Knee Pain Treatment in Greenville, SC
Knee pain treatment in Greenville, SC using acupuncture and integrative medicine. Dr. Hendry helps with arthritis, meniscus injuries, and chronic knee pain. Call (864) 365-6156.
"Having Cancer and the side effects of the Medicine has made it difficult with the Joint Pain. However by receiving the treatments it has made my outlook and pain tolerable with the help of Dr. Hendry. Highly recommend this practice."
— Margie Halley · April 2015 · Google Review
What Is Knee Pain?
The knee bears four times your body weight with every step. On stairs, that multiplies to seven or eight times. It's designed for that load, under normal conditions, over a healthy lifespan. When pain develops, it's usually not because the joint is simply 'worn out' — it's because something in the system that supports it has failed. That might be weak gluteal muscles allowing the knee to collapse inward with every stride, creating abnormal joint loading. It might be systemic inflammation accelerating cartilage breakdown faster than the joint can repair. It might be a gradually damaged meniscus. The presenting symptom matters less than understanding what's driving it — because the same knee pain presentation requires different treatment depending on its actual cause.
Common Symptoms
Root Causes: A Functional Medicine Perspective
Knee pain arises from a spectrum of causes: ligament or meniscus injury, cartilage degeneration (osteoarthritis), patellar tracking problems, bursitis, or tendinitis. Underlying all of these is the question of why the joint's natural repair mechanisms are not keeping pace with the damage — and this is where functional medicine adds tremendous value.
Chronic systemic inflammation (driven by diet, gut dysbiosis, or autoimmune activity) accelerates cartilage breakdown and suppresses joint healing. Excess body weight increases joint load dramatically — every pound of body weight translates to roughly four pounds of force on the knee during walking. Hormonal imbalances, particularly declining estrogen in women, reduce cartilage integrity and joint lubrication. Weak hip abductors and gluteal muscles allow the knee to collapse inward (valgus), placing abnormal stress on the medial compartment and the patellofemoral joint. Dr. Hendry's assessment identifies which of these factors is driving your knee pain.
How We Treat Knee Pain at IHP
Acupuncture for knee pain has strong clinical evidence, with multiple randomized trials showing significant improvement in osteoarthritic knee pain compared to sham and usual care. Needle placement around the knee joint reduces synovial inflammation, promotes the production of hyaluronic acid (the joint's natural lubricant), and modulates the central pain signals that cause the knee to feel painful even at rest.
For meniscus or ligament injuries, acupuncture combined with cupping enhances local circulation and tissue healing. Trigger point dry needling into the quadriceps, iliotibial band, and hamstrings relieves the muscle-generated pain and joint compression that perpetuates knee dysfunction. Where systemic inflammation is identified, Dr. Hendry's functional medicine protocols — dietary changes, targeted supplementation, and gut healing — work in tandem to slow joint degeneration and support lasting recovery.
Dr. Hendry's Approach
I assess the full kinetic chain — hip, ankle, and foot — not just the knee, because the knee rarely fails in isolation. Weak hip abductors, overpronating feet, and tight hip flexors all create conditions for knee dysfunction. My treatment integrates acupuncture for symptom relief with movement guidance and functional medicine evaluation for the systemic inflammatory drivers. Getting the knee better for three months and then having it return because we didn't address what was loading it is not a good outcome.