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A Bad Knee Arthritis MSC Injection Meta-analysis Part 2

As I said yesterday, I would dig deeper into the recent meta-analysis that purported to show that “MSC Injections” didn’t work for knee arthritis. Today we’ll get into more problems with that paper. Monkeying Around with Placebos A placebo is a treatment we know doesn’t work that can be given to a patient in such…read more

A Bad MSC Meta-analysis Is a Great Way to Learn About Stem Cells

Some orthopedic surgeons have a bizarre love-hate relationship going on with injection-based knee arthritis stem cell therapy while others have embraced it. Let’s dig into this phenomenon through a poorly accomplished meta-analysis published in a big orthopedic journal and learn quite a bit about the actual science of stem cells and knee arthritis in the…read more

More Windex: Steroid Inhalers and Bone Health

Steroid inhalers are common these days. The idea was supposed to be that by inhaling low doses of steroids, we could avoid the side effects of higher oral and intravenous steroids. Did this turn out to be true? Nope. Let’s dig in. Steroids are Super Nasty As I wrote yesterday, steroids are the Windex of…read more

Why Are Physicians Addicted to Steroids? Tendons and Windex

Physicians have a torrid love affair ongoing with a medication that clearly harms their patients, but they just can’t seem to give it up. That medication can chew up joint cartilage and damage tissues, but they continue to inject it with wild abandon. That nasty drug fits into a class called corticosteroids. Let’s explore this…read more

When Up is Down: God I Love Real Science

One of my favorite things about real science is that it sometimes reverses itself completely. While that’s a very uncomfortable position for most, it’s very satisfying for me. Let’s dig in. When Up Is Down As a society, we have a very serious and dangerous problem. We have politicized science. The problem? Science is fluid.…read more

Ugh! More Fake Facet Injections

One of the things that drives me crazy is to perform a consult on a patient who has done their homework and research but still got scammed by a prolotherapist performing faked facet injections. While I’ve blogged on this issue in the past, I want to make sure everyone’s clear on this as we continue…read more

Ask Dr. C-Episode 15-Second Knee Stem Cell Procedures and Regrowing Cartilage

Today we’ll cover some issues surrounding knee stem cell procedures. In particular, we’ll go over repeat stem cell procedures and regrowing knee cartilage. Let’s dig in. Question #1: “Dear Dr. C, I was so happy to know that you, personally, can answer some long overdue questions, that’s personal to me. I had a same day…read more

Ask Dr. C

It’s that time again! This is where I ask for questions from readers and choose some to answer in long-form. So please leave your questions below in the comments!