MRI-Detected Damage Shows Up 2 years Before Knee OA Dx
Another study that exemplifies the thought process of Western medicine.
MRIs of almost 5000 people ages 45 – 79 at baseline, 12, 24, 36, and 48 months were taken. The researchers found that certain “structural features” indicated on the MRI increased the “risk for developing incident radiographic OA” “in the 2 years prior to developing disease.” They concluded that the use of MRI was a “distruptive innovation” and revealed “aspects to which we had been agnostic and are difficult to fit into the prevailing paradigm.”
Who writes this malarkey! You mean that structural damage to the bone, swelling, and inflammation shown by the MRI might be a harbinger of things to come? And this is “disruptive?” To whom and to what? A group of practitioners who have only two weapons: pill and knives.
And I love this: "We showed that new presence and persistence of a feature prior to the case-defining visit but not at baseline bears a higher risk than knees exhibiting that feature at every time point," the authors note. The “case-defining” visit? You mean the one where the doctor finally gave a “diagnosis?” There was finally enough damage to label the problem using a fancy medical term?And what was done for the patient during all this time – years – preceding the diagnosis? Anti-inflammatory meds?
In an editorial response, one physician started to see the light. "And cumulative research has demonstrated that knee OA (and perhaps all OA) is fundamentally a disorder of deranged biomechanics manifesting with damage throughout articular structures."
Deranged biomechanics manifests as damage “throughout articular structures?” You mean if you hit a pothole, throw off your axle and wheel balance, eventually you will wear out your tires more quickly?
Is this ever assessed in a visit to your doctor? What movements do you do, need to do each day? Are you a professional athlete, mom with 3 kids, engineer chained to a desk? How does your body move? Strength, mobility, flexibility, motor control all play into the development of this wearing out process. And what about nutrition, stress, and sleep?
"It is clear that we need to change the construct of OA ... as that old paradigm has arguably stifled research and progress in this field for decades."
No kidding!
