Learn Ways to Treat Knee Problems

The is five months away, so training for the annual race is not urgent at this point. However, it is never too early to learn about ways to treat knee pain, one of the more common injuries for runners and for athletes in general.

On Monday, June 20, at , sports medicine and orthopedic surgeon Daniel Veltri, M.D., gave a lecture about injuries and conditions that can cause knee pain and how these problems can be treated. Veltri discussed ways to treat overuse knee injuries, also known as wear and tear knee injuries.

During this summer lecture series event, Veltri also talked about knee fractures, dislocations, ligament and tendon tears, meniscus tears, osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis, and articular cartilage around the knee.

Veltri said that knees are the second most common musculoskeletal complaint, coming after back problems. He said the obvious knee injury is from falling down, causing one’s knee to break or dislocate. However, according to Veltri, the more common knee injury is because of knee overuse.

“You start an exercise regiment when you’ve been out of shape for a while, and you come into the office and say, ‘I’ve been running and my knee is sore,’ or you say , ‘I’ve been lifting weights and my knee is sore,’ ” Veltri said. “Those of us who are enthusiastic athletes can over do it sometimes.”

Overusing the knee can result in patellofemoral pain syndrome as well as IT band friction syndrome, also known as kneecap pain and pain on the outside of the knee.

Veltri said there are fortunately ways to address these pains, which starts with wearing appropriate shoes. Veltri is totally against the recent fad of copying the African long distance runners, who don’t wear shoes.

“Those of us who have been wearing shoes all our life are going to get injured if we start running barefoot all of a sudden,” he said. “If you start running in those new socks or bare feet, you’re going to have a problem, so make sure to get appropriate shoes.”

In addition, Veltri advised people with overuse issues to improve their flexibility. Some patients complain to him that they can’t possibly get any more flexible, but Veltri said there is potential to get a five percent flexibility improvement, with stretching as the key.

“If you wake up first thing in the morning and start to stretch, there’s no evidence that will prevent an injury,” he said. “But once you do a dynamic stretching warm up, and start to improve your flexibility, that will pay major dividends for injury prevention.”

Veltri said it is particularly important to build hip muscles and inner thigh muscles through dynamic stretching.

Some exercises to strengthen these muscles include partial squats against the wall, forward lunges with twists at the end of the lunge, and walking repeatedly up and down a step, as well as side to side of the step. Veltri said people should start holding weights during these exercises when it starts to get too easy.

He also emphasized that rest alone is not going to improve overuse injuries. People might stop running for three months, but then the pain will come back after running for just a week.

“You have to be proactive to prevent these problems from coming back,” he said. “You have to wear the appropriate shoes, improve flexibility and muscle strength. It won’t just go away by itself.”

John Kasparian, 62, from Plainfield, has a hip problem which is negatively affecting his knee. After listening to Veltri’s seminar, Kasparian said he is going to build off the doctor’s ideas and apply them to his own problems.

“Sometimes I guess it’s a matter of whether or not I’m overdoing it with my activities [biking and golfing],” Kasparian said. “I’m always on the go, sometimes riding my bike 20 miles, so I might need to cut back. I also have to try out those [muscle] exercises.”

For more information about Veltri, log on to www.sportsmedct.com.