Far from being an inevitable consequence of growing older, osteoarthritis may be the consequence of 'evolutionary mismatch' - ancient genes ill-suited to the modern world.
Loved your sentence: "No one develops osteoarthritis because they have an NSAID deficiency." Ha ha
I have to say, those covid injections seem to have boosted surgery rates, eh? Perhaps one could say that rise is because people were forced to stay at home for a while there by our tyrannical government...but you know, they could've still done exercise at home, gardening; all that sort of stuff. They weren't glued to the lounge! No, they took poison, and now we're seeing the results of that.
I'm also pretty sure the rate of OA is has been GROSSLY underestimated. The link you put in there says that "1 in 5 Australians (22%) over the age of 45 have osteoarthritis" - but as a Country Chiropractor for many years, I saw a lot of patients, and a lot of X-rays, and almost EVERYONE over the age of 25 had OA to at least some degree, in some area/s of their body. And I wouldn't say it was much different between male or female. I wonder how they determine what OA is to get to an average of "9.3%" - does it have to be diagnosed by a GP or something, and drugs prescribed? Because if we're looking at ALL sections of the human body, I'd say about 90% of people over 25 have it! It might be vertebral OA, hip joint OA, sacro-iliac joint OA, let alone the peripheral joint OA (knees, thumbs, shoulders etc). Even in those who didn't have pain in a particular place, the OA there still showed up on X-rays as an incidental finding. So I think the Australian Government has VERY little idea - or care - about what ailments their constituents suffer from.
So many of my country patients also took NSAIDS to help with random pains that came up in their day-to-day lives, or when they injured themselves. I mean, what, paracetamol wasn't good enough (for the social compliance/not caring thing)? Drinking heaps of water was too hard? Listening to me about how to do things right was too hard?! Evidently all that was too hard, because swallowing a pill was a whole lot easier for them. About 95% of them got jabbed, too, so really, I was wasting my time trying to keep people ALIGNED, which is a much better way to stave off OA - even though plenty were overweight/obese, too! But given people's seeming addiction to bad lifestyle choices, it's not exactly rocket science to figure out that things in the body don't tend to STAY aligned when you're doing the wrong things for yourself day in, day out...
That's an interesting point that you raise, on the gap between radiologically-evident OA and clinically diagnosed OA. I'm guessing that that the AIHW uses the latter, which means someone has to present to their GP with symptoms. No doubt plenty of people don't even bother going to the doctor for a diagnosis; they just assume that they have OA and take NSAIDs or paracetamol.
It is unbelievably frustrating when people want to be 'fixed' but they aren't willing to put any work into their own recovery. For several generations now, people in the West have been actively discouraged from growing up and taking responsibility for themselves.
Well, I have taken a therapeutic dose of turmeric for 6-8 years now and so long as I maintain it, I have no hip pain. Dr only advised NSAIDS, but I wasn’t comfortable with that.
Good for you! Curcumin (one of the key components of turmeric) has been found to have COX-2 inhibition properties - like Celebrex, but without the increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding!
I very much enjoy your articles! I have shared your piece on Osteoporosis with many of my patients concerned about ONJ associated with the injectable osteoclast inhibitors.
I am curious your thoughts and any research on the role of absorbed fluoride over the course of a lifetime. I have read that it is implicated in osteoarthritis as it accumulates in the joints. It could also be implicated in metabolic disorders as fluoride in the stomach may contribute to leaky gut.
I am a classically trained dentist and only recently became aware of the dark, dark history of fluoride. Very curious your thoughts!
How are you incorporating your new-found awareness of the dangers of fluoride into your practice? Are your colleagues and patients open to discussing it?
I practice in the heart of one of the sites where the most recent bioweapon was created by mastermind, Ralph Baric. I say this because of the scientific community I serve and their unwillingness to have their dogmatic beliefs challenged. I am slowly introducing the toxicity of fluoride. Mostly on a patient by patient basis. Some are receptive. Most just shrug when I tell them that water fluoridation is accomplished with the toxic waste of the aluminum and fertilizer industries. Their typical response....’well, it prevents cavities’.
I am sure you’re aware of the major lawsuit happening in the US around water fluoridation. I wonder if the results will have any impact on the other nations that fluoridate.
Derrick Broze has been providing brilliant coverage of the fluoride lawsuit at https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/category/health/fluoride-trial/. I'm sure this suit, and all the documents that have been uncovered during discovery, will be used by anti-fluoridation groups here in Australia and overseas.
It's just beyond sad that educated, supposedly intelligent people think that lowered IQs, thyroid damage, bone and joint pathologies and all the other damage associated with excessive fluoride exposure are an acceptable price to pay for prevention of tooth decay!!! Especially when the evidence that fluoride prevents tooth decay is sketchy anyway.
Yes, the history is very sketchy! Especially since they adjusted the original trials to detect DMFT to DMFS which skewed the overall impact of fluoride. Thank you for this link to the Last American Vagabond. For those wide awake, I summarize my fluoride findings to suggest that Fluoride is to Dentistry what Vaccines are to Medicine.
That strikes me as a very apt comparison. Vaccines are medicine's sacred cow. Much of the reputation of the medical profession rests on the completely erroneous notion that doctors, through the use of vaccines, eradicated the scourge of deadly infectious diseases. Fluoride, both as a topical application and a water additive, plays an analogous role in dentistry.
I have been reading a lot on this topic, I truly think the biggest risk is likely from using fluoridated toothpastes. The PPM concentration of fluoride is exponentially greater than what we drink and the sublingual absorption should be considered a risk.
I appreciate so very much your feedback. As I have mentioned, your osteoporosis article has been shared with many patients. I am about to share with two more women I just saw today. Are you aware of any literature that evaluates the absolute risk reduction vs the relative risk reduction of fractures in women who have/have not taken the osteoclast inhibitors?
Does anyone have information on the role of boron in osteoarthritis? Research in 1960's indicated a protective effect, but no recent work has been done
There really doesn't seem to have been much research on boron in relation to human OA since the mid-1990s. I did find fairly recent evidence review (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.771297/full) but most of the studies on boron were either ecological or in vivo research on animals.
To what extent is the article below about osteoarthritis among tomb builders in ancient Egypt (wear and tear version) at odds with the claim that physical inactivity is a modern key promoter of osteoarthritis? Both positions sound plausible to me, so is there some missing fact or nuance that can reconcile them? Or are they both equally valid explanations? Since osteoarthritis shows up in the bones of our prehistoric ancestors, as well as prehistoric animals, I'm sceptical about the evolutionary mismatch theory.
It must be around 25 years ago that I first encountered the view that in the ageing, acidifying body calcium was leached from the bones in an attempt to neutralise the acid and restore the body's acid-alkaline balance. It was also asserted that acidic blood was a dissolver of the all-important cartilage. The reasoning sounded persuasive to me; but it had its critics and, unfortunately, I haven't kept up. What's the current thinking on this subject? And what alternative explanation, if any, could explain the 'honeycomb' effect on bone? Obviously, osteoporosis isn't osteoarthritis; but if acidic blood dissolves cartilage, then one should think these two conditions would commonly be found together, though I'm not sure if they are. However, I'm pretty sure you'll know the answer straight off the top of your head.
And here's a thought: women who wear stilettos are putting increased pressure on their knee joints (wear and tear argument), so why would we even bother to say that the modern, stiletto-wearing woman just hasn't as yet successfully adapted to the modern fashion environment? Maybe cave women also wore stilettos so they could be more easily pushed over and dragged along by their hair.
For starters, Egyptian tomb builders may not have been eating a diet well-matched to our evolutionary history - that is, a diet rich in fresh produce. Antioxidant-rich foods are necessary to quench the oxidative stress generated by the inflammation that is caused by intense physical activity, so that recovery can occur overnight during rest.
Secondly, the type of physical activity that the tomb builders engaged in was not movement that is natural to human beings, such as running. It's easy to imagine them developing postural misalignments as a result of these unnatural activities, and these misalignments eventually leading to OA (just like the joint misalignments caused by obesity).
And thirdly, the article itself states: "Perhaps surprisingly, the workers’ skeletons demonstrated very few examples of more extreme forms of osteoarthritis. As joints break down, bone can eventually rub directly against bone, leaving a polished appearance called eburnation.
Only a couple of joints from Deir el-Medina showed evidence for eburnation. These were more frequently from women rather than the workmen. This suggests that the workmen’s regular hikes didn’t provide the level or kind of stress necessary to result in more extreme cases of osteoarthritis." In other words, the tomb workers may have had radiologically evident OA but not clinically evident OA, as mentioned in my exchange with Robyn S. It's now well-known that a person's clinical presentation (i.e. how much pain they feel) correlates very poorly with their radiological presentation. Many people whose spines look terrible on x-ray experience little to no pain in daily life, and conversely many people who have excruciating pain have no detectable abnormalities on x-ray.
The notion of 'acidic blood' is nonsense, as death is imminent if the pH of the bloodstream drops into the acidic range (i.e. pH<7). However, it is the case that if the body's acid-buffering mechanisms are constantly stressed by an excessive dietary acid load and insufficient intake of base-forming foods, renal function will decline and this has knock-on effects on every body system, including the musculoskeletal.
Sorry to hear about the trouble you've been having. I don't recommend steroid injections as they damage cartilage and tendons, which exacerbates the joint pain. I strongly recommend seeing an exercise physiologist who specialises in lower limb problems. Like all professions, EPs vary enormously in proficiency, but a really good EP can work miracles on joint pain.
Remember that diet matters too - fibre, antioxidants, vitamin K and omega 3 fats are crucial for normal joint function and repair of damage, as discussed above.
Have you looked into adequan?( polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Approved for use in humans in Europe, apparently many UK soccer teams use it. What do you think? is it a drug, a steroid, or a miracle substance? https://adequancanine.com/for-veterinarians
Spot on, yet again, Robyn!
Loved your sentence: "No one develops osteoarthritis because they have an NSAID deficiency." Ha ha
I have to say, those covid injections seem to have boosted surgery rates, eh? Perhaps one could say that rise is because people were forced to stay at home for a while there by our tyrannical government...but you know, they could've still done exercise at home, gardening; all that sort of stuff. They weren't glued to the lounge! No, they took poison, and now we're seeing the results of that.
I'm also pretty sure the rate of OA is has been GROSSLY underestimated. The link you put in there says that "1 in 5 Australians (22%) over the age of 45 have osteoarthritis" - but as a Country Chiropractor for many years, I saw a lot of patients, and a lot of X-rays, and almost EVERYONE over the age of 25 had OA to at least some degree, in some area/s of their body. And I wouldn't say it was much different between male or female. I wonder how they determine what OA is to get to an average of "9.3%" - does it have to be diagnosed by a GP or something, and drugs prescribed? Because if we're looking at ALL sections of the human body, I'd say about 90% of people over 25 have it! It might be vertebral OA, hip joint OA, sacro-iliac joint OA, let alone the peripheral joint OA (knees, thumbs, shoulders etc). Even in those who didn't have pain in a particular place, the OA there still showed up on X-rays as an incidental finding. So I think the Australian Government has VERY little idea - or care - about what ailments their constituents suffer from.
So many of my country patients also took NSAIDS to help with random pains that came up in their day-to-day lives, or when they injured themselves. I mean, what, paracetamol wasn't good enough (for the social compliance/not caring thing)? Drinking heaps of water was too hard? Listening to me about how to do things right was too hard?! Evidently all that was too hard, because swallowing a pill was a whole lot easier for them. About 95% of them got jabbed, too, so really, I was wasting my time trying to keep people ALIGNED, which is a much better way to stave off OA - even though plenty were overweight/obese, too! But given people's seeming addiction to bad lifestyle choices, it's not exactly rocket science to figure out that things in the body don't tend to STAY aligned when you're doing the wrong things for yourself day in, day out...
That's an interesting point that you raise, on the gap between radiologically-evident OA and clinically diagnosed OA. I'm guessing that that the AIHW uses the latter, which means someone has to present to their GP with symptoms. No doubt plenty of people don't even bother going to the doctor for a diagnosis; they just assume that they have OA and take NSAIDs or paracetamol.
It is unbelievably frustrating when people want to be 'fixed' but they aren't willing to put any work into their own recovery. For several generations now, people in the West have been actively discouraged from growing up and taking responsibility for themselves.
Well, I have taken a therapeutic dose of turmeric for 6-8 years now and so long as I maintain it, I have no hip pain. Dr only advised NSAIDS, but I wasn’t comfortable with that.
Good for you! Curcumin (one of the key components of turmeric) has been found to have COX-2 inhibition properties - like Celebrex, but without the increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding!
I very much enjoy your articles! I have shared your piece on Osteoporosis with many of my patients concerned about ONJ associated with the injectable osteoclast inhibitors.
I am curious your thoughts and any research on the role of absorbed fluoride over the course of a lifetime. I have read that it is implicated in osteoarthritis as it accumulates in the joints. It could also be implicated in metabolic disorders as fluoride in the stomach may contribute to leaky gut.
I am a classically trained dentist and only recently became aware of the dark, dark history of fluoride. Very curious your thoughts!
Osteoarthritis is indeed associated with excessive exposure to fluoride, e.g. see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7751991/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34581970/.
And the mechanism by which it induces gut permeability was recently identified - see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014765132300444X.
How are you incorporating your new-found awareness of the dangers of fluoride into your practice? Are your colleagues and patients open to discussing it?
I practice in the heart of one of the sites where the most recent bioweapon was created by mastermind, Ralph Baric. I say this because of the scientific community I serve and their unwillingness to have their dogmatic beliefs challenged. I am slowly introducing the toxicity of fluoride. Mostly on a patient by patient basis. Some are receptive. Most just shrug when I tell them that water fluoridation is accomplished with the toxic waste of the aluminum and fertilizer industries. Their typical response....’well, it prevents cavities’.
I am sure you’re aware of the major lawsuit happening in the US around water fluoridation. I wonder if the results will have any impact on the other nations that fluoridate.
Derrick Broze has been providing brilliant coverage of the fluoride lawsuit at https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/category/health/fluoride-trial/. I'm sure this suit, and all the documents that have been uncovered during discovery, will be used by anti-fluoridation groups here in Australia and overseas.
It's just beyond sad that educated, supposedly intelligent people think that lowered IQs, thyroid damage, bone and joint pathologies and all the other damage associated with excessive fluoride exposure are an acceptable price to pay for prevention of tooth decay!!! Especially when the evidence that fluoride prevents tooth decay is sketchy anyway.
Yes, the history is very sketchy! Especially since they adjusted the original trials to detect DMFT to DMFS which skewed the overall impact of fluoride. Thank you for this link to the Last American Vagabond. For those wide awake, I summarize my fluoride findings to suggest that Fluoride is to Dentistry what Vaccines are to Medicine.
That strikes me as a very apt comparison. Vaccines are medicine's sacred cow. Much of the reputation of the medical profession rests on the completely erroneous notion that doctors, through the use of vaccines, eradicated the scourge of deadly infectious diseases. Fluoride, both as a topical application and a water additive, plays an analogous role in dentistry.
I have been reading a lot on this topic, I truly think the biggest risk is likely from using fluoridated toothpastes. The PPM concentration of fluoride is exponentially greater than what we drink and the sublingual absorption should be considered a risk.
I appreciate so very much your feedback. As I have mentioned, your osteoporosis article has been shared with many patients. I am about to share with two more women I just saw today. Are you aware of any literature that evaluates the absolute risk reduction vs the relative risk reduction of fractures in women who have/have not taken the osteoclast inhibitors?
Does anyone have information on the role of boron in osteoarthritis? Research in 1960's indicated a protective effect, but no recent work has been done
There really doesn't seem to have been much research on boron in relation to human OA since the mid-1990s. I did find fairly recent evidence review (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.771297/full) but most of the studies on boron were either ecological or in vivo research on animals.
https://www.scribd.com/document/353907525/The-Borax-Conspiracy
To what extent is the article below about osteoarthritis among tomb builders in ancient Egypt (wear and tear version) at odds with the claim that physical inactivity is a modern key promoter of osteoarthritis? Both positions sound plausible to me, so is there some missing fact or nuance that can reconcile them? Or are they both equally valid explanations? Since osteoarthritis shows up in the bones of our prehistoric ancestors, as well as prehistoric animals, I'm sceptical about the evolutionary mismatch theory.
https://theconversation.com/what-tracing-a-tough-commute-in-ancient-egypt-reveals-about-osteoarthritis-85410
It must be around 25 years ago that I first encountered the view that in the ageing, acidifying body calcium was leached from the bones in an attempt to neutralise the acid and restore the body's acid-alkaline balance. It was also asserted that acidic blood was a dissolver of the all-important cartilage. The reasoning sounded persuasive to me; but it had its critics and, unfortunately, I haven't kept up. What's the current thinking on this subject? And what alternative explanation, if any, could explain the 'honeycomb' effect on bone? Obviously, osteoporosis isn't osteoarthritis; but if acidic blood dissolves cartilage, then one should think these two conditions would commonly be found together, though I'm not sure if they are. However, I'm pretty sure you'll know the answer straight off the top of your head.
And here's a thought: women who wear stilettos are putting increased pressure on their knee joints (wear and tear argument), so why would we even bother to say that the modern, stiletto-wearing woman just hasn't as yet successfully adapted to the modern fashion environment? Maybe cave women also wore stilettos so they could be more easily pushed over and dragged along by their hair.
For starters, Egyptian tomb builders may not have been eating a diet well-matched to our evolutionary history - that is, a diet rich in fresh produce. Antioxidant-rich foods are necessary to quench the oxidative stress generated by the inflammation that is caused by intense physical activity, so that recovery can occur overnight during rest.
Secondly, the type of physical activity that the tomb builders engaged in was not movement that is natural to human beings, such as running. It's easy to imagine them developing postural misalignments as a result of these unnatural activities, and these misalignments eventually leading to OA (just like the joint misalignments caused by obesity).
And thirdly, the article itself states: "Perhaps surprisingly, the workers’ skeletons demonstrated very few examples of more extreme forms of osteoarthritis. As joints break down, bone can eventually rub directly against bone, leaving a polished appearance called eburnation.
Only a couple of joints from Deir el-Medina showed evidence for eburnation. These were more frequently from women rather than the workmen. This suggests that the workmen’s regular hikes didn’t provide the level or kind of stress necessary to result in more extreme cases of osteoarthritis." In other words, the tomb workers may have had radiologically evident OA but not clinically evident OA, as mentioned in my exchange with Robyn S. It's now well-known that a person's clinical presentation (i.e. how much pain they feel) correlates very poorly with their radiological presentation. Many people whose spines look terrible on x-ray experience little to no pain in daily life, and conversely many people who have excruciating pain have no detectable abnormalities on x-ray.
The notion of 'acidic blood' is nonsense, as death is imminent if the pH of the bloodstream drops into the acidic range (i.e. pH<7). However, it is the case that if the body's acid-buffering mechanisms are constantly stressed by an excessive dietary acid load and insufficient intake of base-forming foods, renal function will decline and this has knock-on effects on every body system, including the musculoskeletal.
The major contributory factor to osteoporosis is inadequate physical activity. Use it, or lose it. See my previous article on osteoporosis: https://robynchuter.substack.com/p/the-great-osteoporosis-scam
Stilettos are an abomination. Cave women wouldn't be seen dead in them; try carrying a child on your hip or back while wearing stilettos!
Hope there are some actionable insights in there for you!
Sorry to hear about the trouble you've been having. I don't recommend steroid injections as they damage cartilage and tendons, which exacerbates the joint pain. I strongly recommend seeing an exercise physiologist who specialises in lower limb problems. Like all professions, EPs vary enormously in proficiency, but a really good EP can work miracles on joint pain.
Remember that diet matters too - fibre, antioxidants, vitamin K and omega 3 fats are crucial for normal joint function and repair of damage, as discussed above.
Have you looked into adequan?( polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Approved for use in humans in Europe, apparently many UK soccer teams use it. What do you think? is it a drug, a steroid, or a miracle substance? https://adequancanine.com/for-veterinarians
Research on this substance has had very mixed results - see https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/glycosaminoglycan-polysulfate.. Also it's derived from bovine (cow) lung and tracheal tissue, so definitely not vegan-friendly.
Thank you for the link!
This is a good place to start: https://www.essa.org.au/Maps