Athletes Suffering From Knee Injuries Are Opting For Cold Laser Therapy Over Knee Surgery

By Author: Kelley Wright
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A knee injury can be a painful and debilitating setback for anyone, however for athletes experiencing knee problems it can be a deal breaker that threatens to take them out the game. This is why many professional athletes are opting to treat their knee injuries with cold laser therapy rather than go through traditional knee surgery.

Unfortunately, the athletes who rely on their knees the most are also the ones who are prone to knee injuries. Knee damage is extremely common in many sports, especially long distance running, competitive cycling, basketball, tennis, volleyball, skiing and weight lifting. Most athletes' training requires them to exert tremendous amounts of pressure and repetitive stress on the knee and with all the continuous pounding, pivoting, twisting and torque applied to this joint and surrounding tendons it substantially increases the risk of knee injuries.

Tendonitis, Arthritis, Meniscus Tears Are Common Knee Injuries for Athletes

The high demand athletes place on their knees means plenty of strains or sprains and can lead to stretched muscles, torn ligaments or cartilage ...
... resulting in tendonitis, arthritis or meniscus tears.

Tendonitis is inflammation of the tendons in the knee joint and typically makes movement of the knee joint impossible. In athletes, inflammation of the patellar tendon leads to swelling of the knee and restricted or loss of movement.

Arthritis is inflammation of the joints, and arthritis of the knee joint can eventually lead to severe pain. The disease affects both the cartilage and the bone and leads to extremely stiff joints. Today more and more young athletes are diagnosed with arthritis of the knee joint.

A meniscus tear is one of the most common knee injuries in athletes, and can cause locking of the knee joint pain. (There are two menisci that lie between the shin bone and thigh bone that help stabilize and distribute forces equally across the knee joint)

Cold Laser Therapy for Knee Pain - A Safer, Less Invasive Option over Knee Surgery

Unfortunately, these same young athletes who are dedicated to their sport to go the extra mile and continue to compete while injured are the ones putting their future knee health in jeopardy.

This is why today's athletes are turning to cold laser therapy to treat knee injuries rather than undergo knee surgery. They realize arthroscopic knee surgery is invasive and doesn't work most of the time, and often leaves athletes dealing with the effects of less cartilage, and more arthritis in the knee. In addition, knee replacements for young athletes aren't really an option because they typically should only be performed on patients sixty five and older due to the lifespan of the prosthetic.

Another reason athletes make the decision to have cold laser therapy over knee surgery is the fact that there is a long period of downtime after the surgery that would take them away from training for their sport.

Cold laser therapy or low-level laser therapy is an approved method of treatment by the U.S Food and Drug Administration, and it is primarily used to relieve pain and the debilitating inflammation resulting from tendonitis, arthritis or a torn meniscus. It also helps speed up the healing process so that athletes can get back to their sport quicker.

Cold laser therapy is the number one choice among athletes to rehabilitate knee injuries because this noninvasive treatment provides them with safe, livable solutions for pain relief and allows them to get back to doing what they love without any downtime.

Dr. Alexandra K. Schnee, B.S,D.C. is an authority in the field of cold laser therapy for knee pain and knee injuries. She has been practicing at the DFW Spine & Joint Center in Irving, TX since 2001. To find out more information about how cold laser therapy can help injuries in the neck, back, and shoulder please visit site links above.