The knee is a critical structure in the human body. I’ve had more than one patient contemplating suicide because of knee pain and dysfunction. It wasn’t just the pain that drove them into depression– it was the lack of mobility. The mobility of a patient can be intimately tied to knee function. This is not fully appreciated by people until a knee is injured. I feel lower extremity function is critical to managing the injured pelvis and low back. For any patient whose primary complaint is low back pain and has pelvic girdle injury I feel the need to examine the lower leg from the knee down to the foot and ankle. Any of these components that have subluxations and dysfunctional motion patterns can interfere with stabilizing the pelvis. This approach to evaluation and adjusting is not typical. It will require some new thinking to fully appreciate it.

With over 30 years in practice, I have yet to find a case of an arthritic knee that had the Tibia aligned with the Femur. In my opinion, knee arthritis is the result of a subluxated Tibia. I’ve had discussions with chiropractors about managing their own knee injuries and many resist care because they have a partially torn ACL or meniscus. They think that these injuries doom them to dysfunction. This is not the case. Even with terrible degenerative changes and complete loss of joint space, realigning the Tibia to the femur can improve function and reduce pain.

There is still Hope for Treating older injuries

I once treated a knee injury that had occurred 57 years earlier. He had medical care at the time of the injury and had access to orthopedic care for the entire time. Not one provider ever realigned the Tibia to the Femur. He walked with an obvious limp, using a cane, and had no joint space between the two bones. It was obviously arthritic and inflamed on the first office visit. By the sixth visit to realign his Tibia, he came in without his cane. He had forgot it in a gas station and was really upset, with me. His mobility had increased so much that he didn’t need the cane anymore. He was upset with me because I caused him to leave his cane. I only saw him on a few more occasions, but his wife would later tell me that his life had improved since the loss of the cane. At election time he was out canvasing the neighborhood instead of working the phone banks. He was more active and had increased his social interactions. She felt this was a very good thing and she thanked me. He was able to stay in his home until age 96 where he slipped away in his sleep. I think about the many orthopedists and care providers he worked with after his knee injury. If just one of them had thought to assess his Tibia early on, how much more active would he have been? How much more would he have experienced in life? I cannot treat every person who has knee pain, but I hope to treat many of them by showing other members of the medical community an effective way to do it.

My book, Advanced Adjusting Techniques: Chiropractic Care for Physically Compromised Patients, shows Chiropractic students how to align the Tibia. I have written another book, Got Knee Pain? Where’s Your Tibia? that details simple techniques for adjusting your own knee. My hope is that these offerings will help to treat and prevent future knee pain for many people.