I was sitting in my study this morning, reminiscing about days gone by, from when my wife and I first met. At that time, knowing no better, I was a steel, chrome and glass guy, when it came to home furnishings. As I fancied myself something of a scientist, it seemed only natural that my tastes would reflect this in my preference for streamlined, modern design, with man-made materials. 
 
After we married and after my training, we came to New York with virtually nothing but my books and some cheap-ass Swedish modern furniture, which had the chief virtue of being inexpensive. But when, just six months after starting my practice, we bought our home in Nissequogue, I had the chance to purchase the many antiques the home’s initial owner had acquired over the years, my tastes underwent a radical change.
 
I suddenly realized that antiques were a direct link to the past, to the hands of the craftsmen who made them. And, unlike modern furniture and fixtures, they increase in value over time, instead of depreciating. But most of all, they represented a quality and a dedication to detail, that is rarely seen in the world anymore.
 
Our first pieces were a Renaissance Revival carved-in-the-round cabinet and a hand carved carved server, together with some decorative chairs. Having commited to this style of decorating, we next purchased a parlor set of Art Nouveau chairs with a loveseat, with a carved woman’s head with flowing hair surmounting the back. We still have these pieces (they’re still in Florida, for now).
 
Next, we branched out into sculptures and decorative glass and crystal. We have ecclectic tastes, so the items we found were from all different periods, but they were all of excellent quality and oddly enough, all fit together in our home. One of the greatest pleasures we enjoyed was hunting for new treasures in the musty old antique shops that populate the North Shore of Long Island. “Going antiqueing” is what we called this diversion.
 
Then one day, I happened on a spectacular find: an enormously heavy, marble based mantle clock, that supported a dark patina bronze sculpture of Ambroise Pare (pronounced par-ay). Why so special? Well, as a surgeon, this was the ideal piece.
 
Ambroise Pare (born c. 1510) died on December 20, 1590–418 years ago, today. He was considered to be the “Father of Modern Surgery.” A Frenchman, he was not an academic physician, but a barber surgeon whose powers of observation, reasoning and humanity made him the pre-eminent surgeon of the sixteenth century. 
 
Much of his work was learned as a battlefield surgeon, where he introduced innovations like his turpentine, egg yolk and oil of roses dressing for  gunshot wounds, instead of the standard treatment of the day, which was boiling oil or red hot iron cauterization. He ran out of hot oil in the midst of a battle, tried this cold mixture instead and noted that those patients he treated with the new dressing healed better and faster than those with the standard treatment.
 
Naturally, just like today, te establishment physicians belittled his accomplishments, citing his lack of Latin as a cause to disparage his accomplishments. Among other things, he also reintroduced a technique in Obstetrics called “podalic version,” in which a fetus is turned in utero to present feet first for birth, the use of ligatures to tie off blood vessels in amputations (instead of simply cauterizing them with the old hot iron technique) and he documented observations of phantom pain in amputees. He also designed artificial limbs and braces, for which he is often revered as the first orthopaedist, and even an artificial eye.
 
He was the surgeon in attendance when Henry II of France, made famous in the Nostradamus prediction, was mortally wounded in a tournament, when a splintered lance pierced his eye. Though he failed to save the striken king, he went on to serve the French monarchy for four successive reigns.
 
So you can see why I HAD too have this clock. The figure of Pare is holding a tablet, inscribed with his most famous quotation: “Je le pansai, Dieu le guerit,”  which means, “I treated him, but God healed him.” 
 
This simple lesson from an antique philosophy is a humble acknowledgement of his limitations as a healer. It was not only his brilliance as a surgeon that made him great, but his compassion for the suffering and his humility in recognizing his limitations, indeed, the limitations of all of us in the healing arts.
 
Indeed, we are limited. The surgeon can suture parts together, can set the broken bone, can replace the joint, but it is still Nature, or God if you will, that heals, not us. Don’t think so? Try doing a terrific surgery on a corpse and see what happens. If the tissues don’t heal, all that brilliant approximation of tissues comes to naught.
 
In the same way, if you sprain a ligament, you need not only the means to reduce pain and inflammation and the bracing techniques I reveal in my newest program,  HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can get here at  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html/, but also the time to let the tissues heal.
 
In the end, it was Pare’s humanity, his compassion for a fellow sufferer that made him great. His second great quotation instructed us to “Cure occasionally,  relieve often, console always.” So, on this 418th anniversary of the great man’s death, it seems fitting to remember him and the ideals he taught. Treat yes, but remember that it’s your own body, a gift of your Creator, that does the healing. To give yourself that chance to heal, if you suffer from knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Til next time, my friend, be well and have a great weekend.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

When I first started my surgical practice, I was part of a group of talented surgeons. My pal and common assistant at that time was a great guy named Steve, who was a few years older than I. We had a natural affinity and were similar in temperment, so we tended, more and more, to work together.
 
Steve and I were associates, not partners. That means that we shared office space, and expenses, but not revenues. Although, like many surgeons just starting out, I was on salary at first (in my case for six months). 
 
Well, Steve was a natural diagnostician (those are born, not made) and a pretty damn good surgeon, in his own right. He was so good, that many years later, I asked him to do the surgery on my mother, when she needed to have her left hip replaced. We were thick as thieves and very attuned to each other’s rhythms in surgery. So we were a very good team indeed.
 
Thing about Steve was that he wouldn’t do surgery on just anyone. They had to prove to him that they had failed at all conservative treatments first and that their pain was unrelieved by any lesser treatment. In that way, he strongly influenced me and tempered my impatience to jump to the surgical approach, an understandable impulse in a young guy who has just spent his youth preparing to be a surgeon and believes in his ability to do anything.
 
One of the senior men in the group, Art, a brilliant hand surgeon, whose like I have never seen, before or since, took me aside one day and gave me some counter-intuitive advice I took to heart.
 
“Listen, Bill,” he told me. “I know you want to do a lot of surgery. But be patient. Don’t jump right at surgery, first thing. You’ll only scare them away.  Instead, try everything else first. Brace them, give them medicine, injections if they need them. Make them ASK you, or better yet, BEG you for surgery, before you do it.”
 
“Huh?” I said, brilliantly.
 
“It’s simple,” he said. “People and their referring doctors want a surgeon who isn’t “knife happy.” They want to know that you’re operating on them because you don’t have a choice, not just because you can.” 
 
“But, how can I build a surgical practice like that?” I asked. 

He smiled and told me a profound truth, that I remember to this day. “That’s the irony of conservative treatment,” he said. “If you try NOT to do surgery, you’ll end up doing even MORE than you can handle. 

“You see, people want to know they can trust you. They need to feel they can believe what you tell them. If you treat them conservatively and help them, when they REALLY need surgery and can’t avoid it, they’ll come back to YOU, because they trust you.”
 
I admit I was skeptical at first, but this guy was not only a brilliant surgeon, who I greatly admired, but a highly successful practioner, who had an enormous practice. So I decided he must know what he’s talking about. I resolved to follow his advice and see what happened.
 
Well, the rest, as they, say is history. I did what he advised and lo and behold, my practice burgeoned.  In fact, it perfectly tracked Art’s own successful practice, just trailing his profile by eight years. I was a believer.
 
And over time, I realized that it was not only smart business, but it was correct ethically and morally, as well. In fact, it’s just really good Medicine. 
 
Surgery should be the last or the best option, not the first choice of treatment, in most cases. The object is to let the body heal itself, if it can, and only intervene surgically when there is no other choice, or when that will yield the best result. 
 
In other words, avoid the unnecessary surgery. And do the best surgery possible, when that is the best option. 
 
This has been the guiding principle of my life for all these many years. And it remains so today, as demonstrated in my newest healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can get here, at  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
With treatments drawn from across the medical spectrum, conventional, alternative and complementary, most knee pain will respond to some combination of these proven remedies. See for yourself and unleash your body’s own healing potential. Relieve your knee pain at http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Til next time, my friend, be well.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill

P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

Well, Christmas is just a week from tonight.  Unbelievable. I’ve expounded before about the Stillwell Theory of Seasonal Relativity. 
 
In brief, for the uninitiated, this theory states that time progressively accelerates, relative to an observer’s proximity to the Christmas Holidays.  In other words, time subjectively seems to speed up from around April, through the rest of the year, hitting a peak from August through December. 
 
I mean, once you reach Halloween, you blink, and it’s Thanksgiving. Blink again, it’s Christmas, then New year’s Eve. 
 
Then suddenly, on January first of the New Year, it’s like the brakes were thrown on–time is suddenly slowed to a crawl, not to speed up again until late Spring and Summer. Just look at how long it takes to arrive at Valentine’s Day. Seems like it takes forever.
 
And of course, the older you get, the faster and faster it all seems to go. Well, it seems that way to me, anyway. But math was always my worst subject…. 
 
There really is a scientific explanation for this subjective phenomenon, though. The older you get, the smaller the fraction of your entire life experience is each new experience. That’s why the two month summer vacation you enjoyed as a kid seemed to stretch forever, but it flashes by as an adult. Two months is a whole lot bigger fraction of the whole when you’re only ten years old, than when you’re fifty.
 
But now that we’re in the week before Christmas, it’s all going at warp speed. And it doesn’t help that I’m spending a lot of time running up and down the East Coast, to prepare the Northern Command and transport our cats. I STILL have to get all that last minute shopping done, even though I DID start during the summer.
 
With all the extra stresses of the Holiday Season, many people have emailed me with their complaints of sore backs and aching knees. Not surprising, though, is it? Everyone is running around, on their feet longer, shopping, going to office parties, shopping, and more shopping, despite the economy. 
 
And the physical stress is compounded by the extra mental and emotional stress, which transforms into biological stress. This kind of stress makes any inflammation in the body worse and reduces the body’s immune system, as well.
 
So, what to do? Well, even though it’s very tough this time of year, you have to keep up with your exercises.  If you have knee pain, my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM (click here:  http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html )  is ideal for this, because it provides a MENU of proven, effective exercises, from which you can choose.
 
But when time is of the essence, I’d recommend that you concentrate on HACK SQUATS, with the heaviest weight you can handle, to meet the criteria that I outline, and the specially modified HINDU SQUATS I describe at  http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
You can also do simple isometric QUAD SETS, while standing in line at stores, or at every red light, if driving. If you’re at a train station, lean against the columns and do WALL SITTING–effective, but inconspicuous in public.
 
And to boost your immune system and increase your strength and stability, try the life-enhancing topical cream that increases your own endogenous growth hormone,  safely and within physiological limits, like I do:   http://drbillsclinic.com/trans_d_tropin.html 
 
If you try to do these few things, every day, despite being in the very midst of the Christmas Countdown, you will feel better, be less likely to get colds  and flu, and will relieve your knee pain. Try these methods and see what I mean.
 
Til next time, my friend, be well. 
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill

P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

Yesterday, while reading my email, I came across the sad news that Peter Falk, noted Hollywood character actor and star of the long running and very popular TV detective series Columbo, had Alzheimer’s Disease. His daughter apparently filed court papers so she could legally act as his agent. Much as we would love to deny it, this disease is becoming a real epidemic.

In many ways, it’s worse than the big “killer” diseases like the various forms of heart disease or “the Big C,” cancer. Though Alzheimer’s will eventually kill its victim, the hallmark of the disease is the slow, insidious, inexorable death of the personality.

I have good reason to know this–my mother was struck by the disease. And it took her nearly ten years to succumb. It wasn’t pretty, I can tell you.

We first became aware that something was wrong when she got in a little fender bender while driving. Since she was always a little high strung, we just assumed that she froze up at the wheel and a small accident resulted. Well, you know what they say about assume, right? It makes an “ass of u and me.”

Fortunately no one was hurt. Turns out, though, that it was by the Grace of God alone. At the time, we didn’t realize what was happening. But, in retrospect, that was the beginning.

My brother and I were estranged and living in different states. My Dad had died shortly after the bride and I were married in ‘74, so she was alone, living in her house in Brooklyn. She and her sister had stopped speaking to each other some years before–more stupid family stuff (isn’t it always). So she was alone, with no one to observe her. And on the phone, she sounded OK.

Then, just a week before Mother’s Day in ‘91, she called up, all upset and crying. She couldn’t believe that we had “stood her up.” I had no idea what she was talking about. Then, with dawning horror, I realized that she thought that it WAS Mother’s Day. And we had made plans to have her picked up by a limo and brought out to Long Island, so we could all go to dinner.

She had dressed and waited and waited, getting more upset by the minute, thinking that we had simply and callously forgotten all about her. But it was a week BEFORE she was supposed to be picked up. She was lost in time.

I got her in to see a specialist, who confirmed that she had a progressive dementia, probably Alzheimer’s. He started her on Aricept, a drug that keeps a brain neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, around longer in the brain tissues. And we arranged home care for her–too many trip hazards and animals around our house to bring her there safely.

But she rapidly progressed to the point that assisted living quarters were needed. And then, some time later, a nursing home. Meanwhile, she grew less and less responsive. Finally, she could no longer speak, or fend for herself. She was totally dependent. She looked like my mother, but nobody was home. Ultimately, there was not even a spark of recognition when she saw me, if she did.

Like I said, a slow death of personality. Not fun, at all.

But today, we know that, despite the influence of genetics and heredity, there are many things we can do to to prevent the memory loss of age, and delay or prevent the onset of this dreaded disease.

This might seem a strange message to be sending at this festive time of year. But really, what is a better gift than preserving your mind and memory, or those of someone you love?

Some years ago, I had the good fortune to meet and befriend the #1 Brain Longevity Specialist, Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa. I had read his book on Brain Longevity years before and when we eventually met through a mutual friend, I was thrilled to discover that this was the same guy who had written that book.

He was good enough to let me try some of his Brain Tabs, designed to enhance memory, reverse brain aging by up to 12 years and prevent Alzheimer’s. Given my family history and the fact that Alzheimer’s is exploding among Boomers (that would, again, be me), I now take them every day. And if you want to hedge YOUR bets against this destructive and pernicious disease, you should too. Take my advice and go to http:drbillsclinic.com/brain_longevity.html

Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston and now, Peter Falk–”Goodby, Columbo.” Don’t be another statistic. There ARE things you can do. Order your own Brain Tabs at http://drbillsclinic.com/brain_longevity.html And do it NOW, before you forget

Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,

Dr. Bill

Well, the Holiday Season is upon us, recession and all. I just now got back in from Costco (though I still like to call it Price Club–much more euphonious, don’t you think?). I had to stock up on some essential things, prior to taking the flight back to New York, tomorrow night.

Then, the very next day, I get to drive back to Central Florida with the bride, and a bunch of cat carriers, so we can take the last of the brood to New York. The plan is to see Christmas in, here in Florida, then drive the last batch of kitties to the Northern Command.

You see, it’s cold up there, will soon be freezing so naturally, the bride (who LIKES the cold) wants to winter there (while most sane people are COMING to Florida, for the relative warmth and sunshine). Don’t ask me–I just live here (and there, whatever), but I digress….

But before we drive back up north with the cats, we get to festoon the house with Christmas decorations, and that means cleaning the whole place, top to bottom, in preparation for entertaining (though admittedly, it’s a whole lot easier with fewer cats in the house).

And that’s on top of getting in some late Christmas shopping. I always start early (I think I got my wife’s first present in July), but it’s finishing that’s the problem. I’m getting more exhausted, just thinking about all I have to do.

So, with every spare minute accounted for already, naturally I have requests for articles and product reviews and other projects coming up, out of the blue.

This situation reminds me of a handwritten sign we used to see in the O.R. every so often: “The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer!” Words to live by. I think the sign was put up by one of the male nurses, a guy who used to work in the Psychiatry Ward, but transferred to the Operating Room. As you might expect, this gave him a rather unique perspective.

His name was Tim, and he was the resident wit and cartoonist of the place. His droll and dry sense of the absurd saw us through many rough times. No one was exempt from his pen–when I was injured (falling through a high ceiling and fracturing my spine, if you’re a newby), he posted a cartoon of me falling behind a couch, with a line of cats all holding up signs with scores (8.9, 9.6, 9.2, 9.8…) just like an olympic event. I saw this my first day back. It WAS pretty funny. Certainly pointed out, in a humorous way, the idiocy of my predicament. But anyway, I think he posted that sign.

Together with the other members of my team, I took that motto to heart. We did some of the most truly outrageous surgical reconstructions ever seen in our region. Stuff that really did border on the impossible. I remember one little wizened lady, deep into her seventies, with horrible rheumatoid arthritis, that had BOTH knees so contactured, she couldn’t even stand.

A contracture is where the joints, in this case both knees, are literally scarred into a fixed, bent position, in her case, well beyond 90 degrees. And no amount of stretching, or force, can straighten them. In this lady, her bones would have shattered before the scar tissue gave way.

Because of ignorance and neglect, very gradually over time, her knees became more and more bent. No one thought to have her evaluated by a doctor; no one had started her on stretches and exercises, like those in my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html or got her braces, or splints to keep her knees straight. So eventually, the poor thing was stuck in a Nursing Home bed, in a fetal position.

I don’t remember how I came to care for her, but I remember that the older, wiser heads in the Department all gravely assured me that she was beyond hope, that it was impossible. Luckily for her, I was still in that early phase when I believed in my heart I could do anything–and so, I did.

If there was ever a case that exemplified the necessary surgery, this was the one. I had to release virtually every ligament and muscle around her knee, and cut away a significant amount of bone to allow the knee to both straighten and accept total knee implants. At one point, her leg was literally hanging in the breeze, connected only by the posterior nerve and blood vessels. I should have been scared out of my wits…but you see, it never occurred to me that this could fail. So it didn’t. The ligaments, once released, found their own correct levels and went on to heal at those spots. When we were done, the leg was straight and the knee was stable.

Ideally, she should have had both done the same day, so she could walk. But she couldn’t tolerate that much anesthesia at one time–”The impossible takes a little longer.” So initially she was left with one leg bent up and one leg down and straight (kind of like Superman, when he flies up, up, and away). Next week, we took her back for the other side. This went faster, with the lessons learned from the first go round.

Some months after she was discharged from the hospital, I was giving a talk on knee replacement in a public forum and this same lady WALKED up and thanked me. And damn! Those knees were straight! What a transformation. She was now very talkative and lively, where before she had sunk into a torpor and would surely have died from lack of stimulation and despair. And I knew that THIS was why I did what I did.

Those older wiser heads still shook their heads: “just lucky,” they said. Well, yeah, but better lucky than smart, eh?

The lesson here is that she need not have ever reached that point. Today, we know that there are many ways to prevent knee surgery, or at least delay it. You can combine effective conventional and alternative treatments from across the entire medical spectrum to relieve your pain and restore your function, like those I teach in HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html

If that patient had only had worn a simple extension brace at night, she might have avoided the magnitude of that complex surgery. In like manner, if you ever have a knee injury or a knee surgery, get your full range of motion back as soon as you can. And KEEP it, even if you need bracing to do it.

Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,

Dr. Bill

Bright and early Saturday morning (well, 10 AM IS early to me these days), I suited up in my green scrub suit, donned my long white coat, just like the good old days, and drove up to the Fitness Center of the Alaqua Golf & Country Club, in the community in Central Florida, where I live. 
 
The plan was to shoot the necessary footage for the new DVD edition of my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM exercises (which you can check out and purchase, if you wish, by clicking on this link:   http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html )
 
I had lined up a suitable model, Jennifer Kunzig, a personal trainer, to demonstrate the exercises, with the special modifications I’ve developed to prevent or eliminate knee pain. Let’s face it. No one wants to see some middle aged guy doing these exercises, when he can look at a pretty young woman, right? She had been dieting and restricting her water intake over the last week, so her definition would look good on tape.
 
I had also retained a videographer, to produce the DVD, a great guy named Jonah Travik (Jonah–now there’s a name you just don’t hear every day). I had worked with him before, shooting the DVD version of my LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN
 http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html  (That has yet to be edited, but I expect it to be ready early in the New Year) and he’s great to work with.
 
Finally, I had secured permission to use the Golf Club’s Fitness facilities from the owner and developer of the community, a really nice guy named John Ritenour. His kindness gave us a super venue for the shoot, not to mention very convenient for me, as I live about two minutes  down the street.
 
So all was in readiness, the cast of characters was assembled and the sun was shining brightly. We were ready to roll. I got there on time (not too hard–I WAS only two minutes away) and met Jonah. We set up the lights and planned the camera angles, while we waited for Jennifer to show up, which she did about a half hour later. This was planned–no point in having her sit around while we were setting up.
 
Finally, I placed a neat little sign on the door of the Fitness Center: QUIET PLEASE. PRIVATE VIDEO SHOOT  WITHIN. THANK YOU. This was to discourage the curious and the club members, who might otherwise enter while we were shooting.
 
But with the sign and the obvious evidence that a professional crew was engaged in a project, you would think that once we started with the “lights, camera, etcetera, etcetera…” that anyone with good sense would respect our privacy and return later, after we were done, if they felt the burning desire to work out. Just common courtesy, right?
 
I mean, if the situations were reversed and I came across a film crew working when I showed up for my exercise session, it would never even occur to me to barge into the middle of things.
 
So, you know where I’m going with this, right?
 
First, a nice middle aged woman came in and wanted to get her workout in while we were still setting up. So, she got on the treadmill, then did a few dumbbell exercises, and so on. But she never held us up, as we worked around her. And she was properly deferential and only too happy to get out when we were ready.
 
We started shooting after she left and we had hit a nice, productive rhythm. We were moving right along, with me doing the talking and voice overs and Jenn doing the exercises. And just as we were hitting our stride, the door opens and in walks an elderly guy, presumably right off the golf course, walks over and turns on the T.V., and then gets on a treadmill and proceeds to begin walking on it, filling the room with the mechanical noise of its motor and the thud of his footsteps on the track. 
 
I couldn’t believe the stones on this guy. I guess he either didn’t see the sign, was oblivious to it, saw it but didn’t give a crap, or he thought that “quiet please” just meant, “don’t speak” (which he didn’t). And he DID keep the volume on the T.V. real low. 
 
Well, of course, everything we shot during this time had the rumble of the treadmill running through it. And I couldn’t throw the guy out. After all, I was a guest here, myself. But, still….
 
I was frosted at the impeturbability of this guy and his utter disdain and disregard for what we were trying to do. Maybe it’s just me, but I think he was a rude, thoughtless S.O.B., at a minimum. 
 
I let him live. But it required some considerable restraint. And the other members of the crew felt the same–we were all grinding our teeth at the nerve of this guy.
 
Finally, he finished and left. Unbelievable. One good thing about older guys–you know their workout won’t last too long. But of course, he had broken our rhythm and we had to reshoot all the footage that his treadmill sounds had screwed up. His little workout cost us at least an extra hour.  Thanks, pal.
 
Anyway, we finally got it done–a little later than I had planned, but finished. And I have to tell you, I think what we shot was great! I was really pleased. And I hope you will be too, when I unleash the final product as a set of DVD’s, sometime, early in 2009.
 
And in addition to the video, I reshot all the still photos, with professional lighting, and added a bunch of new stuff: more stretches, more exercises, the proper ways to use the stationary bike, canes, braces, taping, ACE wrapping, a real expansion of the program. It was a lot of work, but it should be great!
 
This is going to replace the current PAIN-FREE PROGRAM, so this current version is going to become a collector’s item. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, NOW’s the time, while you still can. Go to http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html  and order your copy TODAY.
 
Til next time, my friend, be well.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

If you’ve been a reader for a while, you know that I’m a long time comic book collector. I used to work as a professional artist for the comics, back in the 70’s for a brief stint and I’ve always maintained a serious interest in the art form, collected original art and kept up friendships with some of the best pros in the business.
 
This, of course, has always been a source of great embarrassment to my wife, who shares the opinion of many, who know no better, that comics are for kids, geeks and retards. I would patiently point out that there is an entire wing in the Louvre dedicated to graphic arts (ie., comic art)and many very highly creative, very wealthy and intelligent men, like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood, to name but a few, have collected original paintings and drawings of some of the best modern illustrators, painters and comics artists. So I feel I’m in good company.
 
Anyway, as soon as I arrived back in town, in Orlando, I went straight over to my local comic shop, ACME SUPERSTORE in Longwood, to pick up the latest issues which had come out during my recent absence. While I was in there, seeing what else had come out that I might want to read, I overheard a middle aged guy talking to Penny, one of the store employees.
 
Penny had had arthroscopic surgery for her own knee in the past, after a number of conservative measures failed to relieve her very significant and disabling knee pain. I had reviewed her preop studies and her intraoperative photographs, and there’s no question she had a defined pathology that needed surgery to fix.
 
This guy knew about her experience and was asking her for advice. So, since she had come to me for advice herself and since I was there, she called me over to meet this man. Sure enough, he had episodes of pain and swelling that would come and go, after what he called a “blowout,” that is, a traumatic injury that ruptured his ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) and gave him a torn meniscus.
 
Despite this, though, what bothered him the most was what he described as a sudden “shift” inside his knee and the insecure feeling this gave him. What he was actually feeling was the typical instability that results from a ruptured ACL. Naturally, he was concerned because he didn’t want ACL surgery, if he could avoid it.
 
I pointed out to him that there ARE ways to treat this condition nonsurgically, BUT there is a price to be paid–namely, if he doesn’t have arthritis yet, he soon will. The articular cartilage is damaged every time he experiences that “shift,” which is really a slippage of one bone on the other, that is usually prevented by an intact ACL.
 
However, if he is willing to accept that fact, and if his daily activities are not affected, then a number of conservative conventional treatments, combined with alternative methods, that help to relieve knee pain and resolve inflammation, appropriate bracing and vigorous specialized exercises, especially for the hamstring muscles, may be all he needs. 
 
He was amazed at this information, which was all new to him, and which is revealed in detail in my new healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY (see here at http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html )
 
He didn’t even realize that CRUCIATE means “crossed” in Latin, or that the cruciate or crossed ligaments, ACL and PCL, hold the interior of the knee together and prevent excessive, abnormal motions, front to back and back to front, between the femur and the tibia.
 
The anatomy and basic functions of these ligaments are presented in my LITTLE GREEN BOOK, together with lots of inside information on the many root causes of knee pain and disability. See what I mean at   http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
So, at the end of my “comic shop consult,” this man realized that he has options he didn’t know he had. I gave him my card and suggested he visit my website  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html  for more detailed information and advice. Hopefully, he’ll take my advice and get knee pain relief and joint stability back in his life.
 
At that point, I said, “My work here is done!”  Then I grabbed my comics and leaped out into the night…up, up and away……Heh.
 
Have a great weekend, my friend. I’ll be spending mine shooting the DVD version of my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html   Til next time, be well.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill

P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

My recent sojourn to the Northern Command was all too brief–just long enough to uncrate some of the stuff we had shipped up there (like my books) and spend a little time with each other. So, leaving my bride with the majority of our cats, I flew back today to Orlando, to minister to the remainder of our brood and to start to prepare the house for Christmas with the family.
 
I never miss her more than when we first part at the airport. After over 34 years, I guess we’re stuck with (and on) each other.
 
All the bulkhead seats in front (which have a lot of leg room, even if they don’t have tray tables) were already occupied by the wheelchair brigade, by the time I got on board. Second choice is any of the three seats next to the left mid-plane exit, which also have nearly as much leg room as a true first class seat. Nope. One guy was already there and guarding the remaining seats for his pals, who were further back in the boarding line.
 
OK. Third time’s the charm, as they say. The seats just across the aisle, in front of the other mid-plane exit were the next most desirable–not quite as much room as the left side, but more than the standard seats. I got the aisle seat. Another, older man was already seated next to the exit hatch.  Since the plane was not that full, we were able to keep the middle seat between us empty. Voila! Legroom and comfort–can’t ask for anything better than that on a plane these days.
 
Hell, they don’t feed you anything but tiny packaged nuts and chips. Forget about real food. You still get a soft drink or water. And the flight attendants, while competent….let’s just say that I’m old enough to remember when they were stewardesses, young and beautiful, before the P.C. Killjoys decided that was sexist and verboten (of COURSE it was–that was the point!). 
 
This, on top of the mandated TSA harrassment that passes for security checks, courtesy of our “friends” in the Middle East, makes flying an experience that once was a pleasure, but is now barely tolerable, if you’re lucky. 
 
Well, it is what it is. At least it gets you where you want to go and it’s still reasonably fast.
 
As it happens, my in flight companion remarked that he needed these seats so he could stretch his right leg out. Turns out he had some aching knee pain and he had discovered on his own that straightening his sore knee out helped him get some temporary relief.  I asked him about his knee and explained my interest.

He told me his name was Hank and he’s a 73 year old guy who developed this knee pain over time, “right under (his) kneecap,” without any specific injury. He was on some kind of “pain pill” (probably an anti-inflammatory medication) but he couldn’t remember its name. Turns out he’s NOT seeing an orthopaedist. He got the prescription from a family friend, who happens to be a cardiac surgeon! 
 
Now, if you have to choose, you’re far better off getting orthopaedic care from a cardiac surgeon than you are getting cardiac surgery from an orthopaedist :), but I digress….

Anyway, I asked him a few questions and determined that he most likely had arthritis in his patellofemoral compartment (behind his kneecap). I made sure he knew to take his medication with food or milk, to protect his stomach from bleeding, reflux, gastritis or ulcers. No one had mentioned that to him (very common failing, as it turns out).
 
Then, I advised him to apply local moist heat a few times a day, use some special herbs and a few effective alternative treatments, and I told him to do some specially modified knee exercises, like those I teach in my popular, newest healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can get at   http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html 
 
Hank seemed to apprecate what I had told him during my impromptu “clinic at 37,000 feet” and promised to do what I had advised. I gave him my card and suggested that he visit my website, to sign up for these daily emails. He also said he was going to see about getting my HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY program. Given his symptoms, I think that’s a good idea, too. Click here for yours:
 http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Then, we landed and he thanked me. We got our stuff and went our separate ways, as travellers do. But I’ll keep an eye out for him on my subscriber list. If you’re out there Hank, it was good to chat with you. Hope you feel better. And Merry Christmas to you & your family!
 
Til next time, my friend, be well. Talk to you soon.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

I was sitting in my study this afternoon, fielding calls, writing emails and other correspondance and perusing the Google Alerts I have in place for interesting topics. I came across an interesting article from The New York Times Health Section, dated 12/09/08 (you see, there are some uses for the NYT other than lining bird cages and wrapping fish) that reminded me of the many times I faced similar diagnostic dilemmas in my years of practice. 
 
The gist of the article was that, in the quest for better and ever more sensitive noninvasive methods of diagnosis, like MRI Scans, more and more pathology is being revealed. But, the pathology observed may have nothing to do with the patient’s symptoms. 
 
This leads to a number of unnecessary surgical procedures, as doctors try to treat the pathology revealed by the scan, even if that was not the actual cause of the patient’s pain. This is the paradox of the nonsurgical study–it may result in MORE surgery, not less.
 
A good example is the common finding of a torn meniscus, inside the knee, revealed by an MRI Scan. It’s now well known that many middle aged and elderly people are walking around with torn menisci, without any resulting pain or other symptoms. So they really don’t need surgery, just because they have a torn meniscus, UNLESS they also have very specific mechanical findings or very specific pain, localized to the area where there is an identified torn meniscus. And yet, that is exactly what was happening, until recently.
 
I always got an MRI if my patient had persistent pain that failed to respond to conservative treatments, like those I describe in my newest healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can see at  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
But they only came to arthroscopic surgery if they had identified pathology AND specific symptoms and signs, consistent with the observed pathology.
 
I remember once, when I was much younger, I had a young man who had very specific joint line pain. He failed to get better with all the conservative treatments I prescribed–medications, local heat, physical therapy, the works. So, we got an MRI Scan. WOW! He apparently had an enormous tear of the posterior horn of his medial meniscus. Lit up like a Christmas tree! So obvious, even a lay person could see it from across the room.

Now, in a young person, job #1 is to preserve the articular cartilage at all costs: in other words, prevent arthritis, which is what happens if an untreated, unstable torn meniscus is allowed to remain, without treatment. So, with this as our goal, the patient, his parents and I were all of one mind: this kid needed surgery, pronto!
 
With all best intentions, I scoped the kid, expecting to see and repair or remove this enormous tear. Only…there WASN’T ANY TEAR. I looked and probed everywhere.  Nope.  Nada.  Well, I wasn’t about to fix what wasn’t broken, so I shaved away some inflamed synovium at the medial (inner) joint line, and got out.
 
He had what we call a “false positive” MRI Scan, a diagnostic image that appears for all the world to be a bona fide meniscus tear, only the tear doesn’t really exist. Imagine my embarrassment when I had to tell the family that I didn’t find the expected pathology, other than the inflamed synovitis (swollen, reddened lining membrane of the joint, which can get caught between the moving bones, just like a torn meniscus).  

The family was very grateful that he didn’t have a tear and all turned out well, because the patient’s preop pain was relieved, probably because I cut away that inflamed membranous tissue. But you could very easily argue that this was a completely unnecessary surgery–I was chasing the chimera of a false finding on a scan. It taught me a lesson, that’s for sure.
 
The fact is, MRI Scans are, at best, only 90-95% accurate on the medial (inner) compartment of the knee joint. This drops to only 60-70% accuracy on the outer or lateral compartment of the knee, because of the more complex anatomy of the lateral meniscus. Bottom line: MRI Scans and other diagnostic tests are NOT 100% accurate. They are just one part of the puzzle and have to be interpreted, based on the physical findings and a patient’s response to treatment. 
 
There are lots of reasons for knee pain. You can learn more about them, in layman’s English, in my best selling LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN (see here at http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html )
 
Many, if not most of them, can be treated with effective nonsurgical treatments, including alternative and complementary methods. The trick is knowing when surgery is really warranted–and when it’s NOT. That’s why I wrote HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can see here http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Remember, the very best surgery is the one you avoid. Til next time, my friend, be well. 
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill

P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION

Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

I was channel surfing last night and I came across one of those Ultimate Fighting channels. You know, the ones where the participants try to beat the living crap out of each other, using virtually every limb and joint available to them and utilizing fighting techniques from every style of martial art extant. There’s a reason they call it Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA.
 
I especially love it when one guy gets the other down on the ground, sits on top of him and  just whales the hell out of his head, over and over again:  BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Almost like an Emeril cookfest.  I can only imagine the damage the hittee is sustaining to his brain, assuming that he had one in that skull, when he started.
 
Why anyone would do this is beyond me. No art, no complexity, no philosphy. Just mauling. Makes boxing especially, but also karate, kung fu, savate, and pretty much anything with rules, look pretty tame by comparison. I find no attraction in this variation of the fighting arts. Yet some people love this.  Go figure.
 
It’s true I was in the martial arts for years, and still maintain an interest to this day. But my days of actual combat are now long behind me. Let’s face it. A guy my age, even if he practiced every day, isn’t going to be a match for a 19 year old, in peak condition. (That’s why these days, I’m licensed to carry heat. Heh. Like the saying goes, never try to fight an older man–he won’t fool with you; he’ll just kill you!)
 
Anyway, this reminded me of my trip to Bangkok, in Thailand, during a sailing cruise on a giant sailship, the Windstar, through Southeast Asia a number of years ago. On the night before we were scheduled to depart, my brother-in-law and I decided to see the night sights in the PatPong –the dark underbelly of the city. My wife wisely opted out of this excursion to the dark side and turned us loose, with a limo driver who knew all the in-spots and promised her that he’d keep us out of trouble. So, off we went….
 
If you’ve never seen this, it’s really something outside the experience of most Americans. It’s kind of like a combination open air market, bordello, red light district, bar, block party and sporting arena, all in one. I’ve never seen anything quite like this, before or since. It’s set back in a separate area, under neon lit “gates” that spell out “PatPong” and define its entrance. The area encompasses what seemed to be multiple city blocks, with people spilling out onto the streets from stores and bars on either side of the street. Cars were forbidden, so everyone wandered in the street, where all the action was. And vendors of everything imaginable, from clothes, to produce, to dried fish and chickens, you name it, lining the streets in rows upon rows. 
 
There were many bars on either side of the street, with a variety of entertainments including singing, snake charming, live s.ecks shows (the real thing–not faked), rooster fights and kick boxing contests that, between regular matches, invited the bar’s patrons to get in the ring with the fighters, for prize money, if they won. 
 
Now this last was what I was reminded of by the MMA. The young guys in these fighting rings were well trained Muay Tai (Thai Kickboxing) fighters. And these guys were good. And in superb condition. Little guys, but MAN! They were lightning fast and they packed a helluva wallop! Let me tell you, the fight promoter who put up the purse for any bout with a spectator was NOT putting his money at risk.
 
These fighters not only can punch you, with these oversized boxing gloves, but they can easily kick you right in the head, or drive a knee into your chest, with such speed and power that it can burst your heart. Literally. You would have to be very drunk, or very crazy to climb in the ring with these guys, unless you harbored a death wish.  (Hey if you wanted to die, you could always go off with one of the AIDS infested girls from those live shows.) 
 
It was really something to see. I wouldn’t be entertained by a steady diet of it, but once was pretty interesting, in a voyeuristic way. I remember thinking about the effects of the repetitive impacts on the fighters’ knees. No sore knees there.  But why?
 
Well, they hyperflex their knees, so their kneecaps are pulled BELOW the groove in the lower thigh bone (the trochlea groove) and they actually strike with the condyles of the femur. So the joint itself doesn’t suffer from the impacts. Only the target does.
 
And of course, these guys train morning noon and night. Just great muscle development. So their muscles help to absorb shock, as well as driving their kicks.  The exercises they do are naturally extremely intense. But the principles they follow are the same as those I teach you in my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM. See it here at   http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
So if you’re ever in Bangkok, and want to absorb some real “local color,” try a walk on the wild side in the PatPong district. But be sure you go with a guide, for your own protection. Plenty of pick-pockets there, to go with everything else. Better to be safe. But it IS something to see–at least once.
 
Til next time, my friend, keep up your exercises, to prevent or eliminate knee pain, and restore function:  http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html   And be well. Talk to you again soon.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved