Whenever I go out to the clinic, there are always many patients who will tell me voluntarily: Professor, I took a film and it is pain caused by osteophytes. The following is what I would ask the patient almost every time I hear this statement: If I see you have gray hair, does it mean you are an old man or an old woman? In fact, this conversation between me and the patient reflects the question of which is the “cause” and which is the “effect” between “gray hair” and “old age”? cause” and “effect”? Is it because people become “old” that they grow “gray hair”, or is it because they grow “gray hair” that they become “old”? or is it the “gray hair” that makes a person “old”? Anyone can answer this question: Of course, becoming an “old man” is the “cause” and growing “gray hair” is the “effect”. The “cause” is the “effect. However, when I apply this “cause and effect” relationship to the relationship between osteophytes and pain, many people are confused: on TV, in the newspapers, and many doctors, don’t they all say that the “pain” is caused by the growth of “bone spurs”? “What is wrong with this? What’s wrong with that? This is indeed a problem. Here is another question for you: Why do people have “bone spurs”? In layman’s terms: Man is a very scientific, developed and advanced machine, why do you have nothing to eat and nothing to grow “bone spurs”? If I tell you that “bone spurs are a good thing”, you will be amazed! It’s time to tell you why people get “bone spurs”. Take the knee joint for example, because this is the area with the highest incidence of “bone spurs”. From the time a person learns to walk, the weight-bearing activity of the joint begins, just like a brand-new machine bearing, which starts to work. This machine bearing, in the human body is the human joint, weight-bearing activities, will inevitably produce wear and tear, the longer the work, the heavier the wear and tear naturally. Machine bearings are not self-repairing ability, with the use of bad, but people are alive, is the ability to repair, the younger the age, the stronger the ability to repair, so the youth, despite the wear and tear of the joints, but this wear and tear to a certain extent can be self-repair, so the joints do not hurt, but also due to this self-repair activities are slow, you will not feel its presence. However, as we grow older, the ability to repair gradually decreases, and the wear and tear of the joints becomes more and more powerful; just like the bearings of a machine, the finer the wear, the more the machine will wobble and become unstable; the same is true for human joints, which become unstable when they are worn out. The unstable bearings of machines do not repair themselves to restore stability, but people can. When we get older, the human joints through the young kind of complete repair can not, in order to maintain the stability of the joints, the human joints at this time will be increased by increasing the contact surface to increase the stability – we know when we study physics, the larger the area, the better the stability – so around the joints will be the joint. -So, “new bone” grows around the joint spontaneously – this is called a “bone spur”, or “osteophytes”! When you see this, you can understand that osteophytes are the ability of the human body to repair itself in order to restore the stability of the joint after instability, that is to say, “osteophytes” or “bone spurs” are a good thing! You must be asking at this point: Why do the media and some doctors say that it is “painful because of bone spurs”? The reason is very simple: it is the result of drug dealers “fooling” the people in order to sell drugs, and some doctors are “half jealous” and talking nonsense. So: what is the cause of joint pain? Joint pain is caused by: 1) the wear and tear of the joint, the pain caused by the instability of the joint; 2) the wear and tear of the joint cartilage, the loss of cartilage protection of the joint under the bone collision bone, resulting in pain; 3) sometimes (rare) is accidentally touched the bone spur, bone spur stimulation of soft tissue caused pain. Now you understand: there is a relationship between osteophytes and pain, but the vast majority of pain is not related to osteophytes. “Osteomalacia is not the cause of pain, and pain is not the cause of pain. The “pain” is not the “cause” of “pain”, nor is “pain” the inevitable “effect” of “osteophytes”.