Knee pain can be a terrible affliction when it hurts with every step. Your knee may even be weak and put you at risk of falling. Pain relievers might help with pain, but they don't do anything for healing. That's where chiropractic care can help. Here are different ways a chiropractor can help with your knee pain.

Work On Alignment Issues

If your hips or back is out of alignment, there might be too much stress on your knee when you walk. If the alignment issue isn't corrected, your knee may never fully heal. A chiropractor examines much more than your knee. He or she assesses your posture and gait to see if your back, hips, knee, ankle, and foot are in alignment and if each side of your body is aligned with the other. Chiropractic adjustments can be used to correct alignment problems so your knee has less strain and is given a chance to heal.

Offer Pain Relief Treatments

A chiropractor can also offer different treatments that help with pain relief depending on the severity of your pain. Ultrasound treatments are a possible choice. These use sound waves to heat up the deep tissues in your knee and around your joint. The heat increases blood flow and stimulates healing of tissues so it has the double effect of relieving pain and helping your knee injury heal. Some types of sound waves don't produce heat, they just send vibrations to deep tissues and these can be beneficial for reducing swelling around the joint that contributes to pain.

Use Exercise And Massage As Treatments

If your knee pain is made worse by poor posture or if the muscles around your knee are weak, then your chiropractor might teach you exercises to do at home that strengthen your muscles. Strong core muscles will support your back and hips better, and strong knee muscles help hold your knee in alignment better. Other exercises that might help are stretching and range of motion movements that keep your knee limber. In addition, deep massage treatments on your knee help break up adhesions so you regain full range of motion with less pain.

While you may think of back pain and neck when you think of a chiropractor, a chiropractor treats all parts of your body. Chiropractic care can be beneficial for knee pain too and since it's an approach that treats your body as a whole, it's safe and it may work when other types of treatments have failed.