2. Every time I walk up or down stairs my knees make a terrible creaking noise… it doesn’t hurt but I don’t know why its happening. Would any treatment help?

A lot of us know about this type of noise in our knee joints. The medical name for this noise is ‘crepitus’. Any creaks or grinds in a joint means the joint is not functioning as efficiently as it could. These noises do not necessarily mean you have arthritis in the joint.

Unfortunately medical terminology cannot offer a grease and oil change for the joints in our body, but I’m sure it will happen some day. Whatever one’s age there is no harm done by getting an assessment of your lower limb biomechanics to find out if you have any tight or weak muscles or stiff joints that could be contributing to the problem. Flat feet or ‘dropped arches’ (as I sometimes hear this called) is the most common reason for these knee noises. Wearing more supportive shoes or using an arch support purchased from a pharmacy is usually fine in the short term if you are not a regular exercise person, but orthotics made by a podiatrist specifically for you are a better solution for the long-term correction of flat feet.