Conservative Care
Conservative care refers to non-invasive or minimally invasive treatment approaches aimed at managing health conditions and promoting overall well-being. This approach often emphasizes lifestyle modifications, physical therapy, and other non-surgical interventions to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life.
Subscribe to the BlogHow to Determine Cell Viability and Vitality
Many physicians and patients get pitched on amniotic and cord “stem cell” products based on a document that purports to show that these cells are “viable”. However, there’s much more to the story than a simple viability percentage. You need to know a lot more to determine if cells are vital and healthy. What Is…read more
Dramatic Improvement in Severely Degenerated Cervical Joint Without Surgery
I’ve spent the last 12 years staring at MRIs before and after orthopedic stem cell treatments. I’ve seen some incredible things in many conditions and some MRIs that didn’t change. This past week, as I reviewed the MRI of a patient with a severely degenerated cervical facet joint that we had treated at our licensed facility…read more Steroid Injections Kill Cartilage, so Why Not a Long Acting Steroid Shot?
Last month, a high-level research study confirmed what we’ve known for years: the anti-inflammatory steroid that the average family doctor, pain-management specialist, or orthopedic surgeon is injecting into your knee is killing the cartilage. So that research should put the whole steroid injection thing to bed, right? Nope. Surprisingly, this week, a company called Flexion has announced…read more RIP Radiofrequency Ablation Treatment for Low Back Pain
When Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) became popular in the late 90s, it seemed like a miracle for many patients with chronic neck pain. At the same time, while this therapy seemed to work reliably to provide pain relief in the neck, it was always hit or miss as a treatment for low back pain. Perhaps that’s…read more Epidural Steroid Side Effects: Repeated Injections Cause Diminishing Relief
On the surface, as a nonsurgical way to relieve pain and inflammation, epidural steroid injections seem like a great idea. However, when we dive beneath the surface, we find that epidural steroid side effects are pretty awful. I’ve observed many times, that for some patients, that while that first shot seems nothing short of miraculous,…read more NSAIDs and Opioids May Not Work for Pain!
As if we needed yet another reason to just say no to NSAIDs and opioids, it seems that some of them just aren’t working. So while you may be getting a lot with these drugs—the risk of sudden-death heart attacks and strokes and GI bleeding with NSAIDS, and addiction and more pain with opioids, for…read more Even Short-term Oral Steroid Side Effects Are Bad News!
Oral steroids (e.g., prednisolone, hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone (medrol) dosepak, etc.) are prescribed often, most commonly for inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis, bronchitis and asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases, muscle pain, allergies, and more. I have known for a long time about the complications and side effects associated with the long-term use of oral steroids (osteoporosis, weight gain,…read more Shoulder Labrum Surgery No Better Than a Sham Procedure
Yikes, this has been a terrible decade for elective orthopedic surgery. For years studies have come out and pummeled the world’s most common elective surgeries, such as knee “cleanups” and meniscus procedures showing that neither can beat the outcome of a sham or fake surgery. This last year has also been awful as recent research demonstrated…read more 
