Transcript
Dr. Deitch
It’s Dr. Jason Deitch. You are watching “You’ve Got the Power” and the reason is because you do have the power!
Of course, I’m here with Dr. Chris Centeno, founder of the Regenexx network of Regenerative Orthopedists, worldwide. Your top regenerative orthopedic practices. And, of course, the founder of the Centeno-Shultz Clinic in Colorado.
Dr. Centeno, great to be here with you here, today.
Dr. Centeno
Thanks for doing this, Jason.
Dr. Deitch
Right on. This is an important program because, during these times when people have had all types of orthopedic surgeries, they’ve had questions about in the past, as we know, during these pandemic times, people’s surgeries have actually been canceled.
If you have specifically been scheduled for a knee meniscus surgery, and it’s been canceled, that’s what we’re going to be talking about here today.
Dr. Centeno let’s talk about – you know – what the major symptoms of a knee meniscus problem might be and why having their surgery canceled might — somehow, in a weird way– be a good thing. Because there are other ways that people can actually heal their knees, heal their meniscus, heal the damage more naturally, less invasively, and sometimes even less expensively than had they gone that traditional surgical approach.
Dr. Centeno
Yeah. So, if you think about the knee meniscus, it’s a cushion for the cartilage, and it’s a figure-8-type structure. Now, what’s really interesting is, if you look at the research on this stuff, what you find is that by the time we get to be 35, 40, and older, an awful lot of us have asymptomatic knee meniscus tears.
So, if we take 100 people off the street right now that are 50, who don’t have any knee pain, and perform MRIs of their knees, about half of them will have knee meniscus tears.
So, all too often, a 40-year-old goes into the doctor. His knee is hurting. Doctor does an MRI, shows a meniscus tear. Let’s get the surgery.
Now, even more fascinating than that is that we know through three large studies that these surgeries are completely ineffective. Regardless of the type of problem you have, it doesn’t make a difference. The surgery is not going to help better than physical therapy or a fake surgery. So, the fact that your surgery has been cancelled may actually be a silver lining, here.
I know this is an awful time we’re experiencing, but it may be a silver lining for you — to give you a minute to rethink that decision because these surgeries don’t work. In addition, not sure if you saw that this week, but again, Kaiser Health News put out that not only are our hospitals becoming obviously Covid-19 treatment centers, but the ambulatory surgery center, where your surgery might have been scheduled, will also become a Tier 2 Covid-19 treatment center.
So, we’re not going to see surgeries happening like this for quite some time. And this is a great time to rethink that and think about using your own platelets or stem cells to heal that knee, or to help that knee, without the surgery part.
Dr. Deitch
So that sounds like a silver lining to me, if you think about it. If you’re watching this, you may have had a knee surgery scheduled –you may know someone who had a knee surgery scheduled — and you’ll probably want to share this with them.
What Dr. Centeno is saying is that the science does not support surgical procedures for knee meniscus as a very effective solution. Most people make decisions to go for surgery, not because they’ve done the research, not because they think it’s their best choice, not even because they know it’s their least expensive choice. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. And what most people find when they pause for a moment and do a little bit of research is that even if your surgery was going to be covered, in many cases because of what they actually “called surprise bills,” — because they’re surprises — in many cases it can actually cost more, take longer, and, when you think about the rehabilitation and the risk for re-injury, may have all kinds of complications and issues later on down the line that you could possibly avoid, if you take a more natural, more conservative approach.
And what Dr. Centeno was talking about, and what he does, is he trains the world’s finest regenerative orthopedists, as part of the Regenexx network. It is a doctor– excuse me, a high-level procedure that uses your body’s own body.
In other words, your blood or your stem cells, your own body to heal your own body.
There are few things that work better than that. You were designed to heal yourself. And we’re simply facilitating that natural process. Dr. Centeno, we call this program “You’ve Got the Power.” You’ve created a series of videos for people to take that power. Explain what they can do to really understand the condition, or severity of their knee problem, and to know whether or not they should be scheduling a Telehealth appointment, whether they contact regenexx.com or reach out directly to the Regenexx provider that’s provided this video to you.
What would those videos help them do, and how do they know if they’re the right candidate to make a Telehealth appointment?
Dr. Centeno
Yeah, so, you’re right. We call those videos and the show “You’ve Got the Power”, and that’s because what we’re trying to do is to allow people at home, during this time of shutdown, to be able to assess themselves. So I’ve created a self-assessment video for the most common meniscus issue. And it’s just a couple of minutes of video. You watch that, you do some things at home, and they can tell you if you’re likely have a meniscus problem; then what you can do, again, from the comfort of your own home, is you can jump on a Telemedicine visit or a Telehealth visit with a Regenexx provider. Again, you can do that through your phone, your tablet, your computer — doesn’t really make a difference what you use, and you can get some more information on what this is. You can also watch another more detailed self-assessment video, which gives you the power to know what you’ve got wrong with you. And then, you can talk about your non-surgical options that might be available. Because, again, just realize that, you know, the highest viral loads right now that you can get are in those hospitals and, soon to be in those ambulatory surgery centers — the same one that your procedure was scheduled for. So this is a great time to take that power back and to see if this type of non-surgical procedure is right for you.
Dr. Deitch
Yeah, consumer-speak for viral load means the “areas or the places that have the most virus around them.” The hospitals, are in many cases, the most dangerous place to be because there’s the greatest concentration of people experiencing the Covid virus.
So, what we’re suggesting is that there’s a great benefit to shelter-in-place and go to health professionals that do not attract people that are suffering from, and going through the symptoms and obviously issues related to, the virus. So stay safe, be well, take the power you have to learn how your body works, to learn the most effective ways to heal yourself, and to learn how to work with those types of doctors that support that philosophy — that the natural, conservative approach is usually almost always more effective than a more surgical procedure that requires more invasiveness into your body and/or excessive uses of drugs and medication.
With that, take the power! Thanks for watching. If you or anyone you know [are] experiencing knee pain, has been a candidate for knee surgery, wants more information about what types of solutions there are in order to be able to heal your knee pain, then please contact the provider that shared this video with you.
On behalf of Dr. Chris Centeno. I’m Dr. Jason Deitch. Thank you for watching another episode of “You’ve Got the Power.” We will be here Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays during the month of April. during this time, to make sure that you have the information you need to make the right decisions. And for you to have a resource for people, you know, that may not be aware, or may not be following this channel, so that they can get the help they need to.
Thanks for watching another episode of “You’ve Got the Power” — because you do. We’ll see you next time.
