A special report published in the journal Radiology has suggested that steroid injections used to treat osteoarthritis pain in the hip and knee may lead to more rapid progression of the disease. This leads to the question:
Is it time to rethink how we treat osteoarthritis?
Is it time to move away from the traditional model of non-steroid anti-inflammatories, narcotic pain relievers, steroid injections, arthroscopic surgery, and joint replacement?
If so, there’s not a better time than now to think outside the box – to consider osteoarthritis not as a “wear and tear” problem but as an actual disease and a serious indicator of problems at the cellular level that cannot be corrected by taking NSAIDs, opioids or having joint surgery.
There is increasing evidence that inflammation (low-grade chronic inflammation), mitochondrial dysfunction, autophagy (the body’s process of removing damaged cell parts), and immune system failures are playing significant roles in causing arthritis as well as many of life’s chronic disease states – diabetes, obesity, cancer, and neurological and heart diseases.
What now? If you’re having persistent back or neck pain, or joint pain, or just not functioning the way you want, we would love to talk about advanced options such as pentosan polysulfate, BPC-157, thymosin beta 4, AOD 9064, collagen peptides, platelet-rich plasma, hyaluronic acid, focused shockwave, alpha 2 macroglobulin, spermidine, and trehalose.
Our mission is to offer our patients the most current treatments available for managing acute and chronic pain. Reach out to our team to explore your treatment options.