Practically everyone periodically experiences unpleasant backaches, sharp pains or tingling in the knee joint. Most often, such sensations are disturbing after physical exertion in the gym, but sometimes they appear at rest or at night. Moreover, the knees ache not only in the elderly, pain can occur even in children and adolescents.
Joint damage
A knee injury is a common cause of severe and unbearable pain. The consequences of an unsuccessful jump or a severe bruise are immediately visible, but it is not always possible to understand which part of the connection is injured. When your knees ache, the reasons can be very different. Possible options for joint damage include:
- Injury to the meniscus. Immediately after the bruise, there is a strong sharp pain in the knee joint, which disappears on its own after a few seconds. After 20 minutes, when the state of shock passes, the discomfort becomes bursting and aching as a result of vascular damage.
- Fracture of the femur or patella. Almost always, such damage leads to severe pain in the knee, deformity, excessive mobility, or an unnatural position of the limb. This injury is accompanied by swelling, damage to the softtissues with hemorrhages in the joint and discomfort when moving the leg.
- Sprain or rupture of ligaments. With such an ailment, a characteristic crunch appears as a result of damage to the fibers, a feeling of dislocation of the leg and sudden sharp pain. Severe trauma leads to joint instability. After a while, edema and hemarthrosis join, and aching pain becomes leading.
If your knees, hips and lower leg are aching, then most likely the pain has arisen due to excessive physical exertion, which should be abandoned for a while.
Pain in the joint due to inflammatory pathologies
If your knees ache, the reasons may lie in the inflammatory process occurring in the joint. In this case, the pain is sharp or chronic.
For example, discomfort in the knee can occur with bursitis. With this disease, one or more joint bags become inflamed, leading to redness, decreased motor activity and swelling of the limb.
Still aching knees with the development of arthritis. With this pathology, an inflammatory process occurs in the joints. In many cases, various types of arthritis of the knee become the initial stage of the formation of polyarthritis of several articular groups. During this disease, the following symptoms are observed: redness and swelling of the joint, increased pain at rest, at night and when the weather changes.
In addition, tendonitis can provoke the appearance of pain in the knee joint. With inflammation of the tendons and ligaments, swelling and discomfort occur indamaged area, which become more pronounced with muscle contraction and flexion-extension of the limbs. Pain in this disease often radiates to the thighs and calf muscles.
Quite often, the cause of pain in the knee joint is a hernia of the popliteal fossa. Becker's cyst is capable of causing pain of varying intensity under the knee in the active stage. They spread along the calf muscle and increase with flexion of the joint.
Diseases of non-inflammatory origin
With such dystrophic pathologies of the knee, most often only one type of connective tissue is affected:
- meniscus;
- bundles;
- cartilage;
- tendons.
These diseases provoke the appearance of pain in the knees when bending-extension of the leg, movement, and also a crunch in the joint. In some cases, there is an involuntary bowing of the limb when walking.
Degenerative changes
This kind of irreversible damage to articular tissues, especially cartilage, usually has a very long character. It is for this reason that the symptoms of the disease develop gradually, drawing more and more compounds into the destructive process.
Often knees ache with arthrosis of the joint and spine. Coxarthrosis of the hip joint and gonarthrosis always cause pain in the knee. With such pathologies, discomfort appears only at the very beginning after exertion, they pass on their own at rest. As the disease progresses, discomfortfirst becomes intermittent and then permanent. As a result, abnormal mobility in the joint occurs or ankylosis develops.
When the pain radiates to the knee joint, but there are no problems in the joint itself, it is imperative to examine the spine for radicular lesions. Neuropathy in the knee or adjacent structures also leads to discomfort in the joint.
Pathologies of vessels
Aching sensations in the knee joint can be caused by vascular diseases. With such an ailment, soreness is felt immediately in two limbs, grabbing the leg from the knee and below. Even with light physical exertion, discomfort in the joint appears, and after hard training, it intensifies even more.
During a severe circulatory disturbance, aseptic necrosis of the knee bone may occur. The hard part of the tissue with this disease usually dies off in a few days. This pathological process is accompanied by acute, sometimes even unbearable pain.
Unlike discomfort when walking, pain in the absence of movement, for example at night, most often indicates problems with blood vessels. Knee aches at rest, usually with venous congestion. Discomfort in most cases goes away after a short workout. After all, when the affected veins restrict blood circulation, during physical activity, the movement of blood through the vessels is activated.
In this case, it is better to seek the help of a specialist to determine the cause of these symptoms. Only a doctor can prescribe the appropriate treatment. If athe disease is severely neglected, they resort to an operation, during which the veins located below the knee are removed. Of course, the pain will not disappear immediately.
The recovery period after surgery will last a long time. To speed up rehabilitation, you should regularly perform special exercises and undergo various procedures.
What to do for pain in the joints at night?
If your knee hurts at rest, first of all you need to see a doctor. If necessary, the specialist will refer you for additional examinations in order to select the appropriate treatment. Aching legs, knees, feet and hips at night is often due to severe overwork, so it is recommended to reduce physical activity.
Discomfort in the knee joint that occurs at night is an alarming symptom. Thus, the body signals the presence of pathology. Therefore, you must always listen to yourself in order to prevent the development of the disease in time or eliminate it in the early stages.
In general, when the knees ache at night, they resort to conservative therapy aimed at relieving inflammation and eliminating the infection. Sometimes hormones and steroids are prescribed to get rid of such pain. In case of dislocation, the traumatologist manually sets the joint.
Knee hurts, whines: what to do in this case?
Remember that only a doctor can determine the exact cause of aching pain in the knee joint. Therefore, a visit to the clinic is an important step to quickly eliminatethe problem that has arisen. But whatever the cause of the discomfort in the knees, the first step is to reduce the stress on the joints.
Quite often, with sharp pains in the knee, a person must observe bed rest with further activation of the limb. It is advisable to use crutches or a cane while walking, as well as wear comfortable and soft shoes. The doctor may still recommend the use of orthopedic insoles.
Drug treatment of discomfort in the knee joint involves the use of anti-inflammatory, chondroprotective and painkillers. Such drugs are available in the form of ointments, gels, tablets, creams and injections.
To relieve joint pain, use drugs such as:
- Anti-inflammatory drugs - "Voltaren-emulgel" and "Fastum-gel". They alleviate the condition, but do not completely eliminate inflammation, moreover, such gels are useless for vascular pathologies.
- Warming preparations - Troxevasin, Menovazin, Kapsikam, Espol. They should not be used for synovitis, arthrosis and arthritis.
- Ointments based on bee venom - "Apizatron" and "Virapin". Such funds are prohibited for use by women during menstruation and children.
When your knees hurt and ache, it is anti-inflammatory drugs that most effectively relieve the inflammatory process in the joint. But they do not eliminate the cause of the development of pathology.
Chondroprotectors are not able to relieve pain, but with long-term use they restorejoint function and damaged cartilage tissue, reduce the number of relapses of the disease. The most common of them are Dona and Alflutop.
To relieve knee pain, you can try a brace. But you need to consult a doctor, because for some injuries it cannot be used, otherwise you can only aggravate the situation.
When your knees ache, only a specialist knows what to do. But if the pain arose from sitting in one place, you just need to move a little. Remember that a sedentary lifestyle is extremely dangerous - it increases the risk of gaining extra pounds. Excess weight puts a lot of stress on the knee joints.
Physiotherapy treatments for joint pain
If your leg and knee aches for a long time, you should, in addition to medication, undergo a course of physiotherapy. Such procedures help eliminate aching pains and reduce the dose of medication taken.
During physiotherapy, the healing process of tissues in various diseases is accelerated. But it must be remembered that it cannot be carried out with infectious and severe heart diseases, systemic diseases of the kidneys and connective tissue. For discomfort in the knee joint, the following procedures are performed:
- laser treatment;
- magnetotherapy;
- mud treatment;
- mineral water treatment;
- UHF therapy;
- electrophoresis.
Massage and exercise for joint pathologies
If your knees ache when you get up, you hear a crack,and discomfort disturbs even at night, massage sessions and therapeutic exercises will help get rid of these problems. But the exercises are allowed to be done only if it is not too painful for the patient to step on the foot and the doctor has allowed.
Gymnastics must be done slowly, without sudden movements. In the event that severe discomfort is felt in the knees during training, you should switch to simpler exercises. The load should be increased gradually.
In a sitting and lying position, pull the knee to the stomach, bend and unbend the legs, move the limbs to the sides, and also perform alternate half-turns. At the end of the workout, you should relax a little, and then proceed to the massage. This procedure also helps to relieve pain in the knee joint.
You can knead the limbs yourself. Of course, it is better to entrust the massage to a specialist. To eliminate many unpleasant symptoms, it is necessary to undergo a course of such procedures. A massage session should last about 20 minutes, during which they press on the patella, rub the lateral, external and internal surfaces of the legs. When performing a massage, care must be taken not to be disturbed by severe pain in the knee.
Elimination of discomfort with folk remedies
Compresses perfectly relieve aching pains in the joints and prevent their occurrence in the future. Natural yellow clay helps to quickly eliminate discomfort in the knee, because it contains many healing minerals that penetrate directly into the affectedplace.
You must first add clay to warm water and mix everything well. The resulting mixture should be applied in a thick layer over the affected area. Then cover with a film, insulate on top with a woolen scarf and leave overnight. After waking up, this remedy should be washed off with water. This procedure should be carried out every day for 7 days. For prevention, you can do such a compress 2 times a week.
Also, to eliminate aching pains in the knee joint, a mixture of chestnut, dandelion and lilac is used. All these ingredients must be put in a glass jar and pour vodka. The container should be removed in a dark place for infusion. After two weeks, the mixture can be used. It is necessary to moisten a gauze napkin in it and apply it to the affected area. Insulate in the same way as in the previous case, and leave overnight. This compress will relieve even severe and acute pain in the knee.
Herbal infusion for internal use
This decoction has a powerful tonic and anti-inflammatory effect. The first step is to grate the horseradish root. After that, it is poured with hot water and placed in a water bath. Boil raw materials for at least 20 minutes. Take the finished drink should be 1 spoon several times a day. The duration of such therapy is 21 days. This decoction will quickly relieve discomfort in the knee joint.
You can only find out exactly why your knees are aching, only by consulting a doctor. To avoid such pain, you need to eat right, adhere to activelifestyle and treat various diseases in a timely manner.
