Solutions Integrated Medicine Blog

     For heel spur sufferers, every step can feel like there’s a nail poking into your foot. A heel spur is a sharp bony protrusion on the bottom of the heel bone caused by a calcium deposit. For severe cases, surgery is available however a last option as most heel spurs respond to conservative treatment methods (1). Despite its obvious appearance on x-ray, sometimes finding the real cause of the pain can be tricky, as there may be several causes other than the spike in your heel. If you suffer with pain from a heel spur, it’s important you go to a doctor who’s well trained in the most effective natural methods for treating this problem. There are several and we practice all of them at Solutions Integrated Medicine. 

     Many people think they’re stuck with their aches and pains because they’ve been told they have ‘arthritis’ in their knees and there was nothing that could be done for them. In the past, if you had arthritis in your knee, there was a high chance of a knee replacement one day. So we take NSAIDs to keep going, cortisone shots, rooster comb, therapies and hopefully you’ll escape the odds… but doubtful. There are 600,000+ knee replacements/yr in the US, a common endpoint for this system of joint care. Fortunately, we now have new options for people with degenerative arthritis with regenerative medicine. Learn more about how this new branch of medical science is turning back the clock on knee arthritis here….

     Many of our patients will agree the pain from bursitis in the hip can be crippling. Hip bursitis affects 5 in 1000 adults, but more common in elderly with degenerative conditions and diabetes (1). These patients suffer from severe pain over their hip or side of the leg when they walk, and worse going down stairs. They also have a lot of trouble at night and can’t lay on that side. Typical treatment for this problem often includes ice, anti-inflammatories, cortisone and therapy, however sometimes is ineffective and the condition becomes chronic. Keep reading to learn why and what makes the treatment at Solutions the best way to not only get fast relief for hip bursitis but also address the cause of the problem…

     At Solutions, we treat many patients for low back pain and have very good success rates with this condition. Our team has more than 60 years of combined experience helping patients recover from the worst low back problems possible… we know what it takes to fix a bad back – and so we also know what it takes to keep one healthy. Whether you’ve suffered with low back pain in the past or would just like to prevent it from happening, we’ve put together a short list of helpful tips that will make all the difference in staying well…

     A frozen shoulder makes simple tasks like putting on a shirt or washing your hair painful and eventually impossible. Also called Adhesive Capsulitis, this condition is caused by adhesions and scar tissue that develop on the shoulder joint capsule. It mostly occurs in people who’ve kept their arm mobilized for a long time or have diabetes, and the effects eventually become debilitating. About 10% of people with rotator cuff disorders develop frozen shoulder. Fortunately if caught early enough, the primary treatment for this condition is therapy. The downside is the down time; frozen shoulders can take 6-9 months and sometimes several years to recover from (1). 

     Sometimes patients don’t fair well after a joint replacement because their legs have become uneven. If the doctors fail to measure the lengths of the legs correctly prior to the procedure, a discrepancy in leg length is often the result. The body can compensate for a small amount, but when leg length discrepancy becomes too large, it creates imbalances in other joints and wreaks havoc. For example, a short leg tips the pelvis and curves the spine, creating a scoliosis, causing disc problems, pinched nerves and even accelerate degeneration of other joints. Unfortunately, most orthopedic surgery is very difficult to change after the fact, so leg deficiencies created by joint replacement can cause problems patients may have to dealt with forever. 

     One of the most common complaints from knee pain sufferers is pain over the medial aspect of the joint. When it hurts on the inside of your knee, it can be difficult to sleep on your side without a cushion between your legs. Medial knee pain can be from an injury, but is more often the result of degenerative arthritis when chronic. If you suffer with bilateral pain in this area regularly, a current x-ray is a good measure to check up on the health of your joint spaces. Sometimes joint degeneration can be sneaky; only producing symptoms (like medial knee pain) in the last stages. 

     Ever had a cortisone injection that didn’t help with your joint pain? This is because it’s commonly over-prescribed and often prescribed for the wrong reason. Cortisone is actually an anti-inflammatory (not primarily a pain medicine) and the most common injection given for joint pain. Yet the most common reason for chronic joint pain is Osteoarthritis, a degenerative type of arthritis. In this condition, swelling and inflammation are often not the main reasons for pain… then why is the most popular treatment an anti-inflammatory? 

     If you want to prolong your joints, you have to focus on the ligaments. Ligaments are a type of connective tissue; they connect your bones together. Their purpose is to support the joints during movement, and also act as cushions between the bones. When a ligament becomes damaged from injury or degeneration, the joint it’s supporting becomes unstable and painful. When the ligaments fail, the joint is doomed. If you can keep your ligaments alive and healthy longer, your joints will last longer. Fortunately there’s new science helping patients rebuild damaged connective tissue – and it’s turning back the clock on osteoarthritis and many chronic ligament disorders. Read more here….

     Advanced osteoarthritis causes joints to degenerate and lose their cartilage resulting in instability and reduced space. In the knee joints, this causes extreme pain, weakness and eventually may end in joint replacement if the space gets thin enough. A common treatment for this is an injection of hyaluronic acid and is an effort to temporarily improve space and lubricate the joint. This is called viscosupplementation and helps many patients with pain relief and can even delay surgery, but often involves 3-5 injections.