Hey, in this video, I'm going to answer the question should you get your knee drained to
help with the knee pain. Now, if you're thinking about getting your knee drain, you probably are
dealing with knee swelling, also called water on the knee. And that swelling is just getting out
of control your knee looks like a balloon, it looks much bigger than your other knee,
you've probably lost motion in your knee, you can bend it very well. And it's uncomfortable
to put pressure on to this type of knee swelling feels like there's fluid in there. Like if you
push on your skin around your knee, here's a knee joint right here. And if you just imagine all the
skin around there and you push around the edges of your knee joints, it feels squishy, it feels like
there's water in there. It's not a hard, stiff swelling, it might feel hot and warm as well.
Those are common side effects of swelling, you may even have a bulge on the back that is often
called the baker cyst that's part of this swelling very often to all these types of swelling may be
associated with different problems like knee arthritis, a meniscus tear, a ligament injury,
like an ACL tear may be an MCL or a PCL tear to where you could just have damage to the cartilage.
Or you may have none of that you may have gone to the doctor, you may have had an MRI and they told
you everything looks fine, you don't look like you have anything torn. There's no arthritis.
That might be the case too. But you've got this strange, Big knee swelling or that you've got
this swelling that's just ruining your life right now. Should you get it drained? Well, I'll answer
that question in just a moment. Let's just first talk about how the swelling happens. Like what's
causing it? Why is there so much fluid inside the knee joints? And why is it that a doctor can
just take a syringe or a needle in there and pull out all the fluid and then the swelling is gone,
or it's a lot better at least. And then it comes back for many people too. We'll talk about that
in just a second. And what you didn't understand is inside your knee joints, the joint capsule,
there's a bunch of ligaments that cover up the knee joints. And the lining of the joint
capsule is filled with cells that produce joint fluid. This joint fluid is called synovial fluid,
there's always a certain amount of fluid in there that serves to protect and nourish the tissues
inside the joint capsule, like the meniscus, which is chunks of cartilage on either side of the knee,
the lining of the cartilage on the end of the thigh bone on the back of the kneecap is also
ligaments. There's other structures in there that all get nutrition from that fluid. That fluid also
serves as a bit of a cushion to the joint because this knee joint, of course needs to support your
weight every time you go take steps and put weight through the joint. Now that nutrition part is
really important because some of these structures in there especially like the meniscus and the
cartilage don't have the best blood supply, but they do get nutrition from the fluid itself.
If you start to get too much pressure through the knee joint, you start to get irritated in
that knee joint. Usually because of a muscle imbalance. It's something I talk a lot about
here on this channel. You can learn more about that on our channel. By the way, there are many
playlists we've made here on our channel, they're in the description below those links. If you're
suffering from a knee arthritis problem, meniscus problem, cartilage problem, many other issues,
you can find a playlist full of many videos with tips, exercises, advice stretches on how to begin
to fix those problems down in the description below. And by the way, if you go check out those
videos, and you feel this has been really helpful for you and you want to show your gratitude,
we would love it if you gave us a super thanks, which helps to keep this channel going so that
we can keep bringing you great content to help you keep healthy active and mobile. Now back
to that pressure in the knee joints. If you have too much pressure going through that knee joint,
and the knee detects it, something's becoming injured. These cells that make the fluid can
begin to generate extra fluid in an effort to protect the knee joint to protect the cartilage
and meniscus all the structures inside of the knee joint. So you start to get this fluid to
balloon the joint and put some space between all the structures so that there isn't some
long term or more severe damage. So that fluid development is a defense mechanism to protect
your other nice structures. Now, of course, a side effect of all that extra fluid is it's painful,
it hurts to just have everything stretched out in the area, it pushes on the nerves in the
area pushes on the tendons the muscles can get affected, then also your motion is limited. You
can't bend your knee and straighten your knee all the way because the fluid there is obstructing the
motion. It also changes the way the joint moves on itself, the mechanics of the joint, so you just
can't move normally. The underlying root problem though, is not the swelling itself. That's a
side effect. The underlying problem is that muscle imbalance, there's too much pressure going through
the knee joints, and it's causing those cells to overproduce fluid to protect the knee joints. Now
that you understand that let's answer the question should I get my knee fluid drained? The answer
to that is it depends in the short term. It may help with pain may actually give you quite a bit
of relief more than medications, it will probably allow you to bend and straighten your knee better,
you may even feel like you can walk and do more be more active. But in the long term,
it's not solving the underlying root problem. And there's a high likelihood that if you don't
address that root problem, you're going to get that swelling returns going to come back. And
the root problem is going to progress, it's going to eventually lead to arthritis. If you
haven't developed that already, or some other problem, like I've mentioned, a meniscus tear,
another cartilage injury, a ligament problem, what I would recommend, if I were to see you
here in the clinic, as a patient, and your knee was all exploded, if you're going to start some
sort of treatment, that's going to address the root problem, please go get that fluid drained,
make sure that you get some relief, so that you can begin to do the right exercises. If you're not
in a position to start doing exercises, to start doing treatment for this to fix the root problem,
you can definitely still get the fluid drained. But what I would caution you against is getting
it drained repeatedly over and over and over again and continuing life as usual. After that, because
you're going to exacerbate the root problem, you're going to allow your muscles to remain in an
imbalance which is going to damage the structures of your knee, that swelling is happening there
to protect you, as painful as it might be is debilitating as it could be for your life right
now. It's protecting you it's a sign, it's your body telling you stop, get off your feet,
you're putting too much pressure on me, you need to change something massively,
because I'm not letting you walk in this knee. Now there's another situation where
you might get knee swelling. What if you had surgery relatively recently, maybe you just
had surgery. And so you know it's going to be swollen, but maybe it's been six months,
nine months, 12 months since you've had surgery, and you're still getting swelling, and it's this
type of swelling that I'm talking about that that fluidly squishy swelling around the knee,
while you might have that imbalance that's still acting on your knee and it's not letting things
heal. I see this especially in patients that have had a meniscus repair meniscectomy we also see it
in people that have had an ACL repair, they've had a surgery after having a torn ACL, they just
can't get the the forces off their knee joints, the improper forces the excessive force off
their knee joints. And so the the joint remains irritated in those cells in there keep building
up the fluid which keeps creating a swollen knee. In this case, of course, you've got to address the
muscle imbalance. But you may have to just take it easy, especially for a cartilage problem,
like a meniscus tear or a cartilage problem on the end of the thigh bone or back of the kneecap.
Healing needs to occur. And you might need to just go slow. Even if you get the fluid drain,
that doesn't mean go back 100% into the sports you're active in or going to the
gym or just walking around the block or doing chores around the house. Even if your doctor
told you because this is the number one thing I ran into with people after a meniscus surgery,
or after any surgery in the knee really, they're doing way more than they should. And they're
usually following doctor's instructions their their surgeon told them, oh at three months,
you can get back to go into the gym at six months, you can probably even do some some light jogging
at 12 months for a meniscus repair, you might even be able to get back to jumping, you know
doing CrossFit heavy stuff. But you might not you might not follow the normal progression that that
the doctor expects to you might take longer, but don't force your body through it. Because you're
going to swell, your body's not ready for it and it's telling you are swollen that you need to back
off. Now let's say you get that fluid drained, and it comes back maybe this isn't the first time
you've been dealing with water on the knee or a bunch of knee swelling. That's another clear sign
that the root problem the muscle imbalance, it's set up all that extra pressure inside your knee
has to be addressed. If you don't have any chronic knee problems yet, like knee arthritis or meniscus
tears, then you're lucky and you need to listen to these signs. Now because you're on the pathway to
developing the arthritis problems or a meniscus problem, you need to take the pressure off your
knee joint so that you're not repeatedly swelling and over and over again. And just going back to
the doctor to get a drain. Many doctors won't drain it more than a couple of times because they
know something else is going on that isn't being addressed. It's your muscle imbalance that needs
to be addressed. And not every doctor is aware of that not many doctors are aware of that at all.
And they won't know to tell you to go address that. Then we've got a program called the 28
day knee health and wellness boosts program that's designed at addressing this root muscle imbalance
that I'm talking about. You can find a link about it in the description below. Go ahead and go check
that out and learn all about it. I'm not going to tell you more about it here on this video. I hope
this video was helpful for you please drop any comments or questions that you'd like you're below
and we'll get back to them as fast as possible. And I'll see you in the next video. Bye bye