Your knee aches and puffs up by the end of the day, and the question on your mind is whether red light will help. The ache is pain in the joint, and the puffiness is extra fluid that has collected in the tissues around it. A knee with that swelling is also stiff and harder to move. Osteoarthritis is the wear-related arthritis in which the cartilage cushioning the joint thins. In a knee with osteoarthritis, near-infrared laser light at the right dose over a course of sessions reduces the pain. At Cambiati Wellness Programs in Lafayette, our nutritionists work with Walnut Creek clients on the weight a sore knee carries, starting with food.

Those laser results cover pain and the everyday use of the knee, and swelling is not among them. In osteoarthritis, the swelling comes from inflammation in the joint, and inflammation of the joint lining is linked with the ache as well. Extra body weight is a risk factor for knee swelling starting and getting worse. Keeping a healthy weight lowers the stress on the joint, and it is part of managing a swollen knee at home. A fever with a swollen joint can mean an infection in the joint. If your knee is swollen and you have a fever, or you cannot move the knee, get emergency care before anything else.

Does The Light Do Anything For My Knee?

Red light therapy, also called photobiomodulation, shines low-power red or near-infrared light on the skin. The light is absorbed inside your cells by the mitochondria, the small parts that produce each cell's energy. For a knee with osteoarthritis, the dose of near-infrared laser light is set by its wavelength. At that dose, the laser light also reduces disability, which here means the everyday trouble of climbing stairs and getting out of a chair.

Is My Home Device The Same As The Laser?

Your red light wrap or panel at home is a different light source from a near-infrared laser. So the device and its dose set how much light reaches your knee. An LED device cleared by the FDA for over-the-counter use is cleared to warm the tissue for the temporary relief of minor joint pain and stiffness. Whichever light you use, every step you take still sends your body weight down through the knee.

Why Does My Weight Matter To A Swollen Knee?

For people with knee osteoarthritis who carry extra weight, losing some of that weight eases knee pain. Body fat adds a second effect, separate from the load. Fat, especially the fat that collects around the middle, makes chemicals that cause low-grade inflammation. That is a mild, ongoing inflammation spread through the whole body, and it is linked with knee osteoarthritis getting worse. So body fat reaches an osteoarthritic knee in two ways, through the weight the joint carries and through that inflammation.

How Do I Lose Fat When Walking Hurts?

Losing weight when a walk makes your knee hurt sounds like a hard place to start, so our plans begin with food. A bathroom scale shows all of your weight as one number. When weight comes off, some lean tissue comes off along with the fat. Our body composition analysis splits your weight into fat and lean tissue such as muscle. With the two measured apart, our nutritionists aim your plan at the fat and track your lean number beside it. That lean number matters for your knee. Strong thigh muscles steady the joint and absorb load, and weak thigh muscles are linked with knee osteoarthritis.

The meals come from whole anti-inflammatory foods, chosen as a lasting way of eating. We offer a recipe guide and a cooking video series, so the meals are ones you cook in your own kitchen. An evening when your knee is puffy and sore is still an evening on the plan.

We Build Your Plan Around Your Knee

Call Cambiati Wellness Programs in Lafayette at (925) 280-4442 to schedule your Breakthrough Session, a no-cost first conversation with a nutritionist. In it, the nutritionist hears how the knee feels by evening and which things you have already tried. From there, we customize a food-first plan around your knee. Through ClubCambiati, our nutritionists keep working with you on that plan well past the first weeks.