Osgood-Schlatter disease
Osgood-Schlatter disease is a condition that regularly causes knee pain for children and young teenagers. As a result of developing Osgood-Schlatter disease, various symptoms could develop such as constant knee pain, swelling of the knee area, and tenderness in certain areas near the knee.
The disease is most common with physically active boys and usually occurs when the child is going through a growth spurt. Most commonly the disease has been known to affect pre-teen and teenage boys and it has also been noted that either one or both of your knees can be affected by the disease.
What Causes The Osgood-Schlatter Disease
The main cause of Osgood-Schlatter disease is pulling your quadriceps muscles. These are huge muscles found at the front of your thighs and connect to your knee eventually. If your quadricepss muscles begin contracting unwillingly it can cause severe pain to occur.
Over time the Osgood-Schlatter disease will cause more noticeable pain to occur while you are exercising whether at a low or high intensity. You may start to notice major pain in your knee while running, jumping, or doing anything that requires constant movement – especially if it is using your explosion muscles which are required for high jumping.
Osgood-Schlatter disease is mostly common within younger athletes that play sports such as soccer, basketball, football, and gymnastics. Part of being a young athlete is to tough out the pain but if you do develop a serious condition of the Osgood-Schlatter disease you will need to find a good treatment option.
Treating Osgood-Schlatter Disease
Usually Osgood-Schlatter disease will not go past the developmental stage but sometimes it can develop to be a much more serious condition. Ideally the condition will go away itself though once your growth spurt is complete and the pain and swelling should be completely gone by then.
However, you will want to visit your doctor if you think you have the Osgood-Schlatter disease. Your doctor will likely get a knee x-ray for you to determine if it is indeed Osgood-Schlatter disease and not a different condition that is causing the knee pains.
As a natural way to treat the Osgood-Schlatter disease your doctor will likely tell you to lower the amount of exercise you do each day until the pain completely goes away. This will likely take two to four months. If you continue to stress on the affected muscles it could cause the condition to get much worse and the pain will definitely become difficult to deal with.
Your doctor will also likely recommend you to stay away from any physical activity that requires you to bend your knees extensively as you do not want to overstretch any muscles or joints. As well, since running can cause damage to your knees you may also need to temporarily decrease your running speed or period of time spent running. The same goes for jumping as it definitely puts a major strain on your muscles so try to minimize how often you jump.
When treating the Osgood-Schlatter disease at home the best thing you can do is use an ice pack on the affected areas. By using ice you will minimize any swelling and pain as a result of the disease developing. You will want to use ice on the area two or three times each day but the ice should not stay on for more than twenty minutes each time. Also make sure you wrap your knee with an elastic bandage and elevate it when resting.
It will take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for the Osgood-Schlatter disease to start to heal properly. Usually the pain will be completely gone within a few months but that is not always the case. If you feel like the pains are too severe then it could definitely be a sign of a much worse condition than Osgood-Schlatter disease. Either way make sure you talk to your doctor and describe the problems you are facing so it can get treated accordingly.
You will also want to get educated on various ways to prevent the condition from occurring again, and usually adding certain stretches or exercises to your fitness routine will do the job. Just make sure you do not ignore the condition and over stress your muscles as it will just make it much worse and much more painful.
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