Inflammation
Inflammation is the body’s response to injury or infection, characterized by redness, swelling, and pain. It plays a vital role in the immune system’s defense mechanism but can lead to chronic health issues if not properly regulated.
Subscribe to the BlogEpidural 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 Can Cholesterol Drugs Cause Low Back Pain?
Cholesterol-lowering drugs are a huge business. If you’re a cardiologist, you’ll likely argue with your dying breath that these medications have revolutionized medicine. On the other hand, the data continues to mount that the positive effects of taking these medications are puny and the side effects are real. This morning I’d like to go over a new…read more Fiber and Joint Pain? Keep Eating Those Wheaties!
Mother always said to eat your Wheaties, and a new study on knee pain may give us some insight into the relationship between fiber and joint pain. The answer seems to be that fiber can decrease body weight and keep inflammation under control. Before I share the study findings, let’s review how weight and inflammation can lead…read more Is Chronic Inflammation Causing Us to Age Faster?
A couple of weeks ago, I covered a study on aging that gave us a glimpse into one possible reason energy production in our cells tends to decrease as we get older. The answer was found in our mitochondria, the power supply of our cells. As a particular protein level declines, it may be leading…read more How to Heal a Torn Tendon Naturally: The Type of Tear Matters
On this page: What is a tendon or ligament made of? What are the types of tendon and tears? A patient story The patient’s MRI above is from clinic yesterday. It’s of an ankle tendon, but it might as well be a shoulder, knee, or hip tendon or ligament. The problem was that this patient…read more
Side Effects of Steroids: Joint Replacement Infections AGAIN…
I’ve blogged quite a bit on the inconvenient truth that while steroid medications are powerful anti-inflammatories that are commonly used without much medical thought, they’re really bad for your body. As one example, a prior highlighted study had shown that getting a hip steroid shot increases the likelihood that a hip replacement surgery will fail…read more 