Medications and Natural Supplements

COX-2 Inhibitors (prescription NSAIDs like Celebrex, Bextra or Vioxx) block the COX-2 enzyme involved with prostaglandin production responsible for inflammation have been linked with risks of heart attack, stroke and in some cases death. The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) asked manufacturers to withdraw some COX-2 Inhibitors (Vioxx and Bextra) from the market as well as put a big black warning label on the packaging outlining the risks involved with use (Celebrex).

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Knee Cysts

Cysts can be treated by removing extra fluid from the knee using a syringe or seeing your physician to investigate injections or topical medications. Steroid injections are occasionally used for rheumatoid arthritis, but rarely for osteoarthritis.

Some health professionals have also recommended natural supplements such as Glucosamine, MSM, Chondritin, Capsaicin, Devil's Claw, or Yucca Leaf to help relieve pain and/or strengthen your tissues. Hyaluronic Acid (Hyalgan) injections have also had a lot of success.

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Natural, Non-Invasive Knee Therapies

As mentioned above, the long term use of pain and anti-inflammatory medications can cause damage to organs in your body. If your knee pain persists, it may be wise to consider conservative treatments in treating your knee OA symptoms.

Treat your knee with natural therapies to help reduce knee pain and/or slow the deterioration of soft tissue (muscles,tendons,ligaments,cartilage) in the knee. Use a Cold Compress or Ice Pack if you are experiencing pain and/or inflammation to quickly reduce swelling and swelling induced pain. Once inflammation has been reduced, we recommend the use of a Knee TShellz Wrap^®.

General Guidelines for Home Conservative Treatment Options

• Rest - This is important for initial recovery during painful episodes and setbacks; rest and elevation will help reduce pain, swelling and inflammation when you experience a flare-up. This can be difficult when you have to carry on with daily activities, but resting and elevating your knee whenever you can is recommended. During your rest, you will likely have to modify or avoid the activities that put stress on your knee until your pain and inflammation settles. However, too much rest can also be harmful, as knee and ankle immobility can actually cause stiffening in the joints. This is why rest should be used when reducing initial pain and swelling, but should not be considered for more long-term conservative treatment.
• Avoid Activities that Caused Your Knee Flare UP - While resting your injury it's also important to avoid all activities that may have caused your knee damage (especially any strenuous or repetitive movement). Continuing on with regular activities can increase the severity of your injury, turning a mild to moderate case of tissue damage into a downward spiral that can often severely impact your life even more. Also, trying to 'work around' your injury will eventually give rise to over-compensation injuries in other areas of your body.
• Use a Cold Compress or Ice Pack - Cold is very effective at reducing pain and inflammation - use at the onset of the injury and during flareups.
• For Knee Instability, use a Knee Support Sleeve - Support + light compression in a breathable sleeve can have a real positive impact on your day to day activity.
• Use Circulation Boost (a TShellz Wrap^®) - Once swelling has been reduced, you can assist your body in its soft tissue recovery process by increasing blood flow to tissue in the knee. Improved blood flow to your knee in most cases, will help improve overall health of soft tissue in the area. Promoting blood flow and heat to the treatment area will help to minimize the growth of scar tissue (less re-injury frequency), increase flexibility and help combat atrophy.
• Rehabilitative Stretching under supervision of a PT or doctor. The intent of this is to provide you with the tools you need to keep or even increase your knee range of motion. Further more, as your knee joint becomes active again, stretching should provide some pain relief as well as strengthen the surrounding tissue of the joint. Eventually, knee osteoarthritis may lead to a knee replacement but with a home conservative treatment routine (and perhaps a change in lifestyle and eating habits), you may be able to delay this for quite some time. This may include up to 4 to 6 months of visits to a PT clinic. Agressive PT approaches may focus on forced or manual manipulation of the leg/knee - this means your physical therapists will be trying to move your knee past the point of comfort as they strive to increase range of motion and prevent further atrophy. (reference: 1)
• Stretching - Stretching your joint in PT and at home will help you to regain your range of motion much faster than not stretching at all. Stretching in many ways is key maintaining good Range of Motion (ROM) in your joint, and stretching can be made much easier with use of a TShellz Wrap^® before to warm up soft tissue, and a Cold Compress or Ice Pack treatment after to prevent any return of swelling and inflammation.

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Conservative Treatment Tools Our Clients Have Used to Help
Limit Damage & Boost The Body's Soft Tissue Repair Process to the Knee at Home:

Conservative treatment tools just like these have been used successfully by thousands of knee injury sufferers - just like you.

TShellz Wrap^® = Enhanced Blood Flow in the Treatment Area

We believe the use of TShellz^® Circulatory Boost Wraps for boosting blood flow to soft tissue in the area of application is one of the most under-utilized home treatment options available on the market today. We have client after client that have tried many options out there and have been amazed at how effective and fast the TShellz Wrap treatment helped relieve their pain while increasing blood flow in the knee.

With regular use of the Knee TShellz^® Circulatory Boost Wrap:

• Your pain will be reduced*.
• Due to increased blood flow, soft tissue in the treatment area on the knee will be expected to recover at an accelerated rate with reduced potential for re-injury*.
• Tissue in the treated area should experience a larger range of motion and increased extensibility of collagen tissue* due to the heat effect on soft tissue. This should translate into a reduced rate of re-injury occurrence as soft tissue is known to lengthen and become more flexible when exposed to warm temperature. (*Chapter 9 of "Therapeutic Heat and Cold", 4th edition. (amazon.com link - Ed. Justus F. Lehmann, M.D., Williams, and Wilkin)

*Know that every personal soft tissue injury is unique and the TShellz Wrap may not work for everyone. This is why we offer a 60-day money back return on all our TShellz Wrap devices.

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Knee Osteoarthritis: Quick Links
Symptoms Causes Diagnosing	Treatment Conservative Treatments Alternative Therapy	Medications Surgery Prevention

Product Advisors are available 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday to Friday.

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Learn More About SUPERIOR Knee Treatments

Learn more about Knee Surgery and Post-Surgery Recovery

Learn more about how the TShellz Wrap^® stimulates blood flow.

Learn more about Ice vs Heat Treatments for Knee Strain

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During your recovery, you will probably have to modify and/or eliminate any activities that cause pain or discomfort at the location of your soft tissue injury until the pain and inflammation settle. The more diligent you are with your treatment and rehabilitation, the faster you will see successful results!

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