December 9, 2009

Eary yesterday, while I was reading my email, I came across an article from News 8 Austin with the provocative title: “Doctors Eliminate Arthritis Without Surgery.” Wow. Who knew? That would be news to me and I should know. So, I clicked on the link and read the article.
 
Talk about your misleading headlines!
 
It was actually a pretty good, if superficial, review of what is known about arthritis: that the most common form is osteoarthritis, it affects more women than men, the hip and knee are the most commonly affected joints, it is made worse by increased body weight (ie., obesity) and in its advanced form, it can result in joint replacement surgery.
 
But as for eliminating arthritis, without surgery? Uhh…No.
 
They also reported that researchers at Tufts University (my old stomping grounds in Boston, where I did my fellowship in joint reconstruction, at the New England Baptist Hospital) had found that older people (above age 65) did better with Tai Chi. They described Tai Chi as a series of slow, rhythmic Chinese exercises. They also found similar benefits with walking, swimming, bike riding and other, comparable low impact exercises.
 
All this is very nice, but it’s old news. Nothing new in the whole thing. 
 
It’s been known for many years that low impact exercise is the thing to do with arthritis. The shock of impact with running, for example, will not cause arthritis. But if there is any pre-existing degenerative change in the cartilage surfaces of the joint (and who of us at, in, or past middle age doesn’t have some form of degeneration in our joints?), the impact will ACCELERATE the arthritis. This is the source of joint pain that seems to come suddenly, “out of the blue.”
 
I’ve been saying for years that low impact exercise is the way to maintain your joint motion, while improving your heart and lung reserves and lowering your blood pressure and blood lipids, like cholesterol and triglycerides. Stretching also helps to improve and maintain your joint motion, an important element in preserving joint function.
 
But, in addition, resistance exercises are needed to increase the mass and tone of the muscles around the joint. Why? Well, stronger muscles help to share the load of body weight borne by the joint surfaces. In addition, they provide increased dynamic joint stability and in the knee, alter the functional dynamics of the kneecap (the source of over 50% of all knee pain, in my experience).
 
These are the same principles I teach in my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM, which you can get here:
 http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
But if you truly want to eliminate the SYMPTOMS of arthritis (not the same thing as eliminating the disease itself, which we cannot do, at present), then you need to add other conservative measures to the exercises. 
 
There are many conventional and alternative treatments which reduce the pain of arthritic inflammation, slow the progress of the disease and help to preserve the cartilage which remains. All of these elements together may prevent, or at least delay, the need for joint replacement surgery.
 
Remember, I spent nearly a quarter century DOING such joint replacement surgeries (total hips, total knees and revisions) and arthroscopies. Who better than a surgeon to teach you how to avoid surgery?
 
That’s the idea behind my newest healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY, which you can get here:
 http://www.drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
One such simple example is the use of fish oil, which contains omega-3 fatty acids, that have natural anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to its known and proven heart and brain healthy effects. My POWERHOUSE OMEGA FORMULA, an ultra pure, highly concentrated, pharmaceutical grade fish oil   http://www.favoriteformulas.com 
 
has even addressed the problem of the fishy aftertaste, or the dreaded “fish burps” by the use of a special enteric coating, which virtually eliminates this problem. That’s why I take it myself, twice a day, every day.
 
So while that headline was misleading, or at least premature in its optimism, there are a LOT of things than CAN be done. You can reduce pain and inflammation, slow or stop the progress of joint destruction, and preserve your function, so you can continue doing what you want to do for many years to come. And, in most cases, you can do it without surgery. Get one of my life changing products and see for yourself. 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

Here in Southampton, it’s just about 11 PM and I’m sitting here, writing my daily subscriber email. That’s the really nice thing about being an internet information marketer these days–I can do what I want, when I want, with no one to make any demands on my time (well, except for my wife). Far cry from what my life used to be….

On surgery days, I had to be IN the OR at 7:30AM, so I could say “HI!” to the patient. If I wasn’t there, Anesthesia would not bring the patient into the room. That, of course, would back up the entire OR schedule, and piss off all the other surgeons. So, I made it my business to be on time, all the time. 

After saying hello to the patient (and often the family) in the preoperative waiting area, I would go to the doctors’ locker room, and suit up in my scrub clothes and a long white clinical coat. Then, I’d take the elevator to the fourth Med/Surg floor, The Joint Implant Unit (Long Island’s FIRST such dedicated orthopaedic Unit–despite the specious claims of LIJH), where I would make rounds, visit my postop patients, confer with the nurses, write notes, do consults, give orders and so on…until the OR called me. In this way, I wasted NO time and I was maximally efficient. 

I then went down to OR #5, often referred to as “my” OR. Operating Room 5 was the largest of all the eight OR’s in St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center. It was also the only room that had a full bank of windows across the back wall, overlooking the forest outside. And it had a special “Laminar Flow” air filtration and conditioning unit, to hyperclean the air flow into the operative field, to prevent any contamination, or infection. It was ideal for doing the big joint replacement surgeries and revision procedures I was known for.

The windows were there specifically because I asked for them, during their renovation. Of course the other surgeons ridiculed the concept and called me a prima donna and worse, for asking for them. But oddly enough, when the room was finished, they ALL wanted to get that room. “Hey! How come Stillwell rates that room all the time?”they’d say. And I would reply sweetly, “Say, didn’t you think this was a stupid idea? And it WAS my idea, wasn’t it?” HA! 

Today, there’s a bronze plaque outside OR#5, “The William T. Stillwell, MD Operating Room”–an honor which, though pretty cool, is usually reserved for the dead.

Anyway, after doffing my coat, putting on a mask and coming into the room, I had to position the patient. Most often, I did this myself, with help from the OR staff, the assistant and Anesthesia, who always was in charge of the patient’s airway and head. Before my back injury, I was a strong little sucker, so I liked to turn the patients on their sides and position them just so, in preparation for the surgery. 

It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of this positioning. In joint reconstruction at that time, my judgment and assessment of the proper angles for implanting the artificial parts were all that resulted in a stable joint, and avoided dislocation. So when the patient was so positioned that a true vertical and a true horizontal were established, it made my determination of the correct angles for implantation much more accurate and more likely to be successful.

After all of that, finally, the surgical team: myself, and my assistant, preceded by the Scrub Technician, would then go to the sinks just outside the room and scrub, while the nurses were scrubbing the hip or knee with antibacterial soap. We would then re-enter, gown and glove. The patient was then prepped and draped, and at long last, surgery could begin. This mini-opera was re-enacted before every surgical procedure. 

As you can see, there was a heck of a lot of activity before anything actually happened. Just thinking about all of that makes me tired! It’s amazing what you get used to, through training and repetition. 

These days, life is much more civilized. And I spend all my time trying to teach you how you can AVOID surgery, with the best alternative and conventional treatments and strategies. Ironically, I can potentially affect far more people now–many thousands more–than I ever could as a surgeon. Which reminds me…

Hard to believe though it is, this Wednesday will be ONE YEAR since Dr. Bill’s Clinic Website went live and I presented my first product, the popular LITTLE GREEN BOOK FOR ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, which you can see at http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html 
But after one full year, my “special introductory rate” has run its course. After all, it’s not “introductory” anymore, is it? So here’s fair warning: as of midnight, October 1st, the price for the LGB will revert to its originally intended price, roughly double the current price. 

If you have been “on the fence” about getting this book til now, further delay WILL cost you. So don’t delay any longer. Click here and buy NOW: http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html

Don’t say I didn’t warn you….
 
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