What are the misconceptions about the treatment of osteoarthritis? What do I need to know about treating bone and joint disease? Bone and joint disease is a degenerative disease. It includes degenerative arthritis, bursitis, synovitis, cervical spondylosis, lumbar spondylosis, frozen shoulder, osteophytes, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, femoral head necrosis, etc.; it is one of the diseases with the highest disability rate. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, there are about 355 million patients with bone and joint diseases in various countries and age groups worldwide. The total number of patients with bone and joint diseases in China has exceeded 155 million, and these patients are mostly middle-aged and elderly, especially knee diseases are the most common. Bone and joint diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer have become the three major killers threatening human health, and are known as the “undead cancer”. Osteoarthritis is one of the diseases with the highest disability rate and is called the “undead cancer”. Patients suffer from pain and swelling of joints every day, and have difficulty sleeping and eating, and even become paralyzed and unable to take care of themselves. However, for a long time, due to the lack of understanding of the root cause of bone and joint diseases, the treatment of bone and joint diseases inevitably goes into such and such misunderstandings, not only can not stop the development of the disease, but also cause harm to the body because of the toxic side effects of drugs. The following major misconceptions, have you been hit? I. Three common treatment myths of bone and joint disease 1, long-term reliance on allopathic treatment Bone and joint disease is often accompanied by severe pain and swelling, in order to reduce the pain, some times do need allopathic treatment (i.e., treat the symptoms, meaning to eliminate or improve the symptoms of the disease). However, allopathic treatment does not address the root cause of the problem and therefore cannot be relied upon in the long term. At present, symptomatic treatment mainly includes taking analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs and physical therapy (massage, traction, physiotherapy, etc.). (1) Long-term use of analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs Analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs include hormones (such as prednisone, dexamethasone, etc.) and non-hormones (such as aspirin, ibuprofen, anti-inflammatory pain, diclofenac, fotarol, etc.), which are characterized by rapid and obvious pain relief and swelling reduction, but these drugs can only relieve the symptoms, and cannot control the development of lesions, and they cannot play a therapeutic role. (2) Physical therapy such as traction, massage, acupuncture, etc. Physical therapy can only temporarily relieve the symptoms, and cannot achieve the purpose of fundamental treatment. Sometimes, inappropriate massage massage not only can not cure the disease, but will cause damage and aggravate the condition. 2, blindly supplement trace elements Some patients believe that bone and joint diseases are caused by the lack of trace elements, so blindly supplement trace elements. Undeniably, trace elements are essential, and they can regulate the metabolic balance of the body to a certain extent, which is beneficial to the body, but the lack of trace elements is not directly related to the degeneration of the bone and joint. Therefore, for bone and joint diseases, trace elements do not play a fundamental role, and the supplementation of trace elements as a treatment for bone and joint diseases will only make you miss the best time to treat bone and joint diseases. 3, one-sided understanding of the cause osteoarthritis is the most common bone and joint disease, the traditional theory of osteoarthritis collectively known as “rheumatism”, that is caused by the external environment is cold, wet, changeable, often suggest that patients to keep warm, keep dry, warm Yang to dispel dampness and other ways to relieve symptoms. In fact, the external environment is only the external cause of osteoarthritis, along with the development of medicine, humans have found more than 100 kinds of arthritis, and the symptoms and causes of each are different, so it is not accurate to call osteoarthritis “rheumatism” in general. The traditional treatment methods are more symptomatic, i.e. to relieve pain, swelling and other symptoms as the main purpose. For example, the main role of analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs is to relieve pain, that is, to raise the pain threshold (the threshold refers to the minimum value required to trigger a certain behavior or response), that is, to make the patient less sensitive to pain. Obviously, this kind of treatment is only a “symptomatic” treatment, and once the patient stops taking the drug, the condition will recur and the pain will become more severe. Moreover, since the problem is not solved at the root, the patient’s condition continues to develop, eventually leading to joint deformity, ankylosis, complete loss of function, paralysis and inability to take care of themselves. Therefore, although anti-inflammatory and allopathic treatment can temporarily relieve the pain, in the long run, it will not only fail to achieve the treatment purpose, but also make the condition worse. 2, can not avoid the side effects of analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs side effects, long-term use of the liver and kidneys and other organs are very easy to cause damage. Especially hormonal drugs, it is easy to induce hypertension, diabetes, glaucoma and other diseases. Long-term use of analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs can also inhibit the synthesis of collagen matrix, and some drugs can even directly destroy joint cartilage cells, further aggravating the disease of bone and joint disease. The larger the dose and the longer the time taken, the more serious the damage to the joint. Third, prevention and treatment of osteoarthrosis, must be both the symptoms and the root cause 1, the disease in the joint root in the cartilage Scientific research has proved that: cartilage damage is the “culprit” of osteoarthrosis. As we age, the synthesis of proteoglycans in joint cartilage decreases, the cartilage surface becomes convex and uneven, and the bone under the cartilage is gradually exposed. As a result, the bones lose the necessary protection, which can easily cause bone damage. Further development will lead to bone sclerosis, thickening, synovial tissue damage, which will lead to joint deformity, necrosis, loss of function. 2, cartilage “not afraid of grinding”, only afraid of nutritional imbalance The basic function of cartilage is to maintain joint elasticity, maintain joint performance, so normal sports and physical activity will not lead to joint damage. The real reason for cartilage damage is due to an imbalance in nutritional metabolism, which causes erosion within the cartilage. Collagen fibers, the main matrix of cartilage, are intertwined and arranged in a network, while proteoglycans are clustered in the collagen fiber spaces. As we age, the synthesis of proteoglycans decreases, while the breakdown continues. Over time, gaps appear between the collagen fibers and the fibers collapse due to lack of support, resulting in uneven cartilage and the invasion of free radicals and inflammatory substances, thus activating matrix enzymes and proteases that destroy cartilage. We are all familiar with the process of apple decay: the apple dries out when it loses a lot of water, and free radicals and inflammatory substances in the air take advantage of the situation to attack the apple, which leads to the collapse of the supporting plant fibers, and the apple starts to rot from the inside. The process of cartilage damage is very similar to that of apple decay, as the collagen fibers in cartilage are like the plant fibers in apples, and the proteoglycans and ammonia in cartilage are like the water in apples. When proteoglycans and ammonia decrease with age, the cartilage structure made up of collagen fibers will erode from the inside, leading to serious damage such as ulceration, rupture and faulting of the entire cartilage layer. 3.Two-pronged approach: symptomatic treatment + causal treatment, is the king! When treating the disease, the root cause of the disease should be removed. To prevent and treat bone and joint diseases, we must reflect the basic principles of “treating both the symptoms and the root cause” and “improving the symptoms and structure”. Both should be treated, both symptomatically and causally.