knee pain

[abvnx]

At risk of getting too personal, how old are you?

Sounds like arthritis. Could be patellofemoral arthritis but may also be general osteoarthritis. In which case you would want to stop running for now, concentrate on spinning on the bike - no big ring for you young lady, and stretch your hips out a whole bunch. I'll try to give you more later but I gotta go, paying patients waiting.

ill be 27 in sept. i cant have arthritis already can i? i havnt had any knee major injuries that i can remember. thanks

[Zen]

Isn't there a genetic component to osteoarthritis?

I'll never forget when I had an MRI to diagnose knee pain and the diagnosis was arthritis.
Arthritis! How can this be?!
Arthritis is for old people!!

I think I was 40 at the time

[Starfish]

Please, please, please don't just keep on going through your pain until you know what it is, what is causing it, and what you are doing to your joints.

In my 20's I ran and ran and ran, through the pain until I couldn't even walk anymore, thinking I was being strong, and also not wanting to give up the only thing that helped me feel sane in those days. I didn't go to the doc soon enough, because I didn't want to be told to stop.

I really damaged one knee, and it hurts to this day even to hike a little too much. (Thank goodness it works OK for biking when I keep the muscles built up!)

[KnottedYet]

Wahine? Overpronation causing tibial torsion? Weak hip external rotators causing femoral torsion? Could we work on either to relieve some symptoms until she gets to a doctor?


And yeah, stop running for the moment. Since you can't go to a doctor for a few months (loooooove that for-profit medical insurance!! Paging Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton...) give those critters a rest and tell us more so we can come up with low-cost things for you to try in the interim.

(ice is always good. Especially in a gin-and-tonic! )

[Wahine]

Overpronation causing tibial torsion? Weak hip external rotators causing femoral torsion?

Wahine?

And yeah, stop running for the moment. Since you can't go to a doctor for a few months (loooooove that for-profit medical insurance!! Paging Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton...) give those critters a rest and tell us more so we can come up with low-cost things for you to try in the interim.

Agreed and you have a nice post in one of the threads I linked to about that exact issue. It all comes back to foot mechanics and muscle balance. Knott and I agree on what's happening, she just tends toward the footsies first where as I tend toward the stretching of the hip girdle first. Not saying that one should come first and the other second, just saying we have different ways of seeing the same thing. A balanced approach would look at both.

I like to stretch first, TFL especially, then add strengthening of the hip external rotators as a bit of flexibility is gained. The Clam Shell exs is good for that. This link has a lot of good info on general knee alignment and also has a picture and explanation of how to do the exercise:

http://www.anaerobic.net/runnersguide.html

Don't worry about the fact that the web page is for ITBS, a lot of the same alignment issues apply to what Knott and I are talking about.

[KnottedYet]

Yeah, I have a thing for feet....

(hey, my new clinic is letting me go hog wild with orthotic business! Whooo-hoo!)

[Wahine]

Yeah, well I have a thing for bums and the hips that go with them.

[abvnx]

thanks everyone for all your help and responses.
we were in town last night so we stopped by the LBS and told them about my knee pain while biking. so they put me up on the trainer and found that my saddle was to low and my knees point in toward the bike. he raised the seat and it does feel better but i cant really tell until i go out for a longer ride.

as for running, its stopped for now(i havnt run for a few weeks now)
hubby is really into martial arts, it tends to be hard on his jonts so he takes glucosamine and msm. he wants me to take that stuff and stop the caffeine
right now i have a bag of frozen meatballs tied to my knee with one of hubbys socks and took some neproxin.so far its helping alot.

thanks again, ill keep yall posted.

[Wahine]

ill be 27 in sept. i cant have arthritis already can i? i havnt had any knee major injuries that i can remember. thanks

Possible but not probable. It's more likely to be a patellofemoral tracking problem, especially if it's both knees and is of insidious onset. Having said that, it does sound a little weird and I would recommend getting it checked out when you have your insurance in place. It's not an emergency but you just want to be sure to rule out some weird arthritic process. Meanwhile, stop running and get stretching. Here are some threads and posts that may help.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...=tensor+fascia

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...=tensor+fascia

Zen - OA does not have a definite genetic link in terms of the disease being passed along via the genes. However, since OA is a result of wear and tear on the joints some people argue that it can run in families because factors that affect cartilage health can be passed along through the genes making the joints more prone to OA. It could be familial due to lifestyle factors that are socially learned, for eg if your family skis all the time...all the family members may get early knee OA.

Rheumatoid Arthritis has a very well established genetic link.