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<\/a><\/p>\nHow they used to diagnose osteoarthritis<\/h2>\n
When I was diagnosed in 2006 the diagnostic criteria identified certain physical tests that, if failed, were indicative of a capsular pattern. If that capsular pattern was accompanied by pain, and x-rays showed degenerative changes then a firm diagnosis of osteoarthritis was made. <\/p>\n
Fast Forward a Few Years<\/h2>\n
Criteria for diagnosing osteoarthritis has changed in recent years. <\/p>\n
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. <\/p>\n
The NICE guidelines [CG177]<\/a> published February 2014 relate to Osteoarthritis. They state:<\/p>\n 2. Be aware that atypical features, such as a history of trauma, prolonged morning joint-related stiffness, rapid worsening of symptoms or the presence of a hot swollen joint, may indicate alternative or additional diagnoses. Important differential diagnoses include gout, other inflammatory arthritides (for example, rheumatoid arthritis), septic arthritis and malignancy (bone pain).\n<\/p><\/div>\n With a significant change in the way in which osteoarthritis is diagnosed you would think that OA patients would need to be re-evaluated. However, if you consider the old and new diagnostic criteria you see that the net has simply been widened to include more people. Everyone diagnosed with OA in 2006 would still be given an osteoarthritis diagnosis using the new criteria. Many people for whom osteoarthritis was ruled out in 2006 would now be diagnosed with osteoarthritis.<\/p>\n Lets look at the current situation. If you are over 45 and you go to your doctor with activity related joint pain (with any morning stiffness lasting less than 30 minutes) you will be diagnosed with osteoarthritis. The doctor will take steps to rule out serious conditions like cancer, but he won’t take steps to find out more about your joint pain and it’s causes. He doesn’t need to as he’s been advised to label it as ‘osteoarthritis’. <\/p>\n If you’re thorough you might request a referral to an expensive private specialist believing that his diagnosis would be more reliable. But he’s working to the same diagnostic criteria. You will get the same diagnosis from him – it will just cost you a lot more!<\/p>\n The point I’m trying to make here is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a trainee GP on day one of work experience or a leading specialist – you could make the diagnosis yourself! <\/p>\n There is no test that can reliably diagnose osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is simply a label given to un-diagnosed joint pain. <\/p>\n This means nothing. The main reason that they’ve stopped using x-rays or MRI to help with an osteoarthritis diagnosis is because research has shown that there is no correlation between x-ray \/ MRI findings and symptoms. Some people have badly degenerated joints and no symptoms. Others have severe symptoms and no evidence of joint degeneration. A large percentage of over 45’s have degenerative changes in their joints and they live long, active and pain free lives. There is every possibility that your x-ray \/ MRI findings are a red herring. Either completely unrelated or an asymptomatic consequence of your real problem.<\/p>\n How many different problems do you think are likely to present as “activity related joint pain with any morning stiffness lasting less than 30 minutes”? You’d think there would be quite a few! All of them are bundled in together under the osteoarthritis banner. Doctors don’t tell their patients that osteoarthritis is just a label they give to things they can’t diagnose. They lead them to believe that osteoarthritis is a definite diagnosis – that osteoarthritis is an actual medical condition with known prognosis and known treatment. Yet quite clearly it’s not.<\/p>\n They tell us that osteoarthritis can’t be cured. How on earth can you claim something can’t be cured if you haven’t identified what it is? In giving an OA diagnosis all they’ve done is identify some of the things that it isn’t.<\/p>\n How can they even attempt to give a prognosis and treatment protocol to a hotch-potch of different conditions that happen to share the same symptom of joint pain?<\/p>\n How can they give recommendations on lifestyle changes and exercises choices when we all have different things wrong with us? What’s good for one condition could be catastrophic for another.<\/p>\n If you have a diagnosis of osteoarthritis and would like to explore the possibility of a full recovery then the first step is to find out what is actually wrong with you. That’s where it gets tricky.<\/p>\n If health professionals knew how to make a proper diagnosis they wouldn’t have labelled your condition ‘osteoarthritis’. The National Health Service (NHS) don’t have the resources to research all the possible conditions that could lead to painful joints so there is probably not a lot your doctor can do. Surgery and pain relief drugs are the only treatments recognized for ‘osteoarthritis’. Your GP is responsible for prescribing pain relief. The only expert he can refer you to is a surgeon. If your joint pain is soft tissue related – perhaps the results of muscle imbalances – then the surgeon will be of little help. You might just end up getting unnecessary surgery for an asymptomatic joint irregularity!<\/p>\n They could refer you to a physiotherapist but physiotherapists are only trained to treat the conditions that the health service recognize. If you had a condition that the health service recognized you wouldn’t have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis! <\/p>\n Those in private practice might have wider experience and knowledge but you run the risk of having your bank balance cleared out and still being none the wiser. (Been there – done that!)<\/p>\n One approach that you can explore yourself at no cost is the possibility of muscle imbalances. That’s where I focused my research and ultimately cured myself. My belief is that very many people could be cured through corrective exercise. I can tell you for sure that soft tissue problems and muscle imbalances can and do produce intense pain, stiff joints – even a feeling of bone on bone restriction in joints. I spent 6 months in intense, uncontrollable, 24\/7 pain – directly related to my muscle imbalance. I could still be in that pain now if I hadn’t worked out what was causing it. Many people spend years living with chronic pain – it *could* be down to curable muscle imbalances. No one has investigated the possibility.<\/p>\n This website will help you to look into the possibility of your symptoms being due to a muscle imbalance. I am slowly but surely putting on line all of my resources, information and knowledge from 8 years of research. I have lots of tips that can help keep you mobile and pain free whatever the cause of your pain. I’ve also worked out a detailed model that describes my own muscle imbalance – one that I suspect very many people will share. I’m working hard on a self help guide that will not only show you how to detect this in yourself, but also it will take you through the steps of curing it using simple corrective exercises. <\/p>\n Sign up for my newsletter<\/a> if you’d like to be notified when this is complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most people believe that a diagnosis of osteoarthritis means their symptoms are irreversible. They think that demanding physical jobs and sports such as running are out of the question. The best they can hope for is no worsening of symptoms over the years. The questions is, is that a false belief? Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-osteoarthritis-diagnosis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impossible-takes-longer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
What impact does the new diagnostic criteria have on your diagnosis?<\/h2>\n
So what’s the problem?<\/h2>\n
But I have x-rays \/ MRI that show degenerative changes!<\/h2>\n
What are the implications of this?<\/h2>\n
Find out what’s really wrong with you<\/h2>\n