Knees that hurt on stairs, swell by evening, and have started deciding where you will and will not go.
What it looks like: Pain going down stairs more than up; Stiffness for the first few minutes after sitting; Swelling or warmth around the joint by evening; A creaking or grating sound on bending; Difficulty squatting or sitting cross-legged.
Ayurveda calls degenerative knee disease Sandhigata Vata — Vata settled in the joint, drying the synovial cushioning that keeps the surfaces apart. The classical reading matches what imaging shows: loss of joint space and lubrication. Treatment is therefore about restoring unctuousness locally, not about painkilling.
Jaanu Vasti holds warm medicated oil over the knee inside a dough ring for about thirty minutes per knee. Podi Kizhi or Upanaha Lepam is used where there is swelling, since a dry, warm application suits an inflamed joint better than more oil. Internal medicines and a weight and diet plan run alongside, because every kilogram carried is load the joint has to take.
Typical course: 14 sessions is typical, with an internal course continuing after.
When to see a doctor first, not us: A hot, red, very painful joint with fever, an inability to bear weight after an injury, or a knee that locks and will not straighten — that needs an orthopaedic assessment first.
Assessed at Sri Vinayaga Ayurvibe, a doctor-led Ayurveda hospital at Nookampalayam, Perumbakkam, Chennai 600131 — reachable from Sholinganallur, Medavakkam, OMR, Velachery, Pallikaranai and Tambaram. Open every day, 10 AM to 8 PM.
This page is for you if your knees have started to limit your day: stairs taken one at a time, stiff first steps after sitting, and a knee that swells by evening or complains on the walk back from the temple or the market. It is written mainly for osteoarthritis, the wear-related knee pain that becomes common from middle age, and for people told their X-ray shows reduced joint space.
The knee is one of the marma points of the body in Ayurveda, a junction where muscle, ligament, bone and joint meet, and the texts treat strain there with more caution than at a fleshy site. Degenerative knee pain is described within Sandhigata Vata, but the doctor also looks at what is driving it. Age and dryness are one route; carrying more weight than the joint was built for is another, and then Kapha and Meda, the fat tissue, are part of the picture too.
That distinction shapes treatment. A thin, older knee that creaks and aches in the cold needs nourishment and oil. A heavier knee that is puffy and stiff calls for drier, lighter measures first, because adding oil to a congested joint can make it feel heavier still. Many knees show something of both, and the balance shifts during a course.
The consultation covers pulse, tongue, constitution and history, then the knees themselves: swelling, warmth, how far each bends and straightens, how you stand and walk, and whether one leg is taking more weight than the other. Dr.V.Vaitheeshwari B.A.M.S., also asks about weight, blood sugar, thyroid and earlier injuries, because each changes what the joint can take. The first visit runs 40 to 60 minutes.
Jaanu Vasti is the therapy a knee course usually centres on, with warm medicated oil such as Dhanwantharam Thailam held over each knee. Podi Kizhi, warm boluses of herbal powder, is chosen when the knee is swollen or heavy, and Elakizhi, with leaf boluses fried in oil, when the muscles around it are tight and the joint is stiff rather than puffy. Upanaha / Lepam, a warm herbal paste bandaged over the knee and left on for some hours, keeps warmth on the joint after you leave.
Internal medicines are prescribed after the consultation; a classical formulation such as Yogaraja Guggulu may be part of the plan where stiffness and swelling dominate. Weight, diet and a short set of thigh-strengthening exercises begin in the first week. Two people with the same X-ray grade can be treated differently: one may start with dry, warm therapy to settle swelling, the other with oil from the first day.
Fourteen sessions is the usual plan for knee pain, on consecutive or near-consecutive days. When both knees are treated the visit is longer, so many people choose a fixed daily time and keep to it. During the course the doctor asks about stairs, getting up from a chair and how far you can walk, and checks swelling and range again. An internal course usually continues for some weeks after the last session, together with the exercises and diet you have started.
We never ask you to stop medication prescribed by another doctor, and knee patients are often on several: painkillers, gels, calcium or vitamin D, and medicines for blood pressure, sugar or thyroid. Keep taking them. Regular anti-inflammatory tablets matter to the plan because of their effect on the stomach and kidneys, so the doctor will want to know how often you use them.
If you have had a steroid or gel injection into the knee, tell us when; heat and oil over the joint are usually held back for a few days afterwards. Physiotherapy sits well alongside a course. If an orthopaedic surgeon has advised a replacement, a course may help with pain while you decide, but it should not stand in for that conversation.
Knees are sensitive to load, to cold and to long periods without movement. Your own list depends on your weight, pattern and work; these points appear in most plans.
Sri Vinayaga Ayurvibe — 12/597, Main Road, Nethaji Nagar Main Rd, Nookampalayam, Perumbakkam, Chennai 600131. Phone: +91 81229 39197.