Arthritis help

Anyone find anything helpful for osteoarthritis? I'm 49 and doc says I will need a new hip in the next few years. I don't want one, but I'm not exactly thrilled with the one that I have. At this point, I can barely tie my shoe. This does not bode well for old age.

Best I could suggest is limiting inflammation through diet and use of Tumeric. I take it 2x daily and can definitely tell a difference in my joints when I don’t. 57 here.

I started off with glucosamine with turmeric and boswelia, and krill oil. That seemed to help, but could have been coincidental. I ran out of krill oil and the pain came back. Now taking fish oil and just ran out of glucosamine today. It hasn't been good. I'd like to find a way to stop any further degeneration, if that's even possible.

The list of stuff you are taking seems pretty comprehensive to me.

I understand the desire to avoid the hip replacement and hope you can remain functional and avoid the surgery. But if you do have to have it replaced, you may take some consolation from my experience with my knees. I've had two knees replaced, largely as a result of sports injuries while in college and the resultant wear and tear and the follow up of years of compensation done in my "good" knee. I postponed the surgery as long as I could tolerate the pain and lack of function in my really bad knee, and that caused further deterioration in my good knee. I wish I'd done the surgery earlier, I'm much more functional today than I was three years ago.

From some conversations with others, the hip replacement process is pretty good, and the recovery time is also fairly short, from what I gather it's less than for a knee. The joints also seem to last longer now than they used to.

I'm really hesitant to have a replacement at such a relatively young age. They say you might get 25 years, but it could be less than 10. Everyone's different. That would potentially mean three replacements for each hip. Ugh. At this point, I'm not in a place where I can't drive. I've got kids to get to and from school and activities; it already takes both my husband and myself to get everyone where they need to be. And they can't tell you how long you won't be able to drive; again, everyone is different. So, for now, it's not really an option. Getting dressed is getting rather tricky. I really thought I had another 15 years or so, before I started to fall apart.

Yikes! I didn't know they had a "shelf life". I meant to say my neighbor had to have them both done (she's pretty young and VERY active) and the recovery was good. Walking right away, etc.

Right after my left knee was replaced, my left hip started whining. As my knee got better and better, my hip got pissier and pissier. They did an injection, it's pretty specialized needing a fluoroscope. It didn't last but a day, but the fact that it did at all confirmed the osteoarthritis diagnosis, my surgeon said.

Well, I guess my hip didn't want to leave it's home, because for the last year, it's gotten better and better! One day I realized I can cut my toenails again. The only thing I can't do is rotational, like cross knees.

I don't think the improvement has anything to do with my diet over the last 16 months, because it's been everything from SAD to 95% carnivore and everything in between.

Artificial joints can have a short or a long life. It's all a crap shoot. My SIL at age 50 had issues in the year since it was done. Big issues. May have to do a "revision." I.e., replace the replacement. OTOH, my best bud from years ago had his hip replaced, he was about 40. He died three years ago still using it. Call it thirty years.

Do NOT postpone if you think that you may face two or three surgeries. Bluntly, it would be stupid. I consider my fake knee a blessing of modern medicine, along with cataract surgeries. If not for them, I'd be a blind, crippled, bitter old man in a wheel chair.

In addition to the stuff you're already taking, supplementing gelatin and/or collagen hydrolysate might help. It certainly can't hurt. The Great Lakes brand is a popular recommendation.

I don't have any personal experience with hip replacement, but this convo reminds me of a 2018 Netflix documentary on medical devices called The Bleeding Edge, which had a segment on chrome-cobalt hip implants. Apparently, despite advertising touting them as being safer and more advanced, they're actually less safe than old school metal and plastic implants and can result in a real horrorshow of tissue poisoning and gangrene in cases where their shelf life expires early.

Just something to keep in mind while you research your options, if you weren't aware of it already.

Your research should also include what surgeon you want. I spent some time when I did my first knee, deciding on the type of knee joint I wanted (custom made to my anatomy by Conformis), then on selecting the surgeon -- I got word of mouth recs from various people, and found the best referrals to be the surgeon around here who was the early adapter of the Conformis knee joint and has done the most surgeries with it.

Rig D wrote:Your research should also include what surgeon you want. I spent some time when I did my first knee, deciding on the type of knee joint I wanted (custom made to my anatomy by Conformis), then on selecting the surgeon -- I got word of mouth recs from various people, and found the best referrals to be the surgeon around here who was the early adapter of the Conformis knee joint and has done the most surgeries with it.

I agree with a caveat. Here in the good old USA, our surgeon choices might be limited by health plan. And, you can drive yourself nuts researching and deciding. When I last saw my orthopedic doc two years ago, not surgeon, he said it looks like replacement is coming up. There is a surgeon I know personally joining our clinic in January and I think he's top tier. So I saw the surgeon later in the new year, I liked his background, and I asked what joint he will use. Frankly, I've forgotten the maker, but the model was Raptor, I think. My research showed it was one of the old ones, been around a long time, with a good history. A year and a half later, and what with my SIL's experience, it seems like a disproportionate number of people with problems are using newer technologies. Materials, glue in, Conformis? My old tech joint is doing great.

After surgery, the staff in the hospital.......it only does surgery........raved about my doc. One of their faves even after being there only four months. I had to see him later on for the hip thingy I've already told you about. I think I'm accurate to say that we connected well at a personal level, which is very nice. Respected me. At my one year surgery anniversary I thanked him and he said, "Stay in touch." Howz that for bedside manner?

Good luck if you decide to go for that replacement. Do it! Surgeon and PT both said hip is a lot easier to do and recover from than a knee.

Yesterday I was doing some research on quercetin, a flavinoid. I've already bought some but I knew that there were bioavailability issues when taken orally with water. And that it appears to do better with lipids and alcohols. But best of all, DMSO. I was vaguely aware of it from general chemistry, but I had no idea of it's long......and controversial.....history in matters of health.

As for years it was hard to get, it became an underground culture, like that microfine silver one. But it's cheap and available on Amazon..........and farm stores! Which the latter might indicate that it does do at least some of what its proponents claim.

Which among many things, includes pain relief from arthritis. To complicate anecdotal research, it's often not clear if the person was using it topically or orally.

For about $16 for a pint, it might be worth trying. I'm going to try it as a carrier for the quercetin topically.

I'll be interested to hear how that works, OTB. I have both DMSO and quercetin at home...

Meant2Move wrote:I'll be interested to hear how that works, OTB. I have both DMSO and quercetin at home...

Why not try it? I won't be able to take delivery of anything for ten or so days, out of town, so I'm not ordering it yet.

I would take a very small, appropriate cup and put a tablespoon of DSMO in it. I'd then put a 1/4 tsp in , mix as best you can. I have no idea how you can tell if it's dissolving. If it seems to, try another quarter. Etc.

I've done a lot more reading, often published papers, and "the literature" is all over the place about increasing bioavailibity. A lot of efforts have gone int investigating nano particle carriers! Uh, not on Amazon. But they all agree ethanol, oils generally, and DSMO help. DSMO had the highest carrying capacity.

I have two further experiments for the DSMO. I have age related hematomas on my forearms. They come and go, but the skin is thin and easily breached. The other is my rosacea. Should be interesting experiments. As both afflictions are so common, would it be great if it helped?

I tried the above experiment with the DMSO and quercetin. Wow. Within a minute or two, the pain was greatly reduced, I'd say by 50%. Som of the remaining discomfort is likely due to having a significantly reduced range of motion for the last 6 months. I was able to raise my knee several inches higher than I could before the magic potion. It's sore, but I think I will be able to start to strengthen my hip and work on some mobility.

JCat wrote:I tried the above experiment with the DMSO and quercetin. Wow. Within a minute or two, the pain was greatly reduced, I'd say by 50%. Som of the remaining discomfort is likely due to having a significantly reduced range of motion for the last 6 months. I was able to raise my knee several inches higher than I could before the magic potion. It's sore, but I think I will be able to start to strengthen my hip and work on some mobility.

Certainly glad to hear of your improvement!

Our bodies are so hard to track. I often try something, I'm sure I'm getting Result X, and then when I replicate later, nada.

I think I can fairly claim that DMSO applied to my alcoholic nose reduces the red points and capillary redness, both in immediate results and long term.

Other than my nose, I've not been doing much with DMSO. I did reading about people taking it orally....man! this can't be good for my mouth! I did try putting it in capsules (with quercitin) and it was tedious. One can't do a bunch in advance because the DMSO immediately starts softening the gelatin.

But I have interesting results with quercitin. I'll start a new thread.