Blog

Do Painkillers Cause Lower Testosterone Levels?

Marc Darrow, MD, JD. I see a number of patients who have advancing osteoarthritis but who are too young for joint replacement and are being managed for their joint pain until they are old enough for joint replacement. At the same time, they are losing hormones, gaining weight, and losing mobility. Typically, they have lower levels of activity, chronic pain, are becoming obese, and are on pain medications. They are, clearly, in a poor healing milieu.  In our office we have seen many men who had a long history of opioid usage and display signs of low testosterone levels including,

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Spinal fusion or hip replacement?

Many people email us about their hip and back pain. Some have been recommended to a hip replacement, some have been recommended to a spinal surgery. Some have been recommended to both surgeries and they are in the process of choosing between one or the other and exploring options to help them avoid one or the other surgery, even both. Some at this point are not even deciding which to get first, they may simply take the first one that is available. The question that comes in to us is about stem cell therapy as an option and “which would

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Non-Surgical Management of Glenohumeral osteoarthritis

Marc Darrow, MD. Glenohumeral osteoarthritis is the degenerative breakdown of the ball and socket of the shoulder.  If you went to the doctor with shoulder pain, and you had a shoulder MRI, and that MRI revealed shoulder osteoarthritis, the next discussion you will probably have with your doctor is what can you do about it? That answer is not clear cut. What treatments you take can be influenced by the amount of pain and function that you have. The shoulder examination A physical examination should include screening for physical abnormalities—swelling, deformity, muscle weakness, and tender areas—and observing the range of

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Many patients do not lose weight after knee replacement

Many total knee replacement patients are overweight or obese. There is a thinking among many that after the knee replacement, their  physical activity levels and weight will improve. This does not appear to be true for some as research points out. In many knee replacement patients, weight loss does not occur even though activity can be increased. I recently read a study in the journal Disability and rehabilitation.(1) It was led by Northwestern University. It talked about the weight problems people have after they had total knee replacement and the continued problems the patients had in the inability to losing weight

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Chronic back pain in the surfer

In the patients we see and the people who contact our office for low back pain, the ones who happen to be surfers, tell us about their concerns that a suggested back surgery recommendation will keep them from surfing.  The reason to have the back surgery these surfers are told is because “everything else” has not worked. Everything else being rest, ice, anti-inflammatories, back braces, exercises, physical therapy, yoga, perhaps cortisone injections. They are in our office because “everything else” may not have included other injections including stem cells or platelets. Which I will explain these injections below. The surfer’s

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Surfer’s Ankle – Unstable and stiff ankle

Usually a surfer that suffers from an ankle injury or chronic ankle pain will go online and start looking for exercise tips, a really good ankle brace, or any other means to help them with either a loose ankle or an ankle that is too stiff. A surfer will then seek out medical attention when these various remedies are no longer helping them and carving, turning in, and the pop up become increasingly painful and unstable endeavors. When it because too painful or surfing begins to loose its joy, a surfer will usually visit a doctor, thinking about the possibility

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