Osteoarthritis is a relatively common joint disease in clinical medicine. Osteoarthritis usually occurs after the age of 40, gradually worsens and lasts a lifetime. Among people over 60 years old, 75% show signs of osteoarthritis on X-rays. It is a chronic joint disease, with main symptoms including degeneration and destruction of the articular cartilage surface, as well as secondary bone proliferation. Conservative pain-relieving therapy and joint replacement surgery are still the general methods for treating osteoarthritis. However, with the continuous development of medicine, new therapies are also increasing, among which minimally invasive joint surgery and alternative medicine are becoming more famous and are increasingly used clinically.
Minimally Invasive Surgery: Minimally invasive surgery has higher requirements for equipment and the experience of doctors. Dr. Brian Cole from the United States is an expert in non-traditional surgery and prefers to use minimally invasive surgery in joint treatment. Simply put, the surgical process involves using an arthroscopic lens to remove the damaged cartilage area, then drilling several holes in the bone. This way, bone marrow cells and blood will coagulate into a smooth and solid repair tissue, replacing the function of the cartilage. The recovery time for this surgery ranges from six months to a year, 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 experience significantly reduced joint function after such surgery, like the famous NBA players Chris Webber and Anfernee Hardaway, whose joints never returned to their previous level after recovering from minimally invasive surgery.
Alternative Medicine: The negative aspects of chemical drugs and surgical treatments have been increasingly drawing attention. People have started to reject chemical drugs and surgical treatments and prefer to accept new therapies that emphasize natural healing power. Alternative Medicine emerged accordingly. As its medical philosophy based on human physiological development and adopting natural therapies gradually shows its advantages, many countries have successively established similar institutions. Alternative medicine has undoubtedly formed a new medical trend worldwide. In recent years, international renowned medical institutions such as Nippon Medical School, Dokkyo Medical University, and Showa University have conducted research on saw shark cartilage powder, confirming its miraculous effect on cartilage regeneration, pioneering the "alternative medicine" for osteoarthritis. According to statistics from the Japan Shark Cartilage Popularization Association, taking 7.5g/day of pure natural saw shark cartilage powder can achieve the re-splitting and growth of cartilage cells within half a year to a year, which 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 is accepted by a wide range of patients. However, during the early treatment phase, its effects on pain relief and anti-inflammatory are relatively slow, requiring a period of use before becoming evident. The lack of immediate efficacy might be its greatest shortcoming.
In China, patients with osteoarthritis are always in a relatively passive state when choosing treatment options. Doctors have more say and decision-making power in this regard. Joint replacement surgery is still the predominant treatment option for arthritis and is highly used in clinical practice and continuously recommended by doctors. Undoubtedly, joint replacement surgery has significant quick effects in relieving pain and restoring joint function. However, the rehabilitation after joint replacement surgery often does not meet expectations, and undergoing joint replacement surgery itself is a great risk. 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, bone dissolution, etc., remain unresolved problems. Under the current medical system, patients' right to know is almost zero. Doctors have always been in an unreasonable dominant position in doctor-patient relationships. How big is the risk of surgery? What are the post-treatment side effects? Many patients are basically unaware of these details, let alone obtaining a new treatment plan from the doctor. Therefore, patients have almost no opportunity to choose a new treatment plan in front of doctors, and the final treatment plan is limited to what the doctor knows and is willing to recommend. This may just be a small reflection of the unequal relationship in China's medical system.
Not only that, the phenomenon of "seeking quick success and instant benefits" also exists at the patient's consciousness level. People often judge products hastily based on superficial perceptions. The judgment of a therapy is often too hasty. As mentioned earlier, the rehabilitation from joint minimally invasive surgery requires more than half a year; the substitute therapy of saw shark cartilage powder mainly promotes the growth of joint cartilage. Once the joint cartilage recovers to a certain stage, the external sensory pain, swelling, etc., will slowly subside. Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, the effectiveness of these therapies takes too long. From a mechanistic perspective, the efficacy of saw shark cartilage powder is undoubtedly one of the best methods for treating osteoarthritis. However, this therapy is currently only limited to some private hospitals in China catering to 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 might be prematurely dismissed!
Choosing a new medical plan is not merely a matter of nodding or shaking your head, it's about bone proliferation. 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, then the general public can truly have the right to speak in disease treatment.
Source: http://news.qq.com/a/20090402/000958.htm