Doc Says Knee Replacement? Read THIS First
I know a thing or two about pain.
I’ve been lucky enough to climb some of the tallest peaks in the world—including in Alaska and the Himalayas—and you can’t make it to the top without pushing through the pain.
But that kind of pain is temporary. I know that there are millions of Americans walking around with the kind of chronic pain that can wreck your quality of life.
And for those with chronic knee pain, climbing the stairs to the bedroom can seem as daunting as climbing the Himalayas.
So when doctors dangle the idea of knee replacement surgery, I can hardly blame someone for getting in line.
There’s just one problem: It doesn’t work.
And you could be headed for a major disappointment.
In a study published in BMJ, researchers studied approximately 4,500 patients between 45 and 79 who had knee replacements due to arthritis. The overall consensus was that the surgery had only minimal effects on quality of life—especially for those with less severe pain and loss of function.
That’s a lot of pain… and a whole lot of dollars spent… for only “minimal effects.”
This discovery has left some people in the medical community wondering if knee replacement is overused.
Overused? Between 2000 and 2010, there was an 86 percent increase in knee replacements among men and a 100 percent increase among women. With more than 640,000 knees replaced per year, knee replacement surgery has become the most common inpatient procedure performed on people over 45.
That’s the very DEFINITION of overused!
But I’ve got a better idea: Forget replacing your knee—fix it!
You can do that with a treatment called prolotherapy.
Prolotherapy is a simple procedure that basically injects sugar water into your painful joint. That actually directs your body’s immune system to the area, where it can begin to repair some of the damage that’s leaving you in pain.
As a result, prolotherapy directly impacts the underlying condition that’s causing the pain in the first place. Unlike other treatments, which offer only short-term relief, prolotherapy offers long-term—and in some cases permanent—pain relief.
And while I’ve seen dramatic results in patients with knee pain, prolotherapy can be used to treat degenerative disorders in ANY of your joints, plus it can help with tendon issues, muscle strain, ligament sprains, meniscus tears, and even osteoarthritis!
Hands down, in my 35 years of medical practice, I’ve never seen a treatment for pain work as fast – or as well – as prolotherapy.
If you’re looking to get prolotherapy near you, check out the search tool at www.getprolo.com
To a brighter day,
Dr. Richard Gerhauser, M.D.
