Pain Archive

Hip and knee pain can keep you from the activities you love, as well as make routine tasks difficult. But there are many ways to get you moving again pain-free, without surgery. Here are some of the treatments that can help relieve hip and knee pain.

Ultrasound, phonophoresis, and iontophoresis

Therapeutic ultrasound is a simple procedure that uses sound waves to increase blood flow, relax muscle spasms, and aid healing that leads to faster hip pain relief and knee pain relief. The therapist applies gel to your skin and moves an ultrasound wand over your skin around the painful area. In a special ultrasound technique called phonophoresis, medication (often hydrocortisone) is added to the gel. In a survey of orthopedic physical therapists, more than half said they would use ultrasound and phonophoresis to reduce soft-tissue inflammation (in tendinitis or bursitis, for example). These techniques are also used to manage pain, heal tissue, and help muscles stretch.

Doctors and patients use the 10-point pain scale to gauge the severity of pain, but there may be a better way.

 Image: © EgudinKa/Getty Images

You may remember being asked to describe your level of pain on a 10-point scale, with 0 meaning no pain and 10 meaning extreme pain.

This scale was initially designed to help nurses and doctors better document and monitor how much pain you were experiencing and thereby offer the right treatment.

You have many alternatives for treating and controlling pain.

The opioid epidemic continues to rise in America, and a 2017 report from the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly suggests the crisis now affects more older adults.

A main reason for the growing addiction to pain medicine is the ease with which it is often prescribed, according to Dr. Robert Jamison, a professor of anesthesia and psychiatry with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, occurs when protective cartilage inside a joint wears down. This type of arthritis is unheard of in children and is rare in young adults, but often occurs in older people and people who are overweight. Because of this, osteoarthritis was long considered a natural product of aging and everyday wear and tear on joint cartilage.

However, many experts now believe the cause is much more complex. External factors, such as injuries, can set the stage for osteoarthritis, but how fast it progresses and how severe it becomes depends on a number of factors. Here are just a few factors that can increase your osteoarthritis risk.

News briefs

Are you taking a medication that has depression or suicidal thinking as a potential side effect? One or both risks have been linked to use of more than 200 prescription and over-the-counter pills, including medicines that treat high blood pressure, heartburn, pain, and headaches. The more of these drugs you use, the higher the likelihood that you'll experience depression, suggests a study published June 12, 2018, in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Working with five surveys conducted over a nine-year period, researchers evaluated health information from 26,192 adults. About 37% of them reported taking such medications. Of individuals taking three or more of the medications with depression as a possible side effect, about 15% reported depression, compared with about 5% in people not using those medications. Even for people already taking an antidepressant, the addition of one or more of the identified medicines was linked to higher rates of depression. This study was based on surveys, so it didn't prove that the medications caused the reported depression. Nonetheless, if you think you're depressed (and have symptoms such as apathy, hopelessness, changes in sleep or eating habits, and persistent fatigue), ask your doctor if any of the medicines you are taking may be responsible.

Image: © Tero Vesalainen | GettyImages

Art therapy can be an effective way to help manage pain.

 Image: © Zinkevych/Getty Images

If you deal with pain from an injury, surgery, or just daily life, you may want to make some art.

Art therapy is a form of expressive therapy that taps into parts of the brain involved in the creative process. And this can help modify your response to emotional and physical concerns.

In the journals

If you suffer from low back pain and want to avoid taking strong pain medication, you might want to consult a physical therapist first, suggests a recent study published online May 23, 2018, by Health Services Research.

Researchers reviewed insurance claims for approximately 150,000 adults, ages 18 to 64, who had been newly diagnosed with low back pain. They found that those who first consulted a physical therapist had an 89% lower probability of receiving an opioid prescription compared with those who saw another type of medical provider. They were also less likely to have an MRI or CT scan or to seek out emergency care for their pain.

A desire to stay active and a natural aversion to pain send nearly 800,000 Americans to orthopedic surgeons each year for a hip or knee replacement. And we're seeking these operations much earlier in life. According to Dr. Scott Martin, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School, this isn't a healthy trend. "A lot of joint replacements are being done because they can be," says Dr. Martin.

Every surgical procedure carries the risk of complications — or even death. Because the average joint that's replaced only lasts 10 to 15 years, having the procedure done at age 50 instead of 70 means there's a good chance you'll need a second procedure when you're older and at higher risk for complications.