Knees are one of the weak points in the human body. Problems with the knee joints occur not only in the elderly, but also at a young age. One of the alarming signals is a crunch in the joints. If your knees crunch, what should you do in this case?
At first, this condition does not cause any particular inconvenience, but it cannot be ignored, since a crunch may indicate the onset of serious diseases leading to disability. Cracking in the knees is often accompanied by swelling and pain.
To understand why the joints crack, you need to see a doctor. Doctors call the following causes of this phenomenon:
- excessive load on the knees, for example, when doing some sports or when lifting weights;
- low motor activity and sedentary work;
- constant wearing high-heeled shoes;
- overweight;
- eating a large number of sweet, spicy, salty foods;
- lack of vitamins;
- salt deposits;
- joint trauma;
- the beginning of the development of arthrosis;
- congenital increased mobility.
You find that your knees are crunching. What to do first? First you need to change your lifestyle.
Revise the diet - exclude sweet, spicy, salty. Eat more fruits, vegetables, and foods rich in calcium, prepare meals with cartilage, drink still mineral water, and take vitamins.
Do not lift or bear the burden, give up sports where you need to jump a lot - volleyball, basketball. Rest joints after heavy exertion.
If the lifestyle is sedentary, and as a result of this knees crunch - what to do? Less sitting in front of the TV screen and at the computer, sign up for the pool or take daily walks. Physical exercise with moderate load perfectly affects the condition of the joints. Especially useful exercises are “scissors”, “bicycle”, gymnastics in water. Motor activity strengthens the muscles of the legs, improves blood circulation, elasticity and mobility of the knee joint.
When sedentary work, try to get up and move more often, it is advisable to walk to work. Wear comfortable shoes with a heel no higher than 4 cm. And, of course, reduce weight, which is fatal for the knees.
The joints are afraid of the cold, so you need to keep them warm. When crunch appears in the knee, compresses should be made from vegetable oil and orange juice before bedtime, and at night it is good to wrap a sore spot. Sauna helps relieve fatigue and tension in the joints. After prolonged exertion on the legs, it is good to take a warm bath and rub your knees with cream or ointment with bee venom.
The sooner you begin to take action when a crunch occurs in the knee, the longer arthrosis will not develop. This disease often has a hereditary predisposition, and an unhealthy lifestyle, hypothermia, malnutrition, excessive stress, injuries and other adverse factors only accelerate its onset. If it is from osteoarthritis that knees crunch. What to do then? Arthrosis is an incurable disease, but in the initial stages it can be stopped.
In this case, you need to start treating a crunch in the joints with a rheumatologist. The doctor will conduct an examination using x-ray or tomography and determine the severity of the disease. Arthrosis requires an integrated approach. Usually they attribute drugs that relieve pain and inflammation, prescribe electrophoresis, recommend proper nutrition, maintain a healthy lifestyle, avoid calcium deficiency, maintain normal weight. To treat arthrosis, modern drugs are used to restore cartilage and restore elasticity to the joints.
In the advanced stages of the disease, it is often not without surgical intervention. The operation consists in replacing the damaged joint with an artificial one.