Problems diagnosed as Osteoarthritis CAN be cured in some cases.
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If you're a proactive individual that's been diagnosed with incurable Osteoarthritis it's *possible* that you can in fact beat the diagnosis and get back to full fitness and functionality. It happened to me.
I should add that I was diagnosed at age 42 and was very fit and active at the time. I think it might be very different for older individuals, people who's condition is advanced, or people that don't enjoy exercise.
Here's my story. I can't make any promises that it'll be the same for you. But I will if people are interested share some of the resources that helped me to beat what I considered to be a life shattering diagnosis, for which I was assured there was no possibility of a cure. I don't know whether to believe I was misdiagnosed and never actually had Osteoarthritis, or whether they're wrong when they say Osteoarthritis is incurable. What I can say is that I was told my symptoms were 'classic' and that the diagnosis was certain - that my symptoms couldn't be explained by anything else. The whole area is so poorly defined and slap-dash that it's impossible to tell. Either way, it means there's at least hope of beating it if that's what you want to try and do.
I've spent 8 years battling against the people that were hell bent on brow beating me into believing I had Hip Osteoarthritis when I knew I didn't. My real problems were ignored - I was essentially left to rot. I was treated like an idiot. Told I researched too much. That I was in denial. Told that I was making my problems worse by training to keep myself fit, strong and active. Told I should swim and cycle and give up all other sports. I was asked repeatedly "You've had numerous experts try to help you - don't you think one of them would have succeeded if this really was curable?".
Finally I've been vindicated. I figured it out for myself. A simple, treatable muscle imbalance causing all of my problems. Obviously I wanted to let the people know that have tried to help over the years. I expected them to be amazed - a breakthrough that could help lots of people. These cases that we think are incurable can in fact be fixed!!
My excitement was met with apathy: [paraphrasing]. "The reality is that most people are inactive and unwilling to put in the work needed to address muscle imbalances like this. Even if the correct diagnosis was made, for most people the end result would be the same. People who are willing to put in the work necessary to reverse the condition are so few and far between that they aren't statistically significant to make it worth the cost of training and research. We were unable to solve your problem because we've not been adequately trained to do so. But well done for hanging in and figuring it out yourself."
Why wasn't I told this BEFORE I discovered the solution for myself? Why did they try to convince me I had incurable OA when they knew how determined I was to beat it?
Here's the reality as I now understand it (as it's been explained to me). This may not reflect every health professionals view, but it is a summary of what I've been told by various health professionals:
GP's are responsible for diagnosing OA. Yet they know very little about bio mechanics (unless they've got an interest and educate themselves).
They don't understand the condition in great detail, but they don't need to. They're working to a script. It seems not to be widely known who writes that script (so who to go to with questions or doubts)...which is a little bit of a worry.
Some know that often it's a misdiagnosis - more forward thinking GP's are aware that it's frequently a treatable soft tissue issue. But like the physios, think it doesn't matter too much as for most patients it makes no difference. They lead inactive lifestyles and any attempts to restore them to full functionality will fail. There is little point in wasting resources trying to give an accurate diagnosis when the end result will usually be the same regardless. So OA is the 'catch all' category you put them in. There is no cure - you manage with drugs and operate if and when necessary.
Even when someone is in great shape, keen to be proactive in their treatment and has an active lifestyle worth preserving there's nothing to be gained in finding the correct diagnosis as there is no one to refer them to to get it fixed. People worth bothering with (because they can be restored to a good, active life) aren't statistically significant enough to be worth the research and training needed to put systems in place to help them.
So, the GP's make the OA diagnosis despite not necessarily knowing much about OA. Who are the specialists then if you're determined to find the real cause of your joint stiffness or pain? Well, there's a bit of an oversight there. There is no one.
Orthopedic surgeons know about surgery. If your problem is an easily curable soft tissue issue they probably won't know enough to detect it. They may well put you under the knife unnecessarily. Or tell you that you have an incurable problem that will deteriorate over time - that your active life is over (that's what happened to me). But this is more a case of them forcing your problem into something that fits their specialist knowledge. Not a proper diagnosis.
Then there's physios. They aren't trained to detect and treat curable soft tissue problems that lead to joint wear and might otherwise be diagnosed as OA. However, some are better than others. Some might actually be very capable. It's pot luck. I think it's unlikely to find someone with these skills working for the NHS, but I may be wrong. I have been told (by a physio) that the failure rate in these cases is 99% within the NHS.
There are people out there that do know how to diagnose and treat these soft tissue problems. And there's plenty of info on this on the internet that you can use to help yourself. It's down to the individual to separate the wheat from the chaff. Contrary to what we are led to believe, OA isn't an incurable degenerative disease. Strictly speaking it doesn't exist. It's a 'catch all' diagnosis used to put people with joint problems in when there aren't resources and training to find out and fix what's really wrong with them. Contrary to what we're led to believe, there is no category of the medical profession with expertise in the multitude of conditions commonly labeled as OA. If you think you've seen an expert and had a reliable diagnosis of OA - think again.
There is no easy fix - that's true. There is no way of knowing if yours is a curable soft tissue problem without trying to fix it. I'm led to believe that official research into OA is centered around keeping this 99% of people that are deemed incurable (because they are perceived to be inactive and unwilling or unable to adhere to the required rehab plan), as pain free and independent as possible at minimum cost. It's simply not cost effective to put time and effort into finding the cause, the cure, or training people to make diagnosis and cure soft tissue problems in the cases where how to do so is already known by some.
But there are people out there that have figured out how to diagnose and cure at least some of these cases. Some speculate that all OA is initially a soft tissue dysfunction. However, this is mainly in the private sector - or perhaps in the NHS, but on an unofficial level. You're faced with the dilemma of separating the fakes from the real deal. Most will claim to be able to help - and many will diagnose incurable OA when they fail. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't be helped. Many tried and failed with me before I figured it out for myself.
But if you're willing to work at it yourself - or maybe even find the right person (which is very difficult) then it is quite possible that what you have is very curable.
31 likes, 607 replies
karen75391 susan67756
Posted
More to add...later.
susan67756 karen75391
Posted
I tried Egoscue a while back and some of it helped.
Where it will let some down is that often a muscle is tight because a muscle elsewhere is weak and underactive. Other times fascia is so locked down tight that no amount of stretching will release it.
If you reach a sticking point with egoscue try doing extensive myofasicial release - so work on every muscle on your body. Then give egoscue another try. Often that'll get things moving again.
NeuroKinetic thereapy is a good source for finding out which muscles are inactive.
Good luck
csb susan67756
Posted
For those of us who have had an MRI which clearly show a total degeneration of cartilage which indicates bone impacting bone and currently there is no proven way of regenerating the cartilage, this is what I thought absolutely defined the condition OA, a condition that to that at his time is incurable.
To clarify what the Original Poster is saying is conditions that are not OA are defined as OA. This would seem to suggest that a Doctor would order an MRI not seeing anything that defines the condition, and yet still arrive at a diagnosis of OA. Doesn’t a clinical diagnosis of OA has to involve some degradation of cartilage and possibly bone meeting bone?
Are we then talking about Doctors who assume OA without seeing an MRI? I find this unbelievable. I was under the impression that OA was something very specific.
It’s possible that a muscle imbalance, soft tissue issues etc. could have led to my OA, or a misalignment that caused extra stress to be put on my spine, but shouldn’t this be viewed separately to a diagnosis of OA, specifically where it’s been made clear by an MRI?
Shouldn’t we be making a better distinction? Something along these lines:
1. You can’t cure OA.
HOWEVER:
2. You may be able to cure conditions misdiagnosed as OA.
3. You may be able avoid the musculoskeletal imbalances that cause/accelerate OA.
4. You may be able to mange pain caused by an unequivocal diagnosis of OA (I’m continuing to assume there is an unequivocal diagnosis), by addressing musculoskeletal issues, increasing core-strength etc.
Chris
susan67756 csb
Posted
My case was diagnosed by a top specialist. He was 100% certain and according to him mine was a classic case. I had no MRI, but degenerative changes were clearly evident on x-ray.
I know exactly what you're saying, but the reality is that the methods for diagnosing OA are utterly rediculous. There are a whole host of treatable musculoskeletal issues that, if coincidentally accompanied by non-symptomatic degenerative changes in the joint, will be diagnosed as OA.
So, first point I'd make is that what's currently considered to be unequivocal OA IS curable in many cases.
Many cases of joint wear that is diagnosed as OA WILL be caused by imbalances, and as such many cases of joint wear (and therefore OA) are avoidable.
Is there such a thing as an unequivocal diagnosis of OA? Well at this point in time they have no clue how to identify it - that's for sure!
It's certainly the case that some people have completely disintegrated joints and no symptoms whatsoever. I *think* according to the diagnostic critiera that wouldn't be diagnosed as OA. It needs to be evidence of joint wear along with pain, restriction etc. Most over 40's have degenerative changes somewhere in their body and many will never experience a single symptom - even in old age.
Other people have little or no wear and terrible symptoms. Now I know of people with no degenerative changes evident on xray yet they've been diagnosed with 'early stage OA'. Which is utterly rediculous. A case of labelling anything as OA that can't be put in any other box. Because of the lack of knowledge in our health service of musckuloskeletal imbalances it stands to reason that a lot of musculoskeletal problems will be falsely diagnosed as OA. A self-fullfilling profecy really because if not treated then chances are the joint will eventually disintigrate!
I think there must be some cases that are just down to faulty joints. Else how would a hip replacement resolve the problem? Unless cutting into muscle somehow reset everything (unlikely I would have thought).
But yes, I would have thought that regardless of the cause of the OA it WILL be accompanied by fascial adaptaion, trigger points, muscle imbalances and so on that WILL make symptoms worse and quite possibly put strain on other joints causing degenerative changes there too. So many of the symptoms could be eleviated. But then we're back to the problem that it's not being researched and health professionals aren't being given the required training. Therefore in their ideas alternatives to pill popping and surgery don't exist.
Bottom line is - it doesn't really matter whether the source of your problem is the joint or a musculoskeletal imbalance. Either way it's in your best interest to pull out all the stops to address the musculoskeletal problems that will always be present. It can only improve symptoms and slow down or halt further deterioration. It's possible that you could eliminate the problem altogether.
csb susan67756
Posted
So would you agree that OA sufferers who have had MRIs, that like mine show little or no cartilage, inflammation, bone spurs etc. that there is not currently a cure?
Just want to clarify as I'm still refusing to believe that I can't solve this problem!
Chris
susan67756 csb
Posted
It's certainly known to be the case that some people have absolutely trashed joints and zero symptoms. Others have serious symptoms and no joint wear.
I wouldn't want to raise false hope, but my thinking would be "why can't I become one of the people with trashed joints and no symptoms?".
The only way to find out is to try. Regardless of the cause of your symptoms it can only do you good to resolve all soft tissue and neural problems.
Remember, even if it appears that bone spurs are causing restriction and preventing movement of the joint, It's STILL possible that if you get the joint tracking properly that there's plenty of space to accomodate the bony growths without joint restriction. I was told I had bone on bone restriction - once I got my mechanics sorted out a bit that just went away.
Good luck!
julianna2 susan67756
Posted
Thank you so much for your web page and suggestion of the book The Trigger Point Thrapy Workbook! It is proving to be fascinating! I plan to share it with my OD doctor and together maybe we can stop this OA type condition and I can get on with things!
For the first time in years I am no longer feeling like a victim. Just the knowledge that I can do something myself to improve things has made me feel much better, and even, it seems, lessended my pain!
Cheers for you!
Jill
Dark_Horse susan67756
Posted
geoff_50258 susan67756
Posted
susan67756 geoff_50258
Posted
My advice is to someone like you is to play things by ear. Try not to ever go into retreat - always be trying to reclaim strength and fitness. BUT listen to your body and if you get pain or symptoms that over the long term result in deterioration then back off.
You've almost certainly got muscle imbalances. You can spend a small fortune figuring out how to fix them, but if you don't mind reading up on stuff then Postural Restoration Institute, NeuroKinetic Therapy and Functional Patterns are all good sources. You'll gradually learn what helps and what doesn't and you should be able to keep moving things in the right direction.
Myofacial release (trigger point therapy) is your best friend. But it's easy to do for yourself so don't be paying someone to do that!
Because of the way you've recovered my guess is that your case is like mine. The x-ray findings are irrelevant - perhaps the result of the muscle imbalance. The symptoms are caused my muscle imbalance.
Research is swinging away from the idea that you should only swim and cycle with OA. Some almost hints at the idea that running is actually good for OA sufferers. I find that it is - joints rely on osmosis. But it's striking a balance between keeping fit, strong and mobile and NOT re-enforcing faulty movement patterns.
Best of luck! (All advice from my own experience - I'm not a professional!!!).
Maureen1111 susan67756
Posted
My problems began three years ago when, after sitting at a desk for eight hours, I had to sit in my car for another three just to get home during a snow storm. By the time I arrived, my right buttock burned and had cramped up with severe pain going down the back of my thigh. From there I had back, hip and groin pain, and was walking all bent up. Every time I lifted my right leg or used it to raise myself going up the stairs, I'd have pain. A friend walking behind me one day told me I was all crooked and out of alignment. I went to an orthopedic doctor who said it was arthritis and put me on prescription medication. I also went back to a chiropractor I see from time to time who blamed my spondylolisthesis, which I was born with. He noticed my scoliosis was worse and that one leg was now shorter than the other. After seeing him twice a week for two months, and getting no relief, I went to a different chiropractor who said I had piriformis syndrome and would not only adjust me for the spondylolisthesis, but work on releasing the trigger point there and in my glute. He also said one leg was longer, and noticed my spine/pelvis was also out of alignment. Twice a week visits for many months didn't help me.
I spoke to my internist about my frustration and she was shocked they hadn't told me to get a heel lift for my shoe. She told me, "Whatever the problem is, for sure you need to try a heel lift until this gets resolved, because one leg being shorter means you're walking differently to compensate, and that alone can knock you out of alignment and keep you there. She also suggested I see an orthopedic doctor again. So I got a heel lift, which did help, and went back to the ortho doc who took new x-rays and said the arthritis had progressed and I needed to have hip replacement surgery.
Intuitively I felt this was not correct because of how my problems began, so after doing many searches over the years, and going down wrong paths, I found your thread here, got the Trigger Point Therapy Handbook and Theracane, and began working on myself. Interesting that in the book he says you must work on releasing these trigger points something like 4-8 times a day. Of course having someone work on you twice a week isn't going to help! No wonder what I had tried wasn't working!!!
In addition, I bought a wedge shaped cushion that I use at home, work and when driving. The wedge lifts up the sit muscles so the pressure is now on your thighs instead of the sacro area. That helps quite a bit.
Yes, I do have OA, but that doesn't seem to be the source of my pain at this time. I read somewhere, and it may have been in the Trigger Point book, that everyone has degeneration as their age, yet not everyone is diagnosed with OA because they don't suffer from pain. The suggestion was to look for other things because if people with severe OA don't have pain, it's possible that pain actually comes from something else. Makes sense.
One thing I wonder about is whether or not you've regained any of your range of motion? Mine has always been iffy on my right side anyway, due to the scoliosis and spondylolisthesis, but I can't even bend over to paint my toenails and have very limited internal/external rotation of the leg/hip. It's been frustrating because the exercises to help stretch the glutes and piriformis involve doing things I cannot do, such as putting my right ankle on my left knee, or placing the outside of the right calf flat on a bed or short table and stretching into it. Have you regained any of your range of motion?
Sorry this is so long, but one more thing. I suffered with very bad asthma for thirty years until I googled and found a website put together by some guy who was pronounced dead from a severe asthma attack, but came to again. He found a doctor who had been treating asthma patients, and following his protocol, was cured. I've since learned researchers and doctors all over the world have also done their own studies and were able to duplicate his findings. My asthma was cured thirteen years ago, but when I told my old doctors this (not the internist mentioned above), they got angry and said I was merely in remission because asthma cannot be cured. What is wrong with them? Don't they want to see people find a way out of their suffering or are the just miffed they didn't find a solution first? Between slow doctors and big pharma, we are screwed unless we do our own research!
Thank you again for all you do here to help us!!!!!
susan67756 Maureen1111
Posted
Range of motion took much longer to get back and it's still not 100% but improving all the time. I fully expect to regain the lot.
In my case the doctors, physios etc all insisted I had a lack of internal rotation at my hip. In actual fact that was completely wrong. As I mentioned earlier, my problem was caused by too much one sided martial arts practice. In that stance, all the segments of my spine (sacrum, lumber, thoracic) were rotating clockwise (they SHOULD alternate). Because my pelvis was twisted back on the right side my femur needed to internally rotate in order for me to walk. Essentially I was jammed in internal rotation making it seem as if I was lacking IR. The physios etc just weren't picking up on the twist in my torso/pelvis and this was invalidating all their tests.
Anyway, with hip jammed in internal rotation the glutes can't fire. They get weak - eventually so weak that they tighten up to protect and stabilise the joint. You end up unable to move the joint in any direction and the whole body stiffens up accordingly.
It's a tricky cycle to break.
THIS IS ONLY A POSSIBILITY - YOU'D NEED TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT IF IT APPLIES TO YOU. If you don't have external rotation then chances are your glutes aren't firing when you walk. You need to externally rotate to extend your hip. If you aren't using your glutes to walk then chances are they're weak and that is why they won't stretch (a weak muscle will tighten protectively and stretching will just cause it to tighten more). IF this is the case then you need to strengthen the glutes and external rotators and stretch the internal rotators (look specifically at the TFL). In my case, because my femur was internally rotated my tibia locked into external rotation so I had to sort that out too.
With a hip jammed in internal rotation it's hard to work the glutes - but usually there's some way to do it. You need to be really careful because in the state your in your body will have learned to compensate and will use all the wrong muscles to get the job done - that's essentially why you're twisted out of alignment - so that the 'wrong' muscles can get into a position where they can take over from the 'right' muscles.
Rather than just guess, think about getting the NeuroKinetic therapy book on testing muscle activation. It tells you how to isolate and test every muscle in the body. You need someone to help you. If a muscle tests weak, then just do the test again against resistence and that will wake it up and strengthen it. You can get the book for kindle so it doesn't cost much. It didn't seem very helpful to me at first, but it's proven well worth it over time as I can test my theories about what's weak and what's overactive.
The other issue was 'untwisting' the twist in my spine. You need to try and tackle the problem from top, middle and bottom. Get thoracic spine and shoulders moving better; sort out any torsion in tibia/foot problems; line things up correctly at the hip. Once these problems get established the whole body keeps it locked in so to break the cycle attack it from all angles - don't assume what the left ear is doing isn't highly relvant to what your hip is doing!!!! LOL .
Because of your known spine issues I'd highly recommend working on thoracic mobility and shoulder ROM as that can make a huge difference to what happens at the hips.
Look too at the obliques - look up rotational slings and start working on balancing them out.
Look at pelvic tilt - get your pelvis lined up best you can.
Then check femur and tibia - make sure neither are rotated internall or externally (my femur internally rotated and tibia externally rotated). Signs to look out for are if your foot tends to tilt to one side - so walking on the outside or inside of your foot.
It's a lot to get your head around but I found that a little bit of knowledge gets things moving in the right direction and as your understanding builds so too does your movement.
I'll post something up after this with a couple of links in it. The moderators will need to clear it. But I think you'll find it helpful. It also addresses the leg length discrepency that you mention - which may or may not be an actual discrepency. I know an awesome video that explains in depth how muscle imbalances can lead to difference in leg length.
susan67756
Posted
Watch this animation of how the sacrum, innominates, femur and spine move during normal gait:
https://vimeo.com/107191637
There is a set of rules concerning how the spine moves in relation to the sacrum. They're known as Fryette's Laws
Basically, various parts of the human skeleton move in a set pattern in relation to each other during normal gait. This is hard-wired. The sacrum is typically considered to be the foundation - it rotates and tilts during normal gait. As it tilts and rotates one way the lumber spine tilts and rotates the other way. The thoracic tilts and rotates the opposite way and so on up the body. A similar thing happens moving down from the sacrum with innominates shifting and tilting.
It's explained well in this video. The relevant explanation comes in at 13 minutes 30 seconds (although you'll be interested in the whole thing given your leg length discrepency):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmXJZz67iTQ
What all this Means:
The sacrum can get 'stuck' or simply restricted at any point in the gait cycle. When the sacrum sticks pretty much everything else in the body sticks too (for the reasons described above). This is sometimes referred to as a 'Sacral Torsion'. This leads to a whole host of problems ranging from SI joint dysfunction, sciatic pain, leg length discrepancies and even things like Osteoarthritis and Hip Impingement. And because of the way all parts of the body are inter-dependent it will travel up the spine causing back, neck and shoulder problems and down the legs causing problems with knees, ankles and feet.
The body can also lose it's ability to move correctly in other ways. Imagine an athletic 20 something male in his prime. Think how fluidly his body moves. Loose and flowing at the pelvis with good rotation around the thoracic spine. Now imagine a 40 year old. The hips seem to have stiffened up and the torso moves as a unit - much of the thoracic rotation is lost. We put it down to a natural consequence of aging, but in reality it's really a similar mechanism to the sacral torsion - the body getting 'sticky' or restricted through part of the normal gait cycle.
You can see from all this how gait is the foundation of how the human body moves. If your body isn't able to walk and run properly it isn't able to do anything properly. Does that make sense? The mechanisms that have been perfected by evolution for gait are relied on in pretty much every movement we make.
It's pretty well accepted that the body loses it's ability to move correctly due to too much repetition of the wrong movements. Be that a one-sided sport, too much sitting at a computer or a repetetive job.
Pretty much every adult on the planet has some degree of dysfunction but they won't be aware of it. Even elite athletes. They think of it as normal. It creeps up on you slowly, limiting performance and making you more injury prone. For very many people it hits critical mass at some stage and leaves them with severe problems and a lot of pain. But everyone is negatively affected by it.
Because it happens to everyone we think it's inevitable. But it's accepted by many that it *shouldn't* be inevitable. These problems can be reversed and many people will claim success - but there doesn't seem to be a reliable approach that works for all.
So how does the body get 'stuck' or start moving incorrectly?
It's often put down to muscle imbalances, weak muscles, lazy muscles, over-active muscles, neural pathways. Fascia also plays a big part. This is nothing new - all established and accepted knowledge. The challenge is to untangle the mess. Simple cases a physio or similar can help with. Complex, long standing cases - chances are you need to figure it out yourself. Perhaps with some input from a health professional - or several different health professionals!
Maureen1111 susan67756
Posted
Dark_Horse Maureen1111
Posted
After three full lumbar MRIs - it turns out I have one short leg and on the short leg, my ankle has a damaged nerve affecting my calf. This has meant my leg is not properly supported, my hip is not straight, nor is my back and astonishingly the shoulder on the short leg side is two inches higher than the the other. All this has caused one spurs in my heel, shoulder and probaly other places too.
I have found heel raises do not help much and have been recommended to return to specialist physio and Alexander Technique. However, I may also opt for Extracorporal Shoch Therapy to deal with tendonapthy which causes the spurs.