Knee Injury? Information that may help.
I have had quite a few email sent to me and thought you would find this helpful.
You may want to print this out and save it for future reference. Or, you may always return here and search for it in the article list.
Runners are faced with several types of knee injuries, but my focus is on one particular type. The Iliotibial Band Syndrome. As I am recovering from this injury, I thought I'd share what I have learned so far.
Keep in mind that I have another article about this condition. It is called "The Knee & ITB" and may be found in the article list. It contains helpful information. Between this article and that one, you will have a very good understanding of ITB.
The following are conversations about ITB. None of them are by doctors. Read them and consider them for what they are. Simply other runners that have now, or did have ITB and have shared their own experience. I found them very interesting and helpful. I hope you will too.
ITB Iliotibial Band Syndrome
Runners write:
For those of you who are fortunate enough to have never suffered this ailment, involves pain on the outside of the knee where the ITB runs through a small slot. The ITB is a long, fibrous band of fascia that runs from above the hip to a point low the knee; the pain is focused usually in that slot and can be extremely difficult to get rid of. In fact, many athletes have given up running altogether out of the frustration of trying to copy with the syndrome.
This is a subject near and dear to my heart, as I once suffered for more than a year with a case of ITBS that effectively ended my college track and cross country career. The second time I had it (12 years later), I immediately went to a new doctor (a chiropractor in Beaverton, Oregon, who specializes in runners) and found recovery within six weeks. Keys to that seemingly miraculous (especially to me) recovery were: Rest, allowing no more running than the knee would stand. (This was initially about a half-mile at a time.) Ice, about 10 minutes a pop at the point of pain three times a day, sometimes simultaneously using heat on the ITB between the hip and the knee. Stretching. Note that this an exception to the "rule" I recently espoused about not stretching an injury. Since ITB is not like typical running injuries -- it is caused by friction rather than strains,
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