Handling Your Whiplash After an Accident
Whiplash is a common injury after an auto accident, but sometimes people don’t realize they’re hurt until days after a crash. Here’s how to handle potential whiplash following an accident.
How Your Knee Pain Affects the Rest of Your Health
Knee pain is a common complaint, but many people don’t realize how serious it can be for the rest of your health. It’s important to address your knee pain to relieve symptoms that affect your day-to-day quality of life, and you also should be wary of additional issues such pain can cause.
Ajay Kumar, MD, and our team at New Jersey Advanced Pain Management Center provide diagnosis and treatment for knee pain to patients in and around Hackettstown, New Jersey, and Matamoras, Pennsylvania. We can help you find ways to keep your knee pain from negatively affecting the rest of your health.
Knee pain basics
Most causes of knee pain are related to injury, age-related arthritis, and mechanical problems. Injuries may be treated with minimally invasive techniques or with surgery, and arthritis pain can be managed in a variety of ways, but the pain itself isn’t all you need to be concerned about.
Even after you receive a diagnosis for your knee pain and start treatment, you may need to find additional ways to reduce its effects on your body and minimize your chances of a long-term disability.
How knee pain can affect the rest of your health
Acute knee pain is the least likely to cause lasting damage, but it’s critical that you treat your body correctly while your knee injury heals. Taxing the knee, missing physical therapy appointments, and failing to follow your doctor’s instructions — such as wearing your knee brace — can mean running the risk of strain on your other joints.
Chronic knee pain is even more dangerous. If you force yourself to push through the pain and move around, you may limp — which can cause strain on your back, hips, and ankles. Overdoing things can put you in bed or on the couch, where stiffness and inflammation worsen. Chronic pain has also been linked to stress, trouble sleeping, and depression.
If you hurt too badly to move, the immobilization of your body can lead to experiencing added pain in your back, shoulders, and neck. You may also gain weight and become more unhealthy overall because of lack of exercise. This can be debilitating over time, with increased risk of developing diabetes, obesity, and heart issues.
Knee pain management
Dr. Kumar starts with conservative treatment methods for your knee pain and only recommends surgery after approaches like anti-inflammatory pain relievers, steroid injections, and activity modification have failed.
You can participate in your treatment plan by communicating clearly when you’re having pain that prevents you from moving well. If you’re carrying extra weight, you can remove pressure on the knee joint by changing your diet in small ways to lose the extra pounds and become more mobile.
Overall, the best way to prevent knee pain from causing additional health problems is to maintain a healthy weight with proper nutrition, to stay active, and to watch for balance issues, limping, and pain showing up in other parts of your body.
Is your knee pain causing you more health problems? Contact New Jersey Advanced Pain Management Center today for a consultation with Dr. Kumar to get you on the path to better overall health.
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