If you’re having knee problems, you may have very well heard of steroid knee injections. Yet, it may surprise you to learn that steroid injections don’t actually treat knee problems. They only hide them.
Keep reading to learn more and to find better alternatives for knee pain.
What’s a Steroid Injection?
A medical doctor might prescribe a cortisone shot, or steroid injection, to help relieve pain and inflammation for joint pain.
These joints might include:
• Ankles
• Elbows
• Hips
• Knees
• Shoulders
• Spines
• Wrists
A physician might even prescribe a steroid injection to relieve pain in small joints in the hands or the foot.
With steroid injections, Hydrocortisone is injected into painful joints to help relieve pain and inflammation for conditions such as osteoarthritis, bursitis, swelling, tendonitis, and more.
Steroid Knee Injection Benefits Are Short-Lived
While steroid shots do provide fast pain relief in joints, unfortunately, that relief is short-lived. Over time, steroid injections fail to soothe knee pain and stiffness. In fact, it can make your condition worse.
In a patient with mild conditions, the injection can last for three or more months. However, in a patient with a more serious condition, the painful symptoms could return in as little as a few weeks.
Masking the Pain Could Cause More Damage
Injections provide temporary relief, however, it’s only suppressing or masking the pain, not healing it, which could lead to increased joint damage.
When you receive a cortisone shot, your joint may start to feel better. The cortisone gets to work reducing inflammation which can reduce pressure. However, in some conditions, such as a meniscus tear, the tear is still there, you just temporarily don’t feel the pain caused by it.
Without that pain telling your brain to take it easy on your knee, you could do more damage. In addition, the shots themselves have some nasty side effects.
Potential Cortisone Side Effects
Again, steroid injections can provide fast relief for a range of inflammatory conditions. However, a physician will usually limit how many shots you can receive because of potential side effects.
Cortisone injections can contribute to joint damage, cartilage breakdown, nerve damage, bone death in nearby areas, and thinning of the skin around the injection site. Even worse, steroid injections can cause your knee tendons to weaken or rupture. Some patients even suffer from joint infections after receiving steroid injections. Ultimately, a steroid injection can cause more problems than it solves.
As a result, it’s not a good idea to receive steroid shots for long-term treatment. Fortunately, there are other alternatives available—more on those treatments in a moment.
A Better Alternative for Relieving Knee Pain
At the Busch Chiropractic Pain Center in Fort Wayne, IN, we’ve successfully treated many patients struggling with knee pain without the use of drugs, shots, or invasive procedures. At our clinic, we offer the Busch Stem Cell Stimulation Protocol™ to help heal the pain, not mask it.
The protocol encompasses a range of therapies, including:
• Chiropractic techniques
• Cold laser therapy
• Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT)
• Nutritional supplementation
• Piezo Extra Corporeal Shockwave (ECS) therapy
Our pain treatment protocol not only reduces inflammation and alleviates pain, it also promotes tissue repair and cell growth and will accelerate your healing and recovery process.
Learn More about Long-Term Knee Pain Relief Today
Hopefully, you can now see that there are much better alternatives to a steroid knee injection. The Busch Chiropractic Pain Center in Fort Wayne, IN has successfully treated thousands of back pain, neck pain, and neuropathy patients. We can provide you with much better solutions.
Please feel free to schedule your appointment today to learn more about how we can free you from knee pain without steroid injections.
