g) Hip, Thigh and Knee

Never assume the root cause of a problem is at the place that hurts!

Pain in the hips and knees is a major source of disability, contributing to a diminishing quality of life for a great number of people. When your knees and hips hurt, you quit participating in sports, you stop exercising, you begin hiring others to get the yard work done. You stop going for walks on pleasant evenings. You forsee ending up in a wheelchair or having to use a walker or cane because of your bad knee or bad hip. For many, this is a very real but utterly needless outcome…

Arthritis, ligament injury, and deterioration of joint cartilage are the most usual medical explanation for hip and knee pain. X-rays and other tests often seem to substantiate such diagnoses. But even in the absence of objective evidence, joint pain itself is assumed to be proof that the joint is in trouble. As a consequence, hip and knee replacement surgery is commonplace and heavily promoted (Travell and Simons 1992, 221, 263-264, 300-302).

In reality, pain in hip and knee joints is often nothing more than referred pain from trigger points in the muscles of the thigh; such pain can be every bit as intense an debilatating as pain from a damaged joint. Even when a hip or knee joint has suffered a genuine injury, trigger points in associated muscles nearly always contribute a major part of the pain. Treatment of joint trauma should always include treatment of trigger points in all nearby muscles. Look for trigger points first when you have pain in a hip or knee. You can take care of trigger points yourself.

Source : Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, p.188.