Dealing with a Running Knee the Safe Way

When you hear of a disease named after a certain sporting activity - tennis elbow or runner's knee for instance - you naturally tend to think that people who practice those specific sports like crazy are the only ones who tend to be affected. Of course, they just name  the disease this way for no particular reason. While running knee is something that runners come by a lot, any kind of athlete who uses his legs - a bicyclist, a pole vaulter, a boxer or a weight lifter can be struck down by the disease just as well. Actually, running knee isn't one specific condition at all. It's a term that doctors use loosely to describe any of a set of problems that occur in the kneecaps.

For instance, any kind of athletic activity that requires a person to bend the knee and straighten it repeatedly can bring the condition on. Doing that can rub your nerves the wrong way. Sometimes, the tendons that connect your muscles to the bones around the knees can get injured with repeated bending too. And about half the time, overworked and inflamed tendons act up in such a way that you feel quite a bit of pain. In some people, merely to fall hard on the knees can cause the kind of nerve or tendon injury that overuse can cause as well.

Runner's knee can feel quite terrible. There is serious pain around the kneecap - most pointedly where the thigh bone meets the kneecap. You can feel grinding and popping in the knee and there is usually a good bit of pain when you climb downstairs or when you try to walk or sit. Your doctor gives you an MRI or an x-ray or CT scan to diagnose you. While all of this does sound kind of scary, the good news is that it can be somewhat easy to treat runner's knee. Most minor cases go away with a lot of the rest, icing your knee for a half hour every day for a week or using tight knee support help. If it hurts when you sit down, you could try elevating your knee on a pillow. Athletic types often take NSAIDs - painkillers like Advil - to settle the swelling and pain.

Athletes often have aching joints and muscles and often pop acetaminophen in place of Advil to try to help their stomachs out. If you have running knee and you need to take a painkiller, doctors are usually of the opinion that Tylenol is the safest bet - if you take no more than six tablets a day. The military usually has a huge problem with runner's knee in boot camp. Recruits who show up and go through the military's grueling series of exercises often complain of this affliction. In fact, running knee happens to be one of the major reasons why military recruits drop out.

Researchers have found now that simple well thought-out stretching exercises can help a great deal with keeping running knee away. Exercises especially that strengthen thigh muscles and leg muscles making them stronger and more flexible make the occurrence of runner's knee a lot less frequent.