Osteoarthritis is a relatively common joint disease in clinical medicine. Osteoarthritis usually occurs after the age of 40, gradually worsens and lasts for life. Among people over 60 years old, 75% show signs of osteoarthritis on X-ray examination. It is a chronic joint disease, with main symptoms including degeneration and destruction of articular cartilage and secondary bone proliferation. Conservative pain-relieving therapy and joint replacement surgery are currently still the general methods for treating osteoarthritis. However, with the continuous development of medicine, new therapies are also increasing continuously, among which minimally invasive joint surgery and alternative medical treatments are more famous, and their clinical use is also increasing.
Minimally Invasive Surgery: Minimally invasive surgery has high requirements for equipment and the doctor's experience. Dr. Brian Cole from the United States is an expert in non-traditional surgical fields and prefers to use minimally invasive surgery in joint treatment. The surgical process can be simply described as follows: first, use an arthroscopic lens to remove the damaged cartilage area, then drill a few holes in the bone. This way, bone marrow cells and blood will coagulate into smooth and strong repair tissue, replacing the function of cartilage.
This surgery requires six months to one year for recovery, mainly depending on how much cartilage needs to be replaced. However, the biggest drawback of this surgery is that the recovery of the joint itself varies after minimally invasive surgery. Some people have significantly reduced joint function after such surgery. For example, American NBA players Chris Webber and Anfernee Hardaway did not reach their previous levels after recovering from minimally invasive surgery.
Alternative Medical Treatment: The negative aspects of chemical drugs and surgical treatment have increasingly attracted attention. People have begun to gradually reject chemical drugs and surgical treatment, preferring to accept new therapies that emphasize natural healing power. Alternative Medicine "alternative medicine" has emerged accordingly. With its medical philosophy advantages based on human physiological development and adopting natural therapies becoming increasingly evident, many countries have successively established similar institutions. Alternative medical treatment has undoubtedly formed a new medical trend worldwide.
In recent years, internationally renowned medical institutions such as Japan's Nippon Medical School, Dokkyo Medical University, and Showa University have conducted research on saw shark cartilage powder, proving its miraculous effect on cartilage regeneration, pioneering the "alternative medicine" for osteoarthritis. According to statistics from the Japanese Shark Cartilage Popularization Association, by consuming 7.5g/day of pure natural saw shark cartilage powder, soft bone cells can be re-divided and grown within half a year to one year, a point that has been clinically proven. Currently, using saw shark cartilage powder to treat arthritis has become a new choice for most joint disease patients in Japan, and its advantage of promoting cartilage cell growth and better rehabilitation has been accepted by a wide range of patients. However, in the early stages of treatment, its pain-relief and anti-inflammatory effects take longer to manifest, requiring a period of use before becoming apparent. Immediate effectiveness might be its greatest shortcoming.
In China, patients with osteoarthritis are relatively passive in choosing treatment options. Doctors have more authority and decision-making power in this regard. Joint replacement surgery is still the primary treatment option for arthritis, with extremely high usage rates in clinical practice, and doctors continue to recommend it. There is no doubt that joint replacement surgery has significant immediate effects in relieving pain and restoring joint function. However, the rehabilitation situation after joint replacement surgery often falls short of expectations, and undergoing such surgery itself carries significant risks. There are certain short-term and long-term complications after surgery, easily causing infections, joint instability, fractures around the prosthesis, etc. Additionally, complications such as loosening and wear of the replacement components, and bone dissolution remain unresolved problems.
Under the current medical system, patients' right to know is almost zero. Doctors have always held an unreasonable dominant position in doctor-patient relationships. How big is the risk of surgery? What are the post-treatment side effects? Many patients basically have no way of knowing, let alone obtaining a new treatment plan from the doctor, such as cartilage regeneration. Therefore, patients have almost no opportunity to choose new treatment plans in front of doctors, and the final treatment plan is limited to what the doctor knows and is willing to recommend. Perhaps this is just a shadow of the unequal relationship in China's medical system.
Not only that, but the phenomenon of "seeking quick success and instant benefits" also exists at the patient's level of consciousness. People often hastily judge the quality of products based on surface perceptions, like summer knee protectors. Judgments about a therapy are often too hasty. As mentioned earlier, the rehabilitation time for joint minimally invasive surgery exceeds six months; the alternative therapy of saw shark cartilage powder mainly promotes joint cartilage growth. Once the joint cartilage recovers to a certain stage, our external sensory pain, swelling, etc., will slowly subside. Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, these therapies' effectiveness takes too long. From a mechanistic perspective, the efficacy of saw shark cartilage powder is undoubtedly the best method for treating osteoarthritis, but currently, this therapy is only limited to some private hospitals in China facing high-end populations. Perhaps only this group values a scientifically effective rehabilitation method rather than focusing on short-term effects. So, good or bad sometimes gets prematurely dismissed!
Choosing a new medical plan is not merely a matter of nodding or shaking your head. It is often influenced by background factors. The popularization of a new therapy often needs to consider cultural conflicts and differences in understanding. More transparency and less impatience will enable the public to truly have a say in disease treatment.
Source: http://news.qq.com/a/20090402/000958.htm