffered for 15 years. She was so grateful and will look up the info. this evening. What a nice way to start my day - "helping someone in need."
At Tuesday, March 06, 2007 11:49:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
HI,
I RECENTLY READ AN ARTICLE, IT WAS FORWARDED TO ME, THAT A MAN CURED HIS RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS. WHAT HE DID WAS TO REMOVE ALL DAIRY PRODUCTS FROM HIS DIET. HAVE YOU OR ANYONE ELSE HEARD OF THIS. EILEEN M. SCHULTZ
At Tuesday, March 06, 2007 10:22:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Hello Eileen, good question.
Yes, it is thought to sometime help, depending on certain things:
Rheumatoid arthritis is thought to be more autoimmune, while osteoarthritis is more wear and tear. For osteoarthritis, you stop the bad body mechanics that increase the wear and tear, and instead use good mechanics so that you can stop hurting and get the exercise that helps joints. The autoimmune processes thought to be behind rheumatoid arthritis means it is in response to something, an antigen, which is usually a protein that stimulates productions of substances in the body to fight it, called antibodies.
If milk protein is that antigen in the body - annoying and irritating tissues, then stopping the annoying substance (milk) reduces the damage within. Also people with dairy allergy can have uncomfortable allergy symptoms that can be confused for arthritis pain. Milk is highly allergenic, and many people can be allergic without knowing it. This is different from a third problem - lacking the enzyme to digest it, causing yet more symptoms. Losing the enzyme is sort of obvious for adults. What species drinks milk after weaning? Antibody tests can indicate the likelihood of rheumatoid problems.
You can get much protein and calcium without dairy, so it does not have to be a problem to stop dairy. See Exercise is More Important Than Calcium Supplements for Bones. There are good studies starting from the 1930s and continuing to present day that show calcium loss occurs from the animal protein of dairy.
Another factor, that seems to be clear in rheumatoid arthritis is needing Vitamin D, with improvement with regular exposure to sunlight. Get outside every day for a few minutes for fun exercise. Sunlight in the eyes also seems to be convincingly associated with improved mood too. Don't overdo so much that you get cataracts and skin cancer, obviously. A little sunlight is healthful. Get the benefits.
Remember, along with healthful diet, to use the same good mechanics in the posts here on Fitness Fixer to also avoid "wear and tear" joint pain.
At Tuesday, March 06, 2007 10:40:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Dr Jolie - I read with interest your reply to Eileen. I am referring to your comments re dairy products. As you are aware, I am a vegetarian, however, I have continued drinking a couple of glasses of fat free milk a day plus a little fat free plain yogurt (I make myself) a day. You will be also aware of my exercise programme which I believe helps keep my bone strong. I go walking for half an hour a day in the mornings so that my body gets some sunshine. My question is, if I cut these dairy products from my diet am I eating enough protein a day. I do eat chick peas, lentils, mung beans, quinoa etc. on a daily basis. I do NOT eat cheese, butter or eggs.
I would appreciate your comments.
At Thursday, March 08, 2007 12:14:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Eileen, I wrote your milk reply a little too quickly and ran two thoughts together. It's not certain if autoimmune diseases are from an antigen (still to be identified) or some chronic self-perpetuating inflammation (or other process) from other sources. Several foods are thought to have inflammatory capacity. Some are still under investigation and others are experimentally confirmed, such as dairy (apparently both pasteurized and non), meat, refined sugar and flour products, and trans-fats. Antigens are also involved in eliciting allergic response, and dairy is thought to be often part of that.
Immunology and rheumatology are not my field, but what is, is that I often see a patient who has lab tests indicating autoimmune disease and who has pain, but the pain isn't from that, but from painful ergonomics (bending over a desk all day, or walking with their knees sagging inward, for example.) They are on all kinds of drugs plus anti-inflammatories for the autoimmune disease, but pain continues because they are bending over a desk all day, or walking with their knees sagging inward. We fix the bad positioning and the pain disappears. They still have their autoimmune test results, but the thing that was really causing the pain is identified and solved. Sometimes they have both occurring and just solving one solves that pain, leaving the other still to be identified and solved. Sometimes people are on medicines that have side effects of pain and more pain - many of the most common medicines. We reduce or stop the need for these medicines (solving high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease by lifestyle changes, for example - not so unusual) so they can stop taking medicines that cause more pain. Treat the cause.
In short, if milk is the cause or part of it, it's easy and safe and healthier than commonly appreciated to stop dairy and see how it works.
At Sunday, March 11, 2007 4:11:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Food Food Food - I write about knees and you guys sure think about food :-)
Ivy, One resource to see how much of various nutrients you may be getting is
Nutrient Data Laboratory Food Composition Data.
For example, it calculates that 200 grams of the grain quinoa has 120 mg of calcium. 200 grams of chickpeas has 60. So these have a fair supply of calcium.
You can enter any quantity of each food to see how much calcium you might get from what you eat.
How much calcium you need partially depends on how much you lose. Loss occurs from being sedentary, from smoking, taking drugs like cortisone-based medications, steroids, anti-depressants, acid-reducing medicines, and others, and how much animal protein you eat, which promotes a small amount of calcium loss.
Reducing loss through not doing these things, and being active (which you are already doing) helps preserve calcium use by the body.
At Saturday, June 02, 2007 9:06:00 PM,
Dewey said…
Dr.B: I have purchased "Stretching Smarter..." & "Ab Revolution", and I have been correcting a variety of things that have contributed to my habitual neck/back tightness and pain. That includes ending 25 years of doing exercises that strained my neck and back, the very exercises you warn against! My problem continues to be my painful knees. I have been following your advice about posture/positioning/walking etc. -- all the things that can affect the knees; however, my knees don't seem to be cooperating. I've even had knee X-rays, to make sure there's no damage of any type. Everything is OK. Most of your exercises focus on neck and back pain. Which exercises should I focus on for the knees. I am a 57-yr-old male, average weight for my height. Thanks for any direction you can give me.
At Tuesday, June 05, 2007 12:04:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Duane, good work fixing your neck/back tightness and pain. Many common exercises are not healthful - like fast food - sweet and marketable, but not good for you. There are plenty of good things to do instead. It will keep getting better with these methods.
Glad your knee X-rays checked out.
Click the label "knee" under this post for exercises that focus on knees. Good bending is more knee exercise than most people get in the gym. Your Stretching Smarter book also show how to avoid several things that hurt knees. Let me know how that goes. Give me an idea when it hurts, when it stops, what kind of pain (constant, sudden, all over, in one place…) do you tweak it getting in and out of the car, those kind of things. Both knees the same? Do they swell? Feel hot? My book Fix Your Own Pain has a lot on knees, plus stories of people and their different kinds of injury and how we solved it. One story told of a man who had every test and did every exercise and it was a mystery until his appointment (I make housecalls). He helped me with the door because it sticks, wedging it shut with his knee. Let's figure this one out too.
At Sunday, May 24, 2009 12:21:00 PM,
Dian Lung said…
Hi Jolie,
I have a question regarding knees and practicing rolling in martial arts. You said in the article on your website that one of the keys to healthy bending was to not let your knees move past 90 degrees.
Many of the rolls I do in classes are like the one in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4LQjwtDM_4&feature=related, where until you get to a proficient level (which I'm not at yet, unfortunately), you have to drop as close to the floor as possible, which my knees currently won't let me do.
I did see the points in your article about having a tight IT band and poor cushioning, both of which are problems for me. I've been using the exercises in your article and they are definitely helping. I know many martial artists that can go for years in my style without knee injuries. Can you give me some insight?
Thanks for your time,
Brooke
At Friday, June 05, 2009 2:46:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Brooke, I never said 90 degrees anywhere on my web site or any other materials. Check again and let me know what you find. It is not even true, useful, or healthy to limit motion like that, for most people.
My teachings stress understanding why and how something is healthy or not, instead of memorizing arbitrary degrees and rules.
The video you mention shows an elementary roll. It can be done many ways for various martial applications.
For squatting close to the floor, see the many posts here on Fitness Fixer on squatting and on knees. Look at labels under posts and click to find all Fitness Fixer posts on that topic. For a specific post to start with, try More Fun Squatting.
My book Healthy Martial Arts is a good source for learning many techniques to apply to health of body and spirit - DrBookspan.com/books.
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