Can a Knee Brace Help Ease Your Arthritis Pain?

There are several types of affordable knee braces on the market, but which is best? We’ll help you understand your options.

Knee pain from osteoarthritis is extremely common, affecting 20% of all people over 45. And for millions of men and women, this knee pain can diminish the quality of their lives.

While there is no guaranteed cure for arthritis, the medical community has developed several solutions to address knee pain.

Your doctor can offer several options, including knee surgery, physical therapy, or steroid shots. These can be effective, but are also more or less “last resort” solutions due to the costs, invasiveness, and the time they take.

But there are also at-home, over-the-counter Knee that are both effective and affordable, and these will be focus of this article.

What Is Knee Arthritis?

To see how knee braces can help, it’s beneficial to briefly go over knee arthritis (also known by the more clinical term, osteoarthritis.)

Arthritis is caused by the breakdown of cartilage (which cushions your bones), and typically comes with age. As the cartilage breaks down, the joint becomes stiffer, and motion becomes more painful.

There are typically three areas of the knee that can be affected by arthritis: Underneath the kneecap; Where the thigh bone (femur) and shin bone (tibia) meet on the inside of the leg; and between the thigh and shin bones on the outside of the leg.

For most people, the pain comes and goes, and gradually gets worse as they age. The discomfort can also be aggravated by overuse, climbing stairs, and even atmospheric pressure (people saying they know it’s going to rain by their knee hurting).

Knee Braces Can Help Most Arthritis Sufferers

Knee braces, especially newer models that have come to the markete, can be extremely helpful in not only relieving knee pain, but also helping the knee become stronger. The upside is most of these knee braces are comfortable, affordable, and can be worn under clothing.

There are three types on knee braces on the market today, which we’ll list individually. To our surprise, it’s the recently-developed third type that gets our recommendation.

Three Types of Knee Braces:

Classic Sleeve Braces

Sleeve Braces have been around for a long time, having evolved from simply “wrapping” your knee.

These older style sleeve braces are made of mostly spandex, and their big feature is compression, which promotes warmth and blood flow, which can help heal knee tissue. They don’t do too much for stability though, as they are usually too thin to provide much stability.

Sleeve braces can range anywhere from $25 to $60. The downside is the lack of stability we mention (which is important), and being strapless, they tend to slip when wearing.

Web Braces

Web braces can provide excellent stability for the knee. This helps keep things in place, alleviating pain by ensuring stable motion. They are usually made of silicone and plastic, and are relatively comfortable. They usually cost anywhere between $50 and $100.

The downsides to web braces are their bulk (many cannot be worn under clothing), and lack of warming compression.

Hybrid Sleeve Braces

We’ve recently discovered hybrid sleeve braces that combine the comfort, compression and warmth of a sleeve brace with the stability of a web brace.

These new hybrid braces offer the best of both worlds, and can be worn comfortably under clothing. Wearers report they can relieve arthritis pain almost immediately.

Hybrid braces are new, so pricing is all over the place, but the model we like best is also the most affordable at less than $40. We’ll let you know how to get one at the end of the article.

Conclusion

Knee braces can be a very effective option for those with knee pain, including arthritis pain. For most people, they can even offer a viable alternative to surgery and shots. The fact that they are so affordable, and readily available online without a prescription, makes them an attractive option for millions of people.

Our Recommendation

We recommend the hybrid sleeve knee brace over the other types. We found the older style sleeve braces acceptable as well, but the lack of stability in these makes us favor the hybrid brace much more. We never seriously considered the web brace, as it’s simply too bulky and rigid for daily use.

The hybrid sleeve brace can be worn comfortably under clothing, and since you only get the benefit of a brace if you actually wear it, comfort is important.

The hybrid sleeve brace we like the best is made by a company called Fitnus. It checked every box for us – comfort, compression/warmth, stability, and price. It offers men’s and women’s models, and is extremely comfortable. The Velcro straps make it a true “one-size-fits-all”, and offer the stability a knee really needs.

In fact, the $39.95 price surprised us. In reaching out to the company, we found that they only sell their braces online, and have embraced social media viral marketing, letting happy customers do their advertising for them. It seems to work. This type of quality knee brace would easily command $100 or more in a store. You can get one at the below button:

Get a Fitnus Knee Brace for $39.95 >>

*UPDATE: Sunday, October 6, 2024* readers have reported the Fitnus Brace selling out. We heard from the company today, and they are back in stock and shipping immediately for a limited time. If you want to try one, we suggest buying it now.