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The 7 Signs That a Stem Cell Clinic Is Not a Center of Excellence

I’ve blogged extensively on the outright fraud going on with chiropractic and alternative-health clinics claiming stem cell miracles, like regrown bone-on-bone knees, while having nurses inject dead amniotic or cord-blood tissues. This morning, I’d like to look at the next step down. These are clinics that likely have an MD on board but aren’t doing their best…read more

Can You Defeat Your Obesity Genes with Exercise?

While our genes may determine if we have a predisposition to be fat, I live in the world’s fittest city. Inside the Boulder, Colorado, bubble, as it’s called, obesity of the type seen elsewhere is rare. Hence, the new conclusions from a new research study aren’t surprising, as it shows that exercise levels may trump…read more

Has Thumb Surgery Gone to the Dogs? Treating Thumb Arthritis Without Surgery

When I first heard about thumb tendon interposition surgery, the most common surgical treatment for thumb arthritis, I chuckled. Why? This procedure was first used to treat bad hip joints in small dogs. Was this really the best we could do? Hence, we got to work creating an injection procedure that would address all of…read more

Our Medical Care System Is So Broken…

I’ve been on vacation this past week, so I’ve had a chance to read a bit more. One of the big stories yesterday was on drug makers who raised the price of a cheap drug to tens of thousands a vial and then incented doctors to push the drug on the elderly, costing Medicare two…read more

CrossFit Regional Champ’s Comeback Story After Rotator Cuff Injury

Athletes get some of the most surgically aggressive care ever imagined. In fact, for most, it’s a rite of passage. Case in point is this patient, a cross fit competitor who was ripe for surgery in any local orthopedic surgery clinic. All of that would have meant big downtime away from competition, so she wondered if…read more

A2M Epidural and Amniotic “Stem Cells”: When Medicine Becomes Used Car Sales

I’ve spent many years investigating what works and doesn’t work with regard to spinal orthobiologics, like platelets and stem cells. At this point, we’ve treated tens of thousands of patients with back or neck pain with one or the other technology and have published a few papers in the peer-reviewed literature. Hence, when I see…read more

A Minimally Invasive Disc Replacement? Should We Police the Use of the Term?

This week I noticed a surgical sales rep on LinkedIn use the term “minimally invasive” when describing a disc replacement. I was dumbfounded as there is nothing minimally invasive about inserting a metal hockey puck in the front of a patient’s spine. This bizarre marketing ploy fits with what I have seen elsewhere: the abuse of the…read more

Starting Exercise as Late as Middle Age May Lower the Risk of Heart Failure

In my continuing deep dive into how much exercise is enough to stave off heart disease as we age, is this interesting study. It may help answer the question of how many years of exercise in middle age it takes to lower the risk of heart failure as we get older. I recently covered a…read more