Quote Originally Posted by Wahine View Post
IT band syndrome is very treatable when diagnoses properly. What that means is finding the cause of the syndrome not just giving it a title. There are multiple causes of ITBS, so you have to find the cause and treat appropriately. For eg, if the cause is faulty foot mechanics, treating just at the knee isn't going to do the trick, if the root cause is an irritated nerve in the back causing hip tightness, giving the person shoe inserts isn't likely to work.

ITBS symptoms:
- pain on the lateral aspect of the thigh to the knee, especially at the knee
- increased pain with activity
- *usually* stairs are very painful with going downstairs being worse that going up, runnign downhill is also typically very painful.

If there is numbness or tingling there is nerve involvement and the problem is not a simple case of ITBS. There is likely also a problem with nerve inpingement in the back or buttock areas.

In treatment you need to address foot mechanics (maybe Knottedyet will comment further on this), and stretching of the hip is very important. Often there are weak abdomenals and hip muslces that need strengthening as well.
Uh-oh. I'm glad I made an appointment with my friendly sports medicine doc for Thursday. Fortunuately he's a runner and cyclist, so maybe he'll be open to the concept of finding the cause and not just treating the symptoms. I know I have lots of things going on in my body -- pinched nerves in my back, neck and shoulders, reconstructed ACL, slightly flat feet -- it's a wonder I'm able to walk! Hopefully we'll be able to figure out what the cause is and how to fix it. I really, really, really don't want to give up running. Thanks for the info, Wahine!

KB