Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter warns strongly against steroid injections, arguing they damage cartilage and soft tissues, worsen existing injuries (e.g., rotator cuff tears), increase surgical complication risk, and harm metabolism—posing extra danger to diabetics by raising blood glucose and harming kidneys. He groups steroid injections with narcotics as problematic and states he no longer offers steroid injections in his office.
Chapters
They also damage tissues when we inject them into those tissues.
Steroid injections, I think, are one of the biggest problems, you know, and narcotics cause a lot of issues. But steroid injections themselves are a huge problem, particularly in joint care. Steroid injections are really damaging to your joints. So steroids damage your cartilage. When you inject them into a joint, they worsen your cartilage. So if you want to have that joint replacement that you've been trying to hold off on, continue to get those steroid injections. They also damage tissues when we inject them into those tissues. So, like, if you have a rotator cuff tear, it'll make that tear worse. It also makes it more likely that you have a complication after surgery. And steroids damage your metabolism. So if you're a diabetic, then that is even a worse problem because now it's going to cause your blood sugars to increase, it's going to damage your kidneys. So steroid injections are just bad. And I don't do steroid injections in our office anymore for that very reason.
