I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been getting a slew of weird phishing scam emails, usually from Nigeria, but more recently from Asia. Sometimes they are really complex with only minor mistakes in syntax or grammar to give away the fact that the author is not a native English speaker (or writer, as the case may be). 

I usually mark them by reflex as phishing scams and move on. Here’s one example that arrived yesterday: 

“business proposal
I am Mr Vincent Hong  Non Executive Director of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd, hong kong. I have a deceased client funds in my bank of $44.5MUSD and i need you to front as beneficiary, your benefit is 50% of the total funds. If you are interested contact me with your name, address and phone number, for more information on vincenthong50@yahoo.com.hk
Yours Truly,
Mr Vincent Hong.” 

Cute, huh? They all follow the same basic pattern, though some are more artful than others. Someone has died or someone has been left a staggeringly large sum that cannot be accessed directly by the correspondent. You see, he needs YOU to access the funds, and then you can both split them. All he needs is your personal information…. 

Which, of course, is the point of this exercise. 

You truly need to be a complete and venal moron to fall for this stuff. 

But given the state of the world, I guess there’s no shortage of those. And these emails must work, because I keep getting more of them. Maybe you do, too. 

The appeal is directly to the “greed gene” that resides in all of us, to some extent. Now, as Gordon Gekko (and Ayn Rand, too, come to think of it) once famously said, “Greed is good.” And, given the right circumstances and as an appropriate motivator to accomplishment, that may well be true (depending on how you define “greed”). 

But stupidity is bad…and will one day cost you dearly, if not get you killed. 

Again echoing the philosophy of Ayn Rand, the only thing that is really fair and should be pursued is a value for value relationship, one where everybody wins. 

You point to Mother Theresa as an icon of selflessness and I reply that she was spiritually fulfilled, in a way that most mattered to her, by her own selflessness. That in no way detracts from her acts of kindness or her saintly example. I’m just saying that we should acknowledge that we are all hard wired in a certain way, saints and sinners alike, for our own gratification, advantage and survival.  It’s just that saints are gratified by more ethereal objectives than the rest of us…and tend to increase the overall balance toward the good in this world. 

When you do something nice for someone, especially if it’s done anonymously, don’t you feel good? Don’t you feel happy and gratified when you give someone else a gift? Of course you do. And, deep down, that’s  why you do it. 

In my opinion, the only thing you can really trust in this world is enlightened self interest. 

Look, when I was injured and could no longer operate, in a very real way, my life was over. I had been educated and trained to be a surgeon for most of my life. And, with all due humility, I was among the best of my kind at what I did. I was at the peak of my profession, in the prime of my life. 

BAM! In a split second, all that fundamentally changed. It was all taken away. So I was a bit flummoxed for a while, struggling to get my bearings, to find a new purpose in my life. 

And part of that was me wanting to be of use, to be able to give to others what I had learned…and to use that to make a living, the way I did before, when I was a surgeon. That is a great part of why I love Medicine. It is the knowledge and the gratification that I have touched someone else’s life and made theirs better. I believe, at the core of my soul, that there is no higher calling than that of healer. 

So today, when I impart the same advice I gave to countless patients, over the years, to my new friends on the internet, I get the same sense of gratification that I’m doing some good for people and helping to make their lives better. 

For years, I saw many patients with knee and hip pain, operated a quite a few (though only perhaps 10% of those I saw) and had a high rate of success with both my surgical and my non-surgical patients. Today, of course, I can’t operate anymore, but I can still give great advice with my books, special reports, DVD’s, CD’s and courses. 

For example, the specially modified, strategically selected knee pain exercises and stretches in my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD 

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html 

are based on those that I prescribed for my patients over the years and the very ones I used myself, after my own arthroscopic knee surgery in 2005. That’s how I KNOW they work and that they will work for you, too. And best of all, you don’t even have to pay hundreds of dollars for an orthopaedic consultation! 

Same thing with my premium, ultra pure, enteric coated, pharmaceutical grade fish oil POWERHOUSE OMEGA FORMULA and my other life sustaining supplements. 

http://www.favoriteformulas.com 

They’re the best of their kind…which is why I take them myself, as does my family. Hey, I wouldn’t recommend them to you, or put my name and picture on them if I didn’t believe in them. Sure they cost a little more…the best always does. But it’s always worth it. And what’s worth more than your health? Remember: value for value. That’s the only kind of a business proposal, or relationship, you can trust. Til next time, my friend, be well. 

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health, 

Dr. Bill 

“The Wellness Warrior”         TM 

I just completed the finishing touches on my second daily email, the one for Dr. Bill’s Favorite Formulas. This had to do with the design flaws of seats on the major new attraction at Harry Potter’s Wizarding World, here in Orlando, at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. Seems they made seats to fit slender Brits (or large Koreans), not big, strapping American Lardassians, as my pal Sean calls them.

If you don’t already subscribe to that newsletter, you might want to drop by and become a subscriber there, as well:

http://www.favoriteformulas.com

Anyway, that put me in mind of one of my more indelible experiences as a young fresh intern, still wet behind the ears. This was at the Medical College of Virginia teaching hospital (or MCV, as it was and probably still is called). This was in July and August of 1973.

I was fresh out of Medical School at that time, had no idea what I was doing and was chronically sleep deprived. Yeah, like only two hours a night, average. Not a misprint-2 hours. Absolutely insane. But that’s the way it used to be in internship.

I’m proud I survived it. But I’d never want to repeat it.

The stated theory was that they trained you to do the right thing instinctively, without thinking…because you were far too tired to be able to think. Really crazy, when you think about it. And laws have been passed since then, to prevent this kind of abuse-not for the good of the interns, but the good of the public. But, nuts as it was, it worked. I still do things by reflex that were burned into me during this training period.

Personally, I always thought it was just slavery in another form, a way to get cheap labor. I remember that I got paid a bit over $7000…a YEAR. Before taxes! But I digress….

One of my least favorite jobs was to admit the “Fatties.” These were morbidly obese individuals who came to MVC for intestinal bypass surgery. Now in those days, endoscopy had not yet been conceived of, much less invented. This was all open surgery on truly gigantic human beings.

There was a special VIP building where they all came. MCV had gotten an excellent reputation for being THE place to go for this kind of procedure, what we would call today “a center of excellence.” I would get a call in the middle of the night to go see a new admission over there and admit them.

Just try listening to the heart or the breath of a 400 or 500 pound person. You can’t hear a damn thing! There’s too much tissue between that frail organ and the outside world. I’m convinced today that whatever I thought I heard must have been my own heartbeat, not theirs. As for abdominal palpation, feeling anything through all that extra tissue was a joke. But, I still had to do it.

Biggest guy I ever saw in my life was over 750 pounds, no joke.

Guy sat on some kind of stool: gigantic body topped by this relatively teeny head. Legs like tree trunks…literally. Oh yeah. I was also supposed to draw blood on these behemoths, when I couldn’t even feel a vein through all that. Somehow, I managed.

Once, I started to ask a woman a question, while taking her history, fell asleep midsentence and slid down the wall (or so she told me), only to awaken with a start some 20 minutes later and finish my sentence. She said I looked so pitiful and tired she didn’t have the heart to waken me. But I was in trouble, as I was now 20 minutes late, thanks to her kindness.

I sometimes wonder how I managed to survive all that.

Once the H & P (history and physical) was done, I had to meet the patient in the O.R., with the surgeon, where I got to hold retractors for hours, trying to stave off boredom and stay awake, while the surgical team labored long to hook up their intestines in such a way as to short circuit digestion.

This allowed them to lose weight dramatically and very quickly-if they survived. Not all of them did.

One young guy I remember was around 450 or 500 pounds, and in his late 20′s or early 30′s. He was a businessman-he owned and operated an adult movie store, of all things. He had a bypass, but postop, he developed serious metabolic problems from the inherent electrolyte abnormalities…and died. Too bad. Nice guy, from what I remember.  

See, when they changed the intestinal hookup, they also changed how certain nutrients were absorbed (or NOT absorbed). So electrolyte abnormalities and all manner of deficiencies were potential problems, not to mention DVT’s (deep vein thromboses), a real problem and a potentially lethal one, for any bed bound patient, but especially for the morbidly obese.

So these were not benign procedures. Far from it. It’s still hard to believe that a human being can grow to be that large. But it CAN happen, I assure you. After being involved with these procedures and seeing all this first hand, I was no fan of “The Fatties,” that’s for sure.

Luckily, today such surgery has been renamed bariatric surgery and has been facilitated by modern endoscopic techniques and a much better understanding of the nutritional chemistry involved.

But it’s still a major undertaking. And still a real risk for major complications, deadly and otherwise. So I don’t recommend you go that route, unless you have no other choice-which would be that you are at least 100 pounds overweight, have a concomitant disease, like diabetes and/or high blood pressure and/or heart disease and are in real danger of dying, from obesity-related disease. And, of course, if you have failed to lose weight in the usual, non-surgical ways.

But, take it from me, you’re far better off if you do it the old fashioned way. All you need to do is to follow the simple steps I outline in my Special Report: Dr. Bill’s Magic Bullet Fat Loss Program

http://www.favoriteformulas.com/magicbulletfatloss  

In addition to my recommendations on diet and how to kill your appetite, you will need to boost your metabolic rate, to increase your fat burning capability. I’d recommend my newly expanded, completely updated PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD,

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html

which is not only for relieving knee pain, but can be used for fat loss too, since it works some of the largest muscles in the body.

Unless you have a peerless potion for weight loss, or a magic wand, like Harry Potter, this is the closest thing to a “magic” result you’re likely to get. And at least this way, you’ll not only avoid “fatty” surgery, but you’ll be able to ride the latest and greatest of Orlando attractions, too.

Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”       TM

Who can forget the spectacular kicks of the immortal Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon? Lightning fast and way, way up to there. Made for a truly memorable show. But in reality, in a real life situation, in real combat, those high flying crescent and side kicks that look so good on the silver screen, explosive and powerful though they appear, are NOT what most fighters would use.

No. They would opt for a short, fast and effective low side kick, like kansetsu geri, from Goju, a downward sweeping kick to the side of your opponent’s knee, or shin, that can easily rupture the entire lateral side of his joint, shredding his lateral collateral ligament, posterior-lateral corner, lateral capsule and possibly the iliotibial band.

The same thing is true of fencing, or knife fighting, or any conflict. What makes for good, exciting movies is not the same as what is effective in the real world.

Why the difference? Well in the movies, or T.V., you want to depict what LOOKS good. In real life, you want what WORKS. It’s rare that they are the same thing. But isometric exercises, like those I teach in my completely updated and newly expanded PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD, is one good example.

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html

To refresh your memory, I’m defining isometric exercises as those in which muscles contract without shortening. This means that tension in the muscles is generated, but there is no joint motion. For example, if you tense your biceps with your elbow in a fixed position, that’s an isometric contraction.

As you may know, I use these static isometrics for the muscles around the knee, both as an initial step to strengthen weak quadriceps and as an adjunct to other more active exercises, to specifically increase the tensile strength of ligaments and tendons.

Without strong ligaments and tendons, you CAN’T build strong muscles. True, tendon, its attachments on both ends (muscle on the one end and bone on the other) and muscle are all part of a single functional contractile unit, designed to move a joint through space, carrying a load. And ligaments, which hold a joint together are similar to tendons, in that they are mainly protein fibers with only a few fibrous cells and a few blood vessels throughout  their length.

But both tendons and ligaments are strengthened by tension exercises by a phenomenon called…(wait for it…) the piezoelectric effect. There is an actual weak electromagnetic field generated by tension in a tendon (or a ligament, or a bone). This field causes the fibers to line up, all in the same direction as the orientation of the field. This results in maximal strength of the structure, with the least amount of material.

Microscopically, the fibers that penetrate the bone, to anchor the tendon there (Sharpey’s Fibers), can be made stronger by these static exercises. Even though they sure don’t look very exciting.

But remember, to go back to my martial arts analogy, great masters in Kung Fu made their students “sit” in the Horse Stance for long periods of time, as the very first step in teaching them. It was their intention to build a strong foundation, before anything else would be taught.

They may not have known the scientific explanation why this worked (like you do, now). But they knew from the experience of many generations that it did.

This is not to say that the usual moving exercises (isotonics) are inferior. For proper development and strength, you need both.

But “sitting” in the Wall Chair, or holding the Horse Stance for time is contributing something very important, on the microscopic level-tensile strength at the tendinous attachments and within the tendons themselves. So you need to remember that, when it comes to effective exercise, you need to do not just what looks good, but what WORKS.

Now, if you want to further enhance your body’s healing response, you may want to boost your own body’s growth hormone secretion. There are a few good ways to do that, but by far the easiest way is to rub a little Trans-D Tropin on your forearms, two or three times a day.

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/trans_d_tropin.html

This is a transdermal (absorbed through your skin) cream, a mixture of botanicals that results in you releasing your OWN growth hormone from your OWN pituitary gland, back to the levels you enjoyed in your 20′s.

Safe and effective, it is NOT growth hormone itself (which is frightfully expensive and potentially dangerous, if used incorrectly), but is a growth hormone RELEASING hormone. So you are always within safe, normal parameters, though higher than your current, pitifully low levels, typical of all adults.

I use this myself, in addition to other supplements designed to enhance healing. In addition to increased strength and endurance, Trans-D Tropin will help you improve your sleep, boost your immune system, enhance your sex life, smooth your skin and turn back the hands of your biological “clock.” When you take that with my POWERHOUSE OMEGA FORMULA

http://www.favoriteformulas.com

an ultra pure, enteric coated, pharmaceutical grade fish oil, you have a winning combination for optimal health, anti-aging and recovery. It’s what I do myself. And it’s what I recommend you do, too. Try it and see if you don’t feel better. Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”     TM

The day before yesterday was the summer solstice. The sun has been playing peek-a-boo with storm clouds, which is typical for Central Florida in summer (lightning capital of the world, don’t you know). And it’s been in the high 90′s all week and promises to be for the rest of the week, as well.

So, naturally, it’s time to think about snow and ice and how they’re hazardous to your health.

After my back injury in 2001, I could literally tell when it was going to storm, whether that was rain or snow. And in winter, it was much more pronounced. I’ve mentioned before that this is due to the baroreceptors-specialized nerve endings around the joints, that are responsive to any fall in the barometric pressure.

As luck would have it, we had a big snow storm and IU had to go out in it. I was in a grocery store parking lot, which was broken up by large man-made mountains of snow, deposited at intervals by the snow plows. The roads were clear by this time, but parking lots and side streets were still covered by freezing snow.

As I got out of the car, gingerly, I took one step, then another and then…my feet flew out from under me in a split secone, and I went down, BOOM…right on both my knees.

OUCH.

The sudden impact didn’t do much for my tender back, either. I remember thinking that I’d about had it with this crap. That may have been when we started thinking about Florida.

And, of course, my knees were tender for some several days thereafter, thanks to that direct impact of landing directly on my kneecaps. My ol’ pal chondromalacia patellae (which I’ve had for years, at least the late 80′s) started to act up again.

And no wonder. Direct impact is one of the most common causes of that degenerative, painful condition. Whether it’s a fall, like this one of mine, or a more serious injury, like the direct impact of your knees against a dashboard in a car wreck (called, appropriately enough, a “dashboard” injury), softening of the cartilage behind the kneecap is usually the result of such injuries.

The other way you can get it is by repetitive smaller impacts, or by maltracking. This latter term is a very common condition. It means that your kneecap doesn’t ride centrally in the groove of your lower thigh bone, like it’s supposed to. Instead, it is pulled toward the outside of the knee by muscle imbalance and/or tightness of the fibrous ligamentous tissues at the lateral, or outside, aspect of the knee.

This abnormal path of the patella appears to apply too much pressure to one side of the retropatellar cartilage, and too little on the other side. The result is degenerative softening.

I have some really cool intraoperative pictures of this disease in my LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html

if you have any interest. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words…. You’d have a whole new understanding of this condition if you could SEE it.

Anyway, I immediately started the short arc exercises that are the mainstay of therapy for the treatment of this annoying disease. Short arc knee extensions, complemented by specially modified squats and leg presses quickly strengthened the muscles around my knees and quickly reduced the pain and tenderness.

See, just any old exercises won’t do. Some, in fact, will make you hurt much worse. The idea is to do strategic knee pain exercises, like the ones I teach in my newly expanded and fully updated PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html

In fact, if you follow my instructions, the odds are very good that you will reduce or eliminate your knee pain within 30 days…and some do it quicker than that!

Of course, to reduce pain more quickly, you need to reduce tissue inflammation. That’s where my POWERHOUSE OMEGA FORMULA comes in.

http://www.favoriteformulas.com

It’s an ultra pure, enteric coated, pharmaceutical grade fish oil, which, in addition to its many proven heart healthy properties, has known natural anti-inflammatory effects, as well. That’s one of the main reasons that I take two caps, twice a day, every day.

It helps to keep my knee and back pain under control, rain or shine …or snow. It’s one of the best things you can do for your entire body. And over time, you’ll suddenly notice that many of those chronic aches and pains that you’ve collected with age just aren’t there any more.

Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”      TM

I just got a question in this week’s batch of emails that I thought I’d comment on. The question came from a presumably middle aged guy, who had previously had arthroscopic surgery, with partial meniscectomies in both knees AND bilateral ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) reconstructions-whether by open surgery, or arthroscopic assisted was not made clear.

Anyway, he said that he has some anterior knee pain, from “extensive chondromalacia patellae.” His question was whether or not he should continue to do full depth Hindu Squats, as part of his workout.

First of all, I think he’s a smart guy, just for asking the question. So many people just continue on with what they’re doing, in defiance of all logic and common sense. But, as the man once said, “Common sense ain’t common.”

So, it’s a good question. Rather than just giving you the answer, so you can then forget it, let’s look at his situation and try to arrive at a reasonable conclusion based on analysis of the clinical facts.

This is a man who is middle aged, so by definition, his regenerative powers are not what they once were, in his teens and twenties. Next, he’s had multiple surgeries, on all his menisci and both his ACL’s. Any one of these injuries can be a source of arthritic changes in the articular cartilage of his knees. He has them ALL.

This would suggest that he probably already HAS arthritis in his knees, to a greater or lesser degree. This is further suggested by his statement that he has “extensive chondromalacia patellae.”

Now, as I point out in my LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN,

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html

chondromalacia patellae (literally, “soft cartilage of the kneecap,” in Greek) is a degenerative condition of the articular cartilage behind, or under, the kneecap. You can think of it as a “first cousin” of arthritis, which may (or may not) progress to full blown arthritis, over time.

While that retropatellar cartilage is soft, increasing the compression across that compartment, which is what happens when you squat, kneel, attempt to run, jump, or climb stairs, elicits pain. Why? Two basic reasons why.

1.Because the soft cartilage is no longer as protective of the underlying bone, which is where all the nerves are (there are NONE in cartilage itself). So increased pressure penetrates to the bone more than normal, which is perceived as pain. 2.Also, this condition is accompanied by inflammation, which irritates the lining membrane of the knee joint (the synovium). This, too, is perceived as pain.

Now, if we assemble all the known facts, we can see that full depth squats of any kind will cause anterior knee pain AND aggravate the known pathological conditions in these knees, including chondromalacia and any additional arthritic changes, as well. Therefore, the answer is…DON’T do full depth squats, whatever style they might be, while you have acute knee pain. It will only make the pathologies worse and may help them to progress.

That is not to say that you can’t do squats at all. Development of the quadriceps is a key to changing the dynamics of the knee and reducing pain and inflammation. This is especially true of the VMO (vastus medialis muscle), which pulls directly on the kneecap.

But there are specific techniques to do that, like the isometric Wall Chair and isotonic Hack Squats, as well as the specially modified form of Hindu Squats I teach in my fully updated and newly expanded PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html

And they must be applied strategically-by which I mean, you must select exercises, with a thought for which muscles to develop more and which less, to alter the dynamics of the joint in a favorable way.

And any exercise program for these degenerative conditions should be supplemented by “the dynamic duo” of my ultra pure, enteric coated, pharmaceutical grade fish oil, DR. BILL’S POWERHOUSE OMEGA FORMULA and my newest supplement for arthritis pain, my JOINT HEALTH FORMULA, with the unique anti-inflammatory extract from New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel

http://www.favoriteformulas.com

http://www.favoriteformulas.com/jointhealth/.

So there you have it. This is a good way to approach any and all degenerative conditions of the joints. In brief, don’t do anything that aggravates the joint and increases pain. Reduce inflammation and develop strength and flexibility of muscles, tendons and ligaments around the joint, as pain tolerance permits.

This is a proven, time-tested approach that WORKS. It’s what I use myself and what I’ve always used for my patients. So I KNOW it works. And, it makes sense.

So, to reiterate: full squats, of any kind, not a good idea with acute pain, especially in cases of arthritis. But limited depth, modified squats are an essential part of any good rehabilitation program, designed to limit pain and restore function.

Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”              TM

Earlier this month I received an obviously well-meaning and sincere email from one of our European subscribers, about the now passed Health Care Reform Bill, which we will refer to hereafter as ObamaCare (mainly because that seems to annoy its supporters). This is not the first such communication I’ve received from a European, mystified as to why I oppose this legislation. But it is one of the most well-thought out and coherent emails, so I will use this as an opportunity to explain my point of view.

Because this man is clearly well-meaning, I felt he deserved a thoughtful, intelligent and rational response. For that reason, I’ve waited til now, when I have a bit more time to devote to an appropriate answer that I hope will address his concerns.

Here, now, is the email. My response follows.

“June 1, 2010

Dear Doctor Bill,

Yesterday, I saw a report on the TV about heavy armed American militia, training for the riot against Obama’s health care reform, who is accused of violating fundamental rights of the American people.
 Now it´s not my business to interfere in the politics of your country, but I can inform you, that Germany has an obligatory health insurance for all working people since 1871- introduced by the chancellor Bismarck under Emperor William I. (who was known as extremely conservative).
 

As a big fan of the TV series “Emergency Room,” I know that millions of Americans have no insurance at all and depend on the charity of doctors, who work in their spare time in “free clinics” and treat them at no charge.
 

So I cannot understand, why a common health insurance is a child of the devil and must be fought by all available means!

With my best wishes for you and the whole American People,
  
Yours sincerely,

Gerhard Schoenfeld”

Thank you Gerhard, for your concerns and your question. I will do my best to explain my own concerns and objections and I hope they will then make sense to you.

First, I would point out that this is a very large country of some 320 million plus people, probably more. We have a very polyglot society, which does include some millions of people who do not have health care insurance.

This is a very different situation from that of Sweden, France, the U.K., or your own Germany, where you have a somewhat smaller, more homogeneous society, with very different values from those of the majority of Americans. Also, your system is more socialist, in many respects, and your people seem content with that. So it reflects what most of your countrymen want.

The majority of the American people are NOT in favor of socialism or this legislation. It’s not what we want. It was rammed down our collective throats, using highly questionable legislative procedures, against our will. As a group, most of us do NOT trust the government to be an effective, efficient provider of health care services. And we don’t like being forced to do anything-it’s against our nature.

We believe that, given the potential unlimited demand that this will engender, we simply cannot afford this entitlement, even if it was a good idea. Based on past history, the costs will be astronomical and far in excess of what is projected (and what’s projected is well over a TRILLION dollars). We simply don’t have the money. Borrowing ever more is not a tenable solution.

It is being done, not for the good of the American people, but to create a permanent class, dependent on government for health care and everything else and as an excuse for government to more completely control our lives, since virtually everything can ultimately be considered a “health care issue.”

Because we hold liberty as our highest value, we strongly object to forced redistribution of our income and interference in our lives, which is the real agenda for this “ObamaCare” legislation.

We also object to some bureaucrat deciding what care we may have and may not have, based on what it costs. Women with breast cancer in England were denied an expensive drug, that could be life saving, because it was too expensive.

Frankly, this last is the worst aspect, from my own point of view.

The number of the uninsured and the under-insured is vastly exaggerated, for political purposes. You have undoubtedly heard numbers all over the place, from over 46 million to 30. The actual number of citizens without health insurance is closer to around 12 million.

Many of the “uninsured” have chosen to be. Young people, who still believe in their own invincibility and do not yet have a sense of their own mortality, may choose to buy something else with the money, instead of an insurance policy.

It may not be wise, but that’s what freedom is all about. You are free to make unwise decisions and must then bear the consequences of your own actions.

Then, there are quite a few millions who are illegal aliens. They don’t belong here and many of us object to our taxes paying for them and all their brood. Mind you, NO ONE is ever turned away from an Emergency Room-everyone receives care, if needed, by law. But providing health care for a horde of people who should not be our responsibility is very expensive and makes it more difficult to provide care for those who DO deserve it, as citizens, or legal residents. Especially when we can’t afford to pay for what we have already.

And in general, at least here, there is nothing that government can’t make worse. You have only to look at the debacle of the governmental response to Katrina and now, the oil spill in the Gulf. These people are incompetent, at best. It’s not a matter of political party-they’re ALL incompetent-that’s why they’re in government to start with.

I’ve made a number of suggestions in the past to provide health care for those who can’t afford it.

Here’s the capsule form: give doctors and institutions tax credits, dollar for dollar, for treating indigent patients. Eliminate the current lottery-like treatment of medical malpractice and its associated costs. Tort reform is crucial. Encourage wellness and preventive care, to reduce costs and promote best practices, for the best results.

Simple. Everyone gets care. Docs are given tax breaks and fairness in the malpractice mess, that reduces costs and it costs the taxpayers zip.

But don’t hold your breath. This plan would reduce the power of the politicians to choose winners and losers. So, fat chance….

So there it is. Basically, we believe in the free market, private solutions and private health care choices and deeply mistrust the government (which has proven it richly deserves our mistrust).

BTW, don’t believe everything you see in the media (like the militia stuff). Our press is now ideologically driven to support Obama, whenever possible, and demonstrably dishonest.

Sorry this was so long winded, but I hope you now have a better understanding of where I’m coming from. And, of course, there are those who disagree with me. I do appreciate your concerns, Gerhard. Many thanks for your good wishes and your question.

Which ever way the health care debate goes from here, I strongly urge everyone to get and stay fit, so you don’t need to deal with whatever system finally emerges. Get some daily exercise…

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html

and take some pharmaceutical grade fish oil daily, as well.

http://www.favoriteformulas.com

Do those two things, if you do nothing else, and you’ll be way ahead of the game. Til next time, my friend, be well. And have a great weekend.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”             TM

The last time I saw my father-in-law, he was as feisty as usual. He’s finally taken my advice to use a cane on a regular basis, to take pressure off his arthritic knee and back. He was a general contractor and mason for well over 50 years, though he’s retired and disabled, now.

This is a guy who used to dig entire foundations for homes and even office buildings, by hand. He was known for working til all hours and even shoveling a couple of tons of sand (no exaggeration), just because he was bored.

Well, all that overloading of his very strong, but ultimately human frame in the past has caused him to suffer the aches and pains of arthritis now, in the present.

The same is true for all of us. The “sins” of the past come back to haunt us, in the form of various degenerative diseases and the disabilities that come with them.

In his case, it’s taken me well over a dozen years to get him to finally use a cane. And on occasion, he even uses two. He was amazed at how much better he felt when he did. I wryly told him that I wasn’t surprised, because I don’t tell him stuff to hear myself talk; occasionally, I actually know what I’m talking about.

It like Kahlil Gibran once wrote: “A prophet is forever without honor in his own land.” Or, more prosaically, “familiarity breeds contempt.” Or even, “no man is a hero to his valet.”

If they know you outside of your role as a knowledgeable  authority figure, or worse, from BEFORE you became an authority figure, you can forget about expecting to receive the respect you think you’re due. It’s just the way it is.

I had the same thing with my mother, when she had a medical problem. I would give her good advice; she would listen carefully. Then, she would nod and say, “I’m going to check that out with the REAL doctor (meaning her G.P.).”

It cut no ice with her that people came from all over the world to pay big dollars for my advice, as much as for my skills. To her, I would always be little Billy, her son. And anything I had to say was suspect.

It’s funny, when you think about it. Maybe you’ve had the same experience in your own life.

In any case, my father-in-law now uses his cane all the time. But not just for walking. No, he now uses it to poke people who might be impeding his path and nudge them out of his way!

We use a wheelchair for him for long stretches. It’s not uncommon for him to tap the unfortunates in his path with that cane, like he was in the tilting yard. Someday, he’s going to poke the wrong guy….

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that with regard to back pain and pain in our other joints, we usually reap what we sow, as youngsters. Yes, there are some genetic predispositions, but much of what we develop, later on in life, is a function of what punishment we mete out to our joints, while young and active.

Long distance running is one of my pet peeves. If you like to run, God bless you, but don’t be surprised if you have some arthritic aching down the road.

Here’s the thing: running is accompanied by a lot of impact loading to the back and the weight bearing joints (ie., the feet, ankles, knees and hips).

Now, your joints were designed to withstand running, while you were young. They’re coated with a rubbery, strong, resilient layer of articular cartilage, which is great for absorbing shock. The structures within and around the knee, especially the menisci, but also the ligaments, tendons and the muscles, all share the load and help to disperse any impacts.

So long as your joint surfaces are not damaged or degenerative, all the running in the world will not CAUSE arthritis. BUT, if there IS any degenerative damage, impact will accelerate it, causing the rapid onset of symptoms, chiefly stiffness and pain. That’s why I usually tell people to walk fast, instead-all the same benefits, none of the impacts. But, most ignore me and run anyway.

So, it’s not uncommon for those of us who are now middle aged to feel the twinges and aches of early arthritis. These are just a hint of things to come.

You must remember, from the standpoint of Nature, without the interference of modern Medicine, you would probably have been dead in your 30′s or 40′s, from one thing or another. When you’re past 50, you’re kind of past your initial “warranty period.” So you can’t be surprised when you begin to experience this.

Now, look-I don’t like it any better than you do. And, given my background and education, I know all too well, and better than you do, what the future could hold. And the idea of increasing joint and back pain and progressive disability doesn’t thrill me.

That’s why I DO the exercises that I recommend to you, the same ones I used to rehabilitate myself after my arthroscopic knee surgery, the same ones I used to rehabilitate my patients for nearly a quarter century: the exercises in my completely updated and newly expanded PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD.

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html

It’s also why I take the dual natural anti-inflammatory compounds, POWERHOUSE OMEGA FORMULA, an enteric coated, ultra pure and highly concentrated pharmaceutical grade fish oil and my new JOINT HEALTH FORMULA, with the potent, proven, pain relieving unique marine oil extract made from New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel.

http://www.favoriteformulas.com

http://www.favoriteformulas.com/jointhealth

I actually take both of these myself, every day, for a very simple reason. They work.

These highly purified, natural compounds have virtually NO similar adverse effects to those seen with NSAID meds, but help to quell those early symptoms, by interfering with the chemistry of inflammation in the body and helping to preserve the cartilage in the joints.

So if you have the early signs of achey, painful joints and want to slow down your path to future, full-blown arthritis, then try these safe, conservative and non-surgical methods. Believe me, they make a real difference!

Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”        TM

One of the most common questions I was asked, during my many years in practice in orthopaedic surgery, was “What about injections? I’ve heard that they can grow new cartilage back.”

Well, that would be nice. But unfortunately, that’s not the case. In fact, it’s a mish-mash of a couple of different techniques that are used in moderate to severe cases of arthritis.

Let me try to clarify things a bit.

There are several different kinds of injections. And there are a few different ways that we can grow “new” cartilage, but they DON’T work for arthritis.

Let’s look at injections, first.

The simplest injections are local anesthetics, use to numb the knee, as a whole, or at specific points, in and around the knee, like the attachment of the collateral ligaments. These shots are used not only for pain relief, but also to confirm a clinical impression of which structure is injured.

For example, if you believe there is a bursitis that is causing pain, injection of that bursa (“sac,” in Latin) and subsequent relief of pain confirms that indeed, that is the site of the injury.

Usually, such injections are combined with steroids (technically glucocorticoids, like cortisone). That way, there is not only immediate relief, but longer term relief, as well.

These steroids are used because they are very potent anti-inflammatory agents. But they are a double-edged sword: they also reduce the body’s ability to fend off an infection and they slow down any reparative processes in the articular cartilage. So they should be used sparingly and normally only when other, non-invasive measures have failed.

Another kind of injection is called viscosupplementation. This involves injection of hyaluronic acid, a normal constituent of joint fluid, into an arthritic joint. It sort of acts like injecting DW-40 oil into a rusty hinge or engine. It helps to lubricate the damaged surfaces and relieves pain about 75-80% of the time. It may provide relief of pain, when it works for 6-12 months. And it can be repeated, a number of times, if needed.

The downsides? Well, it’s expensive (though a LOT cheaper than surgery). It involves a minor invasion of the body, so infection, though exceedingly rare with good sterile technique, is a possibility. If you’re allergic to eggs, or chickens, it’s not for you. And it requires a series of shots, between three and five, a week apart, depending on the specific formulation.

But, it’s ideal for patients who would otherwise need joint replacement surgery, but who need to avoid or delay it, for social or medical reasons. And it burns no bridges-you can always do surgery, if need be.

But none of these injections address the underlying problem, which is progressive absence of cartilage on the weight bearing surfaces of the knee.

Now there ARE methods to “regrow” cartilage, but they have very limited application. Here’s why.

The techniques that have been developed are all surgical. They involve harvesting some cartilage cells from an arthroscopy and growing them in cell culture. Then, many weeks later, when the cells have grown, they are surgically implanted in a prepared “cup” within the cartilage. With luck, they will take root, so to speak, and grow new cartilage within that limited “cup.” For this to work, you need to have normal thickness cartilage all around, with only a localized defect (the “cup”), maybe 1-2 cm wide, maximum. If there are no “side walls” to make a receptacle    (ie., “cup”), the technique simple cannot work. Ditto for experimental stem cell methods.

That’s the problem-arthritis erodes broad areas of cartilage, so there is usually not enough thickness of cartilage to make any kind of receptacle to contain the cells.

These advanced techniques are ideal for young athletes who get a very limited area of cartilage loss, from a penetrating wound, or direct impact from an auto accident, let’s say. But they can’t work for those with arthritis. At least not at this time.

So you see, people hear about these different methods, kind of mix them up together, and get the idea that there is some kind of injection that can “grow new cartilage” in their knees.

I wish… But it’s just a common misunderstanding.

Now, there ARE techniques, including changes in diet, herbs, and specific supplements, like my JOINT HEALTH FORMULA

http://www.favoriteformulas.com/jointhealth

with New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel Extract that can reduce joint pain and help restore function. There are even local measures and very specific strategic exercises that can help to rid you of knee pain.

I’ve put a whole bunch of these non-operative measures together into a healing program called HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY:

http://www.drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html

It combines the best, most effective methods I’ve found, and those I’ve personally used, on myself or my patients, from across the entire medical spectrum, conventional, alternative and complementary. And best of all, these are methods that do no harm and do not preclude more aggressive measures, if they ever become necessary.

So, if you have chronic knee pain, especially if you have known arthritis, give these non-surgical treatments a try. You have nothing to lose but your pain.

Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”     TM