I am often asked a question by elderly patients, I have a bone spur in my joint on a radiograph, can I get rid of my bone spur, it is the culprit of my joint pain. Is this true?
First of all, we need to understand what is a bone spur, simply put, it is a bone growth, whether we study medicine or not, once the film is taken, we can probably see whether there is a growth, it is also very simple, you compare your film with a young man’s one, you can see the bone growth. Tianke, Department of Orthopaedics, Zhengzhou University First Affiliated Hospital Now we get to the core question, is osteophytes the culprit of our joint pain? The answer is no, it is not. Not only is it not, it is also a stable structure of our aging joints. If we do an extreme surgery to remove all the bone spurs of an elderly person, then it is estimated that the elderly person will not be able to walk because your joints are unstable and wobbly. So, what is the cause of joint pain and how do bone spurs occur? The root cause of pain is the wear and tear of the cartilage in our joints, and the loss of cartilage. We are getting older day by day and so are our joints. Some of you will ask me, can my joints still get better? Some of you may ask me, “Can my joints get better?” Well, they can’t, because we are getting older every day and our joints are aging every day. If you are a heavy worker, or if you are overweight, you will definitely age faster and your joints will be heavily weighed. Therefore, the right exercise is very important, the elderly recommended walking exercise is the main. Our body is a balance, we sweat a lot, will feel mouth drink, this time need to drink water, the water back, this is our body’s self-regulation. Our joints are the same, our cartilage is worn out, lost, our body has to find a way to grow cartilage, but unfortunately, our cartilage is not renewable, bone is renewable, so osteophytes come out to maintain the stability of our joints. Bone spurs are just a sign that our joints are aging, just like when we have gray hair, it means we are getting older, not that the gray hair is aging you. Now pull out all your gray hairs and you are a young man? Take out all your bone spurs, are your joints a young joint? Do you understand the same reasoning? If you don’t understand, you can continue to consult me.