Do you have hip pain?
Have you been told that it’s just “wear and tear” and there’s nothing you can do about it? WRONG!
There are a lot of reasons why people have hip pain. If you’re like most people, you probably don’t think about your hip joint until it starts to hurt. And by then, it may be too late! Fortunately, there are things you can do to keep your hips healthy and pain-free.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at what causes hip pain and some of the best ways to prevent it. So don’t neglect your hips – read on for helpful advice!
Where Exactly IS The Pain?
Many people find hips confusing when they experience pain. When I asked them to point out exactly where the pain is, they could point to six different locations. Locations of the pain can include the outer part of your hip (Trochanteric bursitis), the area near your groin (osteoarthritis), and all the way to your back, near your spine (sacroiliac joint).
Any of those areas could be problematic causing a domino effect that affects all of those other regions. Pain in your lower back can make things confusing. This is because it might be caused by a problem with your sacroiliac joint or back pain. When you have low back pain, it is often accompanied by lumbar pain.
The Source of Pain
The pain mapping process is figuring out which event happened first and caused the others to happen. With this whole process with hips, what do you think is the most common problem people have with hip pain when they come into my office?
The most common thing I see when people point out where their problem might come from is a diagnosis of trochanteric bursitis. It’s often termed bursae or bursitis, but typically the source of pain comes from something else.
What is a bursa to begin with? A bursa is a fluid-filled SAC that allows lubrication in between two areas that are moving back and forth. There’s less shear on it.
If the bursa is inflamed, it’s not because the bursa is the problem. It’s because something else has lost its stability and created more friction in an area.
The Tendon is the Precursor
The bursa is just a symptom of another problem. The most common reason is actually a tendon issue. How many times have I scanned a hip and diagnosed it as trochanter bursitis, but there’s a perfectly normal bursa? It’s almost all the time. This is very common.
Most of the time when I scan the hip, what I see is an irritated tendon, and the absence of an inflamed bursa, The tendon is typically the PRECURSOR to the bursa being irritated.
The Collagen Factor
Why is it relevant to know this? It is because as we age, something is happening to all of us. The collagen in our body starts to degrade. We have collagen in our body which is found in the bones, muscles, skin, and tendons.
Why we develop wrinkles is because our skin loses collagen and the same thing is happening on the inside of our joints. We use the term facial wrinkles on the outside. But I use the term “joint wrinkles” on the inside.
The Tendon Status
When the tendon loses its stability, it also starts to lose its elasticity. If you do movements and your body is not warmed up or prepared for such movement, then It can create small cracks in the tendon.
The tendon becomes weaker over time and eventually gets damaged. This can cause other things around it to get irritated and create friction, which is what leads to a typical bursitis diagnosis.
Bursitis Diagnosis
When people have a bursitis diagnosis, they often have a tear in their tendons. What symptoms do they usually have?
Typically, people experience pain in the hip area. The pain is a sharp stabbing sensation on the outside of the hip. If the pain continues for a long time, it will distort how your hip moves.
Movements in this area will put pressure on other parts of your hip. The hip joint is a ball and socket joint. This means that the ball at the top of your thigh bone fits into a socket in your pelvis. The joint is held in place by ligaments and joint capsules, but it is also mobilized and held in place by muscles and tendons.
If you have a muscle or tendon that is breaking down, it will cause stress on the rest of the joint. This can lead to increased friction, which in turn causes erosion and bone-on-bone arthritis. If we look back several years, we can see how this progression began and led to hip pain.
An Ounce of Prevention…
If a tendon, ligament, or other stabilizing structure goes unchecked for too long, it can cause a problem called arthritis.
People usually come in for hip pain if they have had the problem for a long time. If they only had the condition a short time ago, it would be easier to take care of it.
The adage of an OUNCE OF PREVENTION is worth a pound of cure is truly applicable. I encourage everyone who has had this minor issue or problem to get it checked out sooner rather than later. That might be the first step on a long path to a joint that is eroded and degenerative.
When people come in and they have the pain, we diagnose it. And the most common finding is the tear of the Gluteus Medius tendon or the Gluteus Minimus in the hip area, where it has band tissues like Tensor Fascia Latae. These are all terms for structures that stabilize the outer part of the hip.
HEAL Methodology
What do we do about it?
The first step is in our HEAL methodology. It starts with hearing the messages. Your body conveys pain by mapping it out and figuring out where the origin of the pain is coming from.
Once we figure out and identify the muscle, tendon, ligament, or whatever structure that has lost its form. Possible solutions will be a matter of:
- Do exercises that can help strengthen those structures,
- Use types of injections that ensure recovery by stimulating a repair response, or
- Do very aggressive repair response injections such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP), bone marrow, aspirin, or prolotherapy. These are different types of injections that are much better.
An enhanced approach towards stimulating a repair response from your body is essentially using your body to mold or craft greater stability to where it needs it the most.
These approaches are a big thing as keys for people no matter what’s going on to them. The exercises to help build up. Exercises are a big component of either early-stage or even if the patients have orthobiologics. They need to teach their body to be strong and resilient, especially after we’ve done some alleviation of their symptoms. Alleviation is a part of our acronym H E A L.
HEAL means:
- H – hearing the message that the body is trying to convey with pain
- E – envisioning what your goals or objectives are
- A – alleviating the symptoms or lessening the pain
- L – leveraging repair processes to get your body healthy, strong, and fit back to the baseline.
Better Than Traditional Approach
When I started my training, somebody came to me with trochanteric bursitis. The intention was to calm the pain down. I know it’s going to be a revolving door. But, it took me a long time to figure out how to solve it.
There are BETTER WAYS of doing things than the TRADITIONAL approach. We don’t have to just tell people that they are going to have to live with the disease. The best we can do is actually just tamp it down periodically.
We have tools to solve issues WITHOUT surgery and WITHOUT invasive procedures for you to have recovery and rehabilitation. We’re able to do it within a few days of recovery and a few weeks of rehabilitation.
Avoid Corticosteroid
If you are stuck in a cycle with wherever you are, and you’re just getting a high-dose corticosteroid into your hip over and over again, then you’re at certain risks and side effects.
Using corticosteroids is going down a pathway of destructive changes. It definitely accelerates the damage. The process is a short-term gain for a long-term loss, and it is NOT GOOD mentally.
Hip pain is a common issue, but that doesn’t mean you have to just live with it. There are things you can do to prevent hip pain and keep your hips healthy.
If you’re experiencing hip pain, don’t wait – contact us today so we can help you get on your road to recovery. We’ll work with you to develop a treatment plan that fits your needs and helps you get back to doing the things you love. Don’t let hip pain hold you back – contact us today!
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