Home remedies · Back, muscles & joints
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
In the first days cool for 15 minutes several times, with a cloth in between. Elevate if it is swollen. And still walk short distances regularly.
Cold dampens swelling and pain. Movement maintains the cartilage, which gets its nutrients only from movement — weeks of rest harm it.
Does not replace assessment after an injury and says nothing about the cause. Cracking without pain is harmless in itself.
Do not carry on if the knee will not bear weight after an injury, gives way, is deformed, or is hot and red — that needs looking at.
Have it assessed rather than treated at home: back pain with numbness in the saddle area, disturbed bladder or bowel function, weakness or fever. A joint that cannot bear weight after an injury, or is deformed. A one-sided swollen, warm leg.