Knee pain is one of the most common pain complaints that people in the United States have. It becomes more common as you age and can become so debilitating that you can't do the things you used to enjoy, like walking through the park or going for a jog. If this sounds like you, you should know that you don't have to put up with this kind of pain needlessly. Help now exists for this condition. Here's what you should know about your knee pain and what your doctor can do to help you.

What Causes Knee Pain

There are plenty of different causes of knee pain in one's youth, but in the older years, it usually boils down to one thing: thinning cushioning between the bones.

Everyone is born with a certain amount of cartilage and cushioning in the knees. This prevents the bones from rubbing against each other when you stand, walk, run, and even sit. But as you get older, cartilage in the body starts to break down and becomes thinner and weaker. If given enough time, and particularly if you had certain health problems earlier in life like rheumatoid arthritis or obesity, this cushioning can break down entirely leaving bone to rub on bone.

As you might suspect, this is an extremely painful condition and can make moving difficult, even though moving is a necessity in order to keep your body healthy. In the past, the only thing you could really do about this problem was to get a pair of full knee replacements. However, these come with significant drawbacks, starting with the fact that it leaves you laid up for weeks after the surgery. And of course, with any surgery comes the risk of infection and complications, so it's not something that works for everyone.

So without knee surgery, what else can you do? You can look to newer science and technology and talk to your doctor about stem cell therapy.

How Stem Cell Therapy Can Help

Stem cell therapy is remarkable. It's been proven to help regrow parts of the body that have been lost, like the cushioning in your knees. This is because stem cells are a part of the body that are designed to become any cell that's needed. They essentially replace old dying cells, but the body's way of utilizing them isn't the most efficient. That's where doctors come in.

By extracting stem cells from your body, those cells can be retooled and introduced into your knees. Once there, they'll start to produce new collagen and cartilage. The therapy will take some time to reach its full efficacy, but when successful, your knees will feel years younger and will experience dramatically less pain and stiffness.

To learn more about knee pain stem cell treatment, contact a health professional in your area.