Take Control of your Health

Someone recently asked me about their injured knee. They had a torn meniscus and wanted to know what I thought would be the best way to treat it. My wife had experienced the same injury a few years ago so I walked them through the successful treatment she used and encouraged a patient approach.

The conversation reminded me of some knee surgery research that years ago shifted my thinking about how we treat injuries and disease. In 2002 a study was published which showed that knee surgery to treat osteoarthritis was no better than a placebo. (Source)

When Fake Knee Surgery Works as Well as the Real Thing

How the researchers determined this was a bit surprising. They did knee surgery on a group of volunteers, but a random number had their knees cut open and sewn back up without the surgery. There was no difference in the outcomes of the two groups. The fake surgery produced the same amount of pain relief and increased mobility as the real surgery.

Now how the researchers got someone to agree to fake surgery is beyond me. But if you think about it, those who got the “real” surgery were also convinced to have a procedure that really did nothing except make them think they had gotten an effective treatment.

What happened over the years may surprise you even more. As expected, osteoarthritis knee surgeries decreased but were still a billion dollar industry. By 2013 knee surgery was one of the most common surgeries with meniscus tear repair now leading the way. Then similar research showed meniscus tear surgery had no better results than fake surgery (Source). So did that change things? No, nor did research which showed physical therapy was just as successful as surgery (Source). There is now quite a bit of research which challenges the efficacy of knee surgery.

But today we have over 750,000 of these types of knee surgeries performed each year at a cost of over 4 billion dollars. Although some are probably necessary and successful, I suspect as the research suggests many are not.

What is the takeaway?

First thing is before you have osteoarthritis or meniscus tear surgery on your knee explore your options with the knowledge that surgery might not provide the measurable relief or healing you are seeking.

Secondly, this is just an example of why it is so critical for you to take personal responsibility for your health and fitness. We have phenomenal health care professionals in our country and personally I have a great team of providers I respect and appreciate. But they do not work in a perfect system, or have a perfect knowledge on how to best treat me or you.

We need to do our homework, ask questions and be patient and not demand a quick fix like surgery. We need to be wary of the “magic bullets” some health and fitness “experts” offer which promise immediate instant results and an improvement in our health with no effort on our part. Buying what they are selling sounds to me a lot like agreeing to have your knee cut open for no reason.

What do you think? I would like to know.