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Blood Pressure Medication Should be Your Personal Shakubuku

Grosse Pointe Blank was one of my favorite movies of the 90s. The movie introduced Americans to the Buddhist concept of Shakubuku. What is this and why do many of my patients who have blissfully accepted blood pressure medications as a rite of passage of growing old need it? The concept is introduced in this…read more

Goodbye for now from Grand Cayman…

I’ve been seeing patients this past week at Regenexx Cayman, our advanced stem cell site in Grand Cayman. Above is an animated GIF that says it all…I’ll be back in July! The Regenexx-C procedure is not approved by the US FDA and is only offered in countries via license where culture expanded autologous cells are…read more

When is Knee Surgery Necessary?

Here’s a video this morning entitled, “When is knee surgery necessary?” This one was inspired by a 2012 study of the Framingham Osteoarthritis data that showed that many common things found on knee MRI such as bone spurs, holes in the cartilage, and meniscus tears occur as much in patients with knee pain as without.…read more

New Research: Fat Stem Cells Bad for Back Discs

There are many clinics using fat stem cells for whatever ails you, including some clinics that are injecting these cells into degenerated discs. However, the vast majority of the promising research into stem cells to help low back discs has been performed with stem cells from bone marrow, not fat. What if the research that…read more

Orthopedic Urban Myths: Lost Cartilage = Pain

This morning I decided to start a series on what I call Orthopedic Urban Myths. What I’ll concentrate on are things that seem true because they’re widely believed by physicians and consequently patients, but when you dig into the medical research, turn out to be false. I’ll start with a big whopper that’s widely believed:…read more

Avoid Osteonecrosis Surgery with Stem Cell Injections?

Is it possible to avoid Osteonecrosis surgery? Osteonecrosis is a bad disease where the bone begins to die off. It often means certain surgery, either to ream out the dead bone or to replace the joint. However, can this dreaded disease be treated simply by using a specialized injection of your own stem cells? My…read more

Understanding Inflammation Can Help Your Arthritis

Most patients have heard of the term “inflammation” and know it means swelling. They’ve even seen some news pieces that show that it’s generally bad. However, most patients don’t understand that a simple blood test can measure inflammation and whether it’s making their arthritis worse. A recent study helps to shed some light on how this…read more

Neck Fusion Complications: Getting Fused Without the Curve

What’s a big and easily preventable cause of neck fusion complications? The curve of someone’s neck is often ignored in medicine, as the focus is usually on procedures like surgery for chronic pain. However, our understanding of the importance of this curve has been growing. Now a new study shows that if the surgeon happens…read more