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.

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  • Posted

    Did you ever take pain relievers???
    • Posted

      In the early days when I was still doing karate I routinely took ibruprofen before training and it helped a lot. But it's not a good idea to do that - it's now known NSAID's aren't good for tendons etc long term. Another thing that helped was to wear compression shorts. It seemed to help things taking too much of a battering and the heat generated helps too.

      Even after I stopped, ibruprofen is what worked best for me if I'd been overdoing things a bit. Mostly I managed things with MFR.

      When I had very bad pain (which was for relatively short episodes - not an ongoing thing) my drug of choice was 30/500 cocodimol. Which you need prescription for. The over the counter stuff was no better than ibruprofen. Also, for nerve pain (so that constant gnawing ache that you can sometimes get) - if that persists long term Amitryptiline - not sure of the correct spelling, I think it's Eval in the US? is good.

      I prefer not to take drugs, but I also believe in being pragmatic. If pain relief drugs help you move a bit better they ARE helping you to recover. Walking around hunched up in pain is probably going to do you more harm than a bit of ibruprofen.

      Thinking positive really does help too. You're used to a certain amount of pain simply from doing martial arts - the training is tough and leaves you sore. That doesn't bother you in the least because you know it's just part of the process. You're geting stronger, fitter, better. Half the time I think the OA type pain isn't any worse than that but your brain focusses on it because you associate it with decay, old age and crumbling joints. Your brain makes you feel more pain. If you can reframe how you think about the pain - which will be easier to do when you're clear in your mind what's wrong and what your plan of attack is - it can make the world of difference.

       

    • Posted

      I rarely took org take anything

      One Advil cold and sinus helped out a lot for class

      I noticed compression shoes did help as well

      My shoulder hurts a lot the last couple days

    • Posted

      I had major problems with my shoulders. Both shoulders, but opposite shoulder from symptomatic hip was worse.

      When your pelvis is twisted then so too is your thoracic spine. Chances are that one shoulder blade is pulled in tight to the spine and the other stretched away from the spine.

      So for example, in my case (sacrum was tilting and rotating to the right) my thoracic spine was rotating to the right; rhomboid and lat weak/inactive on the right; bicep, pec major and serratus anterior weak and inactive on the left. So of course, that's going to lead to all sorts of issues with rotator cuff muscles.

      It's probabaly all related. Once you have a clearer idea of exactly what's going on with your sacrum it'll start to make sense and you can come up with a plan of attack to put it all right.

       

    • Posted

      I try doing upper body mobility which does bring relief but it does still get bad at times...I do MFR on shoulders as well
    • Posted

      Physiotherapists (I think maybe you call them physical therapists in the US) are usually pretty good with shoulders. It was a physio that got me out of bad shoulder pain and got me on the right track with them.

      He told me I'd never regain full ROM "It's not as if you're going to want to be swinging from the chandaliers at your age" he said. Well, that was the challenge set. A couple of years later I'd built up to 13 wide grip dead hang pullups. My point being that they really can get back to full function - even if a physio says otherwise.

    • Posted

      When i do reverse clamshells....my left hip cracks on almost every rep
    • Posted

      Does it hurt?

      If not it's possibly just a tendon snapping over something. I used to get that - a big click. Doing reverse clamshells and later I'd get a lot of clicks and clunks in my glutes.  I always interpreted it as things losening off and starting to free up (forever the optimist!). It all worked out fine in the long run.

       

    • Posted

      I believe I'm on your mailing list although I've never gotten anything. from you ...i will.sign up again now...

    • Posted

      I haven't sent anything out yet. Hopefully the book will be online by Monday - still waiting to hear back from Amazon. I'll post here to let you know - in fact I'll send you a PM.

    • Posted

      I will buy an on line copy and like an autographed copy and another one to mark up so...3😁

  • Posted

    Hello Susan, just to let you know that frequent Trigger Point therapy is working well for me, along with walking every day with an extreme "swagger", swinging my hips from side to side to exercise all the hip muscles. This also seems to be untwisting my pelvis, as I stride out strongly with my left leg.

     

    • Posted

      That's great news! I'll catch up with you soon to get the next installment of your story for the blog if that's OK?

      I'm working on the website right now, trying to weed out the rubbish that's on there and put in some more quality material. I'm hoping the book will be available at Amazon tomorrow. It's with them - just waiting for them to get everything online.

      Your story is a good one as it shows that people can find their own way of attacking this. Once you know the basic principles you find an approach that works for you. I'll be in touch soon!

    • Posted

      I'd be very pleased to share my 4 year history of living with so-called hip OA. 

      Looking forward very much to visiting Amazon tomorrow!

       

  • Posted

    Moderators - ignore / delete my last post. I put the Amazon website link in by mistake so it got held back for review! Sorry. smile

    I was posting to say that someone just got in touch to say that my book is now online on Amazon - the UK site. It's probably on the US site too.

    It's called 'Hip Osteoarthritis CAN be cured'. The ISBN is as follows:

    ISBN-10: 1541100182

    ISBN-13: 978-1541100183

    I think the ISBN-13 is the European number and ISBN-10 American?

    There isn't an option to look at the contents and some sample chapters yet - I guess Amazon will put that on in a few days. If you want to see that before deciding if the book will help you I'll get that posted up here later today.

    Patient.co.uk gets the following mention in the Preface - it was after all this thread that inspired me to write the book:

    *******************

    "After receiving my hip OA diagnosis I spent the next eight years trying to find a way to return to full, pain-free function. During this period I received little to no help from health professionals. Most of those I consulted tried to browbeat me into giving up and accepting my condition; some others shamelessly told me anything that would part me from my money.

    Through determined research and experimentation I eventually learned that my symptoms were the result of a complex muscle imbalance, and discovered how to reverse it. I returned to the health profession and asked why there’s no attempt to differentiate between complex yet reversible muscle imbalance and genuinely incurable OA. This, in essence, is what they told me:

    The problem is patient compliance; 99% of people are too lazy to do the work required to tackle a complex muscle imbalance. There’s no point in treating the two conditions separately, since the outcome – in the vast majority of cases – will be the same.

    I was infuriated by this; what of the 1% of people who are prepared to do the necessary rehab work? Clearly, they’re just not statistically significant.I aired my frustration online – most notably on the forums at the patient.info site – and tried to help others who were in my situation. It was there I received encouragement to write a book for the forgotten 1%. If you reject your one-size-fits-all diagnosis, if you want to take back control over your condition, and if you have the patience and determination to unwind your muscle imbalance one day at a time, this book is for you. "

    ************************

    If you get the book please let me know how you get on. Give me negative as well as positive feedback as that's the only way I know what works for people and what doesn't. I'll use my website to clarify things further and provide any additional info needed.

    If you like the book please give it a quick review on amazon and spread the word to anyone you think it might help.

    I'm still busy trying to update my website. As soon as that's done I'll send out a newsletter to let people know it's ready.

    • Posted

      Fantastic news that the book is out Susan and I ordered a copy on Prime first thing this morning. I can't wait to see it and once again really well done for putting it all together. Thanks again for all your help and advice on the forum and I really look forward to be able to put a review out there when I've read it.

    • Posted

      Was it available yesterday? They told me it'd be 2 or 3 days longer before it was online.

      I hope it helps. Even if it doesn't give you a complete cure I'm confident it will move you forwards qutie a bit. You should then be able to figure the remaining bits out for yourself. As I say, let me know what's not working and I'll share other ideas and explanations on my website.

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