In addition to the traditional chiropractic focus on adjusting the spine to ease joint pain, many doctors today are using a wide array of approaches to ameliorate hip and knee pain, whether the cause is an injury, inflammation, arthritis or a chronic condition.

 

Determining the cause is the first step, says chiropractor Derrell Blackburn, senior manager of chiropractic relations and training for The Joint Chiropractic, a nationwide chain of 500 clinics. If both hips or knees go bad, he says, it’s probably due to aging. If the problem involves a hip or knee on one side, “the underlying truth is overuse or compensation” which can be helped by realigning the sacroiliac joint or pelvic girdle.

 

Chiropractor Gil Kentof, of the Dr. Gil Center for Back, Neck, and Chronic Pain Relief, in Franklin, Tennessee, first recommends that patients with hip pain join a basic yoga class, find a good video or search “hip stretches” online and exercise according to what they research five times a week. “If there is no improvement in three weeks, or if there is more pain while doing the exercises, an examination is in order to determine the origin of the pain and the best treatment option,” he says.

 

The exam often includes X-rays and sometimes an MRI. Treatment options can include specific chiropractic adjustments, deep tissue laser therapy, stem cell injections into the hip joint and in severe cases, referral out for surgery, but, “Surgery is always a last resort,” he says. For knees, “Good success has been obtained with stem cell treatment and platelet-rich plasma injected into the knee,” he advises. “This procedure is performed by our medical team and is minimally invasive with very little downtime.” He also suggests that knee-pain patients stretch the hamstrings, quadriceps and calves on a regular basis and use a pull-on brace or ice packs for temporary relief.