Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter, a holistic orthopedic surgeon, won't use steroid injections because they damage joints and worsen diabetes. He avoids relying only on medications and won't rush to surgery, which carries risks like chronic pain, infection, and nerve injury. Instead he addresses root causes like weight loss and activity.
So what are three things that I would never do as a holistic orthopedic surgeon practicing in my practice here in Wichita Falls today? Well, as a holistic orthopedic surgeon, one, I would never do another steroid injection. We know that steroid injections damage your joints. They're totally bad for you. They damage your metabolism. They give people with diabetes a lot of problems with their blood sugars, and they can make our problems worse. So steroid injections are out. Two, I would never rely solely on medications. The American medical system is a pill mill. How often time, how often have we gone to our doctor and just gotten a pill for our symptom? Well, instead of just treating your symptom with some medication or narcotic, let's get to the root cause of your problem. Let's help you lose weight. Let's help you get active, let's help you make some changes, and let's treat your joint with a constructive healing method that is better for you. And number three, I would absolutely never rush straight to surgery. There are so many options before you have to get cut. If you get cut, we can't take that back. Once you have a joint replacement, we can't take that back. Joint replacements have their own problems, right? You can have chronic pain after a joint replacement. You can have an infection. You can have stiffness, you can have blood clots. You can have injury to your nerves and blood vessels. And so before you rush into surgery, regardless of what your doctor says, let's think about this. Let's explore all the options before you do something drastic.
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