3 ms·

Apparently that's true for rheumatoid arthritis but osteoarthritis still gets a lot of surgery. Source: my SO the MD.

ekianjo 7y ago
There is no cure for osteoarthritis because it is purely mechanical degradation of joints with aging. You get a lot of pain as your joints disappear. Most of the treatments are symptomatic (strong painkillers) or surgery (replacing joints with prosthetic ones). Very different from RA as a condition.
- loceng 7y ago
  There is a solution for osteoarthritis, joint degeneration - it's by injecting your bone marrow, stem cells into the joint. A company in the US, Regenexx, has been doing research on stem cell treatments for 18 years now. Other places in the world have been doing stem cell research for 30+ years, it just hasn't become mainstream or widespread yet - so the knowledge isn't distributed well yet.
  - dm319 7y ago
    The evidence isn't strong for it either. The randomised controlled trials have very small n-numbers, are unblinded, have subjective primary outcomes. Needs a big trial to convince people it works.
    - loceng 7y ago
      You can see before and after MRI imaging of areas with injury and then healed. Obviously we have to define the process of what is being talked about when saying "stem cell treatment" and determining degeneration level of tissues, along with health of the individual - and therefore the health and potency of their own stem cells, are other factors to consider. I'd say the bigger issue is filtering out the bad-greedy actors who jump into this space, who are piggybacking on the excitement generated from of word of mouth from patients who have benefit greatly - from clinics who have protocols they follow for what they know works and what won't work. I have been getting stem cell treatments from a clinic in the US for a few years now to treat many different areas of injury (limited number of areas they can treat due to limited amount of fluid they have to use after aspiration and post-processing) and from my own experience, and that of speaking with other patients in waiting rooms (and even hotel lobby) who have returned for additional treatments - it certainly works, heals, regenerates tissues with the right protocol and condition. The most painful injection spot I had was a ruptured, torn disk, in my low back - I am doing that area again on the 16th of this month, as part of a number of areas, because it helped permanently reduce radiating pain from that area greatly; I plan to do an MRI of area a few months after this next treatment to have post imaging.
odiroot 7y ago
Yep, had my shoulder surgery exactly because of that, ~4 years ago. Few courses of various drugs didn't help at all. And I wasn't even 30 by then. I use strength training now to keep my shoulder in check.

There is no cure for osteoarthritis because it is purely mechanical degradation of joints with aging. You get a lot of pain as your joints disappear. Most of the treatments are symptomatic (strong painkillers) or surgery (replacing joints with prosthetic ones). Very different from RA as a condition.

loceng 7y ago
There is a solution for osteoarthritis, joint degeneration - it's by injecting your bone marrow, stem cells into the joint. A company in the US, Regenexx, has been doing research on stem cell treatments for 18 years now. Other places in the world have been doing stem cell research for 30+ years, it just hasn't become mainstream or widespread yet - so the knowledge isn't distributed well yet.
- dm319 7y ago
  The evidence isn't strong for it either. The randomised controlled trials have very small n-numbers, are unblinded, have subjective primary outcomes. Needs a big trial to convince people it works.
  - loceng 7y ago
    You can see before and after MRI imaging of areas with injury and then healed. Obviously we have to define the process of what is being talked about when saying "stem cell treatment" and determining degeneration level of tissues, along with health of the individual - and therefore the health and potency of their own stem cells, are other factors to consider. I'd say the bigger issue is filtering out the bad-greedy actors who jump into this space, who are piggybacking on the excitement generated from of word of mouth from patients who have benefit greatly - from clinics who have protocols they follow for what they know works and what won't work. I have been getting stem cell treatments from a clinic in the US for a few years now to treat many different areas of injury (limited number of areas they can treat due to limited amount of fluid they have to use after aspiration and post-processing) and from my own experience, and that of speaking with other patients in waiting rooms (and even hotel lobby) who have returned for additional treatments - it certainly works, heals, regenerates tissues with the right protocol and condition. The most painful injection spot I had was a ruptured, torn disk, in my low back - I am doing that area again on the 16th of this month, as part of a number of areas, because it helped permanently reduce radiating pain from that area greatly; I plan to do an MRI of area a few months after this next treatment to have post imaging.

odiroot 7y ago

Yep, had my shoulder surgery exactly because of that, ~4 years ago. Few courses of various drugs didn't help at all. And I wasn't even 30 by then. I use strength training now to keep my shoulder in check.