February 8, 2010

Well, Superbowl XLIV (or 44, which reminds us why Roman numerals were discarded) turned out to be a real contest. And a real surprise. My wife and I surely had a lot of company thinking that Manning’s Indianapolis Colts were going to mop the floor with Brees’ New Orleans Saints. And as the game started out, it looked as though that would be the story.

One of the more exciting moments was in the very first quarter, when Manning handed off the ball to Joesph Addai, number 29, who ran down the field for a touchdown. It just doesn’t get more exciting than that! But then, the tide slowly turned.

Manning’s passes were incomplete. Several calls by the referees were against the Colts, which made a huge difference in the outcome. And the underdogs from New Orleans, on their first showing in franchise history, The Saints went marchin’ in…to Superbowl History, as the 2010 NFL champions.

It had to be a bitter pill for the Colts, favored to win by nearly everyone. They never stopped trying. But finally, they just couldn’t catch up. And the Saints won it 31 to 17, when the smoke cleared.

Congratulations to Drew Brees, winning quarterback and MVP, and his team. They pulled it off! And the fans on Bourbon Street went wild (not that they don’t go wild, normally…).

The halftime show by The Who was pretty spectacular, visually, with lots of lasers, synchronized fireworks, and other great visual effects. The songs were a medley of their past hits and reminded us of what a great band they used to be. But Roger Daltrey couldn’t hit the high notes to “Pinball Wizard” and several other signature numbers. It was almost painful to listen.

It was a performance that reminded me of lines from that old Kenny Roger’s song “The Gambler:” …You gotta know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away….” But, that’s just my opinion.

On a positive note, there were no “wardrobe malfunctions,” for which we can all be thankful.

One thing I noted again and again, while watching the game: the punishment these men take in the course of a hard fought game is astounding. You can especially appreciate it on those slow motion replays, when you can see the enormous impacts they absorb and the awful, twisting forces that threaten to rip their knees apart (and sometimes do).

The only thing that saves them from permanent injury every time they’re hit (besides luck) is relative youth and pre-season training, using many of the very same exercises I teach in my newly expanded PAIN-FREE PROGRAM and the included EXERCISE DVD:

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

It does make you realize why their careers are usually short, though. No one can continue to absorb that much punishment, without long term consequences. Makes you appreciate a guy like Favre, dosen’t it?

And then, there were the commercials. Dorritos was a big sponsor this year. And, in my opinion, the nadir of taste was their bit with the guy in the coffin with all the Dorritos chips, at a funeral. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t think that was funny. It was just dumb.

But a few were cute. I liked the Clydesdale and the Bull commercial by Budweiser. And the sexy babes of GoDaddy.com are always pleasant on the eyes. Again, probably me, but overall, I just thought the advertisements this year were tepid, compared with those of past years. And they cost a reported million bucks a minute, too.

So, Superbowl 44 is history, now. Time to get on with everything else. I’m gonna pop a couple of my ultra pure, pharmaceutical grade fish oil caps 

http://www.drbillsformulas.com

take the rest of my vitamins and get my exercises in. Then, I have to finish a special gift for you, which you can download, IF you sign up for my emails again, later this week.

The time has nearly come for the switch to the new server. So, be prepared. And if you want to keep getting my musings, ravings, commentary and free medical info, opt-in again, when you get the notice. Til next time, my friend, be well. Talk with you soon.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,

Dr. Bill

“The Wellness Warrior”             TM

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 conventional and alternative treatments and exercises to relieve knee pain without surgery click on http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html

P.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, 2010 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD, FACS
All rights reserved

January 19, 2010

Last week, while I was perusing my emails for Dr. Bill’s Clinic, I came across a request from one of my older subscribers. By older, I mean (quite naturally) older than ME. Ever notice how when anyone talk about “old guys,” they always mean older than THEM. Right?
 
Anyway, this man is, shall we say, in late middle age, has stayed in good shape and has been a runner for years. Problem is that he recently had a sudden onset of severe knee pain, after running to catch a bus, or something.
 
He was seen by an orthopaedist, who after examining him, decided that he may well have a torn meniscus. 
 
As you may know, there are two crescent shaped fibrocartilages, called menisci, which lie between the end of the femur (thigh bone) and the upper tibia (shin bone), inside the knee. 
 
They act as cushions and guides for motion of the joint, especially in twisting, or cutting movements. For more about these and other causes of painful knee pathology, please refer to my LITTLE GREEN BOOK:  http://www.drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
Because these cartilage structures are invisible on standard x-rays, the doctor ordered an MRI scan of the offending knee. This scan is terrific, because it can show the structures and can predict if they are torn, with an accuracy of about 90-95%, on the medial (inside) compartment of the knee.
 
Sure enough, he had a torn medial meniscus. But he also had a surprise–he had almost completely bare bone exposed on the end of his femur, in the medial compartment. The guy was understandably shocked. How could he have such bad arthritis and not have felt it before this injury?
 
The answer is, this is not an uncommon picture. Sometimes, the articular cartilage becomes degenerative and gradually erodes away, exposing the bone. Though most people will feel this as significant pain, as it happens, a few will compensate (high pain threshhold, endorphins, etc.) and will feel nothing, at all. Until something happens, as did here, to DE-compensate his defenses against pain. THEN, he felt it.
 
Naturally, as a believer in natural healing, he was leery of knee surgery. And studies have demonstrated that arthroscopic surgery added nothing to just medicine, physical therapy and exercises, like those I teach in my newly updated and expanded PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD:  http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html 
 
HOWEVER…in this case, I DID recommend that he go ahead with surgery. Here’s why.
 
This man is very active and wants to remain so. He has exposed bare bone and therefore, will need at least a partial knee replacement, perhaps a total knee replacement, when his symptoms warrant it. But then, he will NOT be able to run or do any exercises involving impact, which could damage, or loosen the artificial implants.
 
He also has a significant tear, easily fixed, in addition to his arthritis. It seems reasonable to conclude that if the tear were “fixed,” he might well “buy time” and return to his asymptomatic state, at least for a while.
 
The studies that recommended against knee surgery for arthritis were talking about a general “clean out,” or debridement, NOT addressing a specific torn meniscus, with very specific mechanical symptoms, directly attributed to that damaged structure. When dealing with arthritis and knee pain, it IS best to be conservative, in most cases, where there is diffuse disease and no specific mechanical symptoms, as seen here.
 
That’s why I wrote my newest healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can get here: http://www.drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html 
 
The many treatments from both conventional and alternative medicine are designed to help you avoid the UNNECESSARY procedure. but if the surgery IS necssary, as it was here, then it should be done.
 
Well, he DID have the arthroscopy, he did, in fact have the tear that the MRI predicted, and he DID do very well. He’s now glad he did it, as he has returned to his preoperative state of virtually no pain. And the procedure has bought him time, which he can continue to enjoy, until further progress of his disease makes a total knee unavoidable.
 
I love being right. 
 
And the only other recommendation I gave him that I would give you, too, is to get on my Powerhouse Omega Formula, an ultra pure, highly concentrated, pharmaceutical grade fish oil, with a special enteric coating that prevents any fishy aftertaste and the dreaded “fish burps.”
 
http://www.drbillsformulas.com  
 
Omega 3′s have potent, long term anti-inflammatory properties that help to control the pain of arthritis, a as well as many heart and brain healthy effects, as well.
 
I also advised him to consider giving up the running, in favor of power walking, or hill sprints, which avoid the damaging shocks to the weight bearing joints, seen with running. If he listens to me, these measures may buy him even more time….
 
Til next time, my friend, be well.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
“The Wellness Warrior”    TM
 
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 conventional and alternative treatments and exercises to relieve knee pain without surgery click on http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html 
 
P.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, 2010 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD, FACS
All rights reserved

December 21, 2009

After our recent soujourn in the City, where we enjoyed New York, in all its Christmas finery, it was time to head back to Florida. We’re having the family over for Christmas, so we have a bunch of work to do, before the homestead is fit for company. And besides, the bride was missing her “babies” and needed a fur fix, bad.
 
So, after setting the Southampton thermostats down to subsistence levels, we headed out to the airport. As a matter of convenience, we use Southwest Airlines, out of Macarthur Airport in Islip, because it’s the closest to Southampton. It’s two hours (depending on traffic) to the closest City Airports, LaGuardia or JFK, so Macarthur, it is.
 
We arrived there in plenty of time, to discover that the flight to Orlando was packed. Not a spare seat on the plane. And we were reportedly heading out just ahead of a massive Winter snow storm (even though it isn’t officially Winter, yet). “Global Warming,” right?
 
Fortunately, I had the foresight to buy “Earlybird” seating, which is Southwest’s idea for giving you early boarding for open seating. They claim that this saves them money, though I have never understood how. Anyway, this gives you a better choice of seats, as you get on the plane sooner. With the flight so packed and no empty seats, it usually let’s us pick our seats, get our stuff stashed sooner, with less hassle. 
 
If Jetblue could ever get into that airport, we’d be on that airline, all the time. They have more comfortable seats, they have those cute little TV screens, on the back of the seat in front of you, and the planes are always clean. They also have assigned seating, none of this “lining up” crap.
 
Normally, we head right for the mid-plane exit row. There are several reasons why we like that: 1. The seats have considerably more legroom, 2. If, God forbid, there IS an emergency evacuation of the plane, I want the limiting factor to a quick exit to be cool, fast, competent hands, ie., MINE, not those of some panicky, bumbling moron, and 3. When the plane is NOT packed tight, we can often have an empty seat between us, the closest you can get to “First Class” seating on these “cattlecar” flights.
 
This time, however, someone had beaten us to our favorite row, a big burly guy. And there he was, all spread out in the window seat, with his knees open and his shoulders and arms spreading over the armrest. Great.
 
Now, you need to undetstand that the bride does NOT sit next to strangers, anywhere, if she can help it. No. That’s MY job. So I settled in, as best I could, between my wife on my right and King Kong on my left. Great.
 
Guy never budged. No tendency for accomodation, at all. And he was a big guy. He was pretty broad. He actually took up that space, and then some. It’s not like I could ask him to move over. There WAS no “over.” So, I twisted slightly in the seat, insinuating my left shoulder behind his right.  And so I sat… the entire. miserable. flight.
 
This would have been bad enough, but that slight twist was enough to set my warped, previously fractured spine off, causing some cramping and aches and pains, that I normally don’t have. Part of it was that my wife didn’t have enough of my POWERHOUSE OMEGA FORMULA  http://www.drbillsformulas.com  with her on this trip (I thought she packed them, she thought I’d packed them…), so I lent her some of mine.  And now, I could FEEL the difference of the lower daily dose.
 
If you ever doubted that pharmaceutical grade fish oil really DOES have natural anti-inflammatory properties, just try being without your accustomed dose for a few days and then talk to me. They’re real, alright.
 
So, to take my mind off the discomfort of my contortions, I started doing some of the isometrics that I teach in my all new, expanded PAIN-FREE PROGRAM exercises and stretches, like quad setting and seated calf raises, http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html   which have the added benefit of moving the blood through the lower legs, reducing the risk of a DVT (deep vein thrombosis, clots that can form in the veins of the legs, from long sitting in one position). 
 
Between these little leg exercise sessions and a few chest compressions (where you press one hand against the other and tense your pectoral muscles, while breathing deeply) and even a few head rolls, side to side and round and round, to loosen up my neck and spine, and a few cat naps, I finally made it. Hallelujah!
 
Talk about “flying the friendly skies…” this was one of the worst flights it has been my experience to suffer through, in quite some time. Thank God it was over. The bride, of course, was just fine. Just as well, though.  Don’t want her turning nasty…I’d still be suffering
 
Well, we picked up the luggage, retrieved the car and got back to the homestead, without incident. Luckily, it was fairly cool for Orlando, about 68-70 degrees, with a nice breeze, so I didn’t have to hear about the insufferable heat and humidity. But a helluva lot better than the 30′s we left in New York and the snow storm we had just missed, by my reckoning. I hate the cold. She hates the heat. How did we stay married for over 35 years? Just lucky, I guess….
 
Well, time for the big push, this week. Christmas is nearly upon us, so lots to do before the big guy in the red suit squeezes down our chimney, once more. Hope you’re getting your shopping done early. Talk to you soon. 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 conventional and alternative treatments and exercises to relieve knee pain without surgery click on http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html 
 
P.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, 2009 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD, FACS
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

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