[Knee Support Special Topic]Dr. Lu Shaorui saved his own knee and overturned the truth about the degeneration of knee arthritis.

Report: aNGie Photos: Provided by interviewee

(Kuala Lumpur News) Once people reach a certain age, they will face knee joint problems, which can range from pain when standing or walking, to deformation and difficulty in standing up and moving.

Generally speaking, knee joint problems can be divided into two categories. The first category is accidental injuries, sports injuries, cartilage rupture, ligament strains, tendonitis, etc. The patients are mainly young people; the second category is pain of unknown origin. And accounts for about 90%. It usually affects middle-aged and elderly people. When they go for X-ray examination to check the cause, they will be diagnosed as “degenerative knee arthritis”.

There are many related studies. According to epidemiological statistics, it is found that the factors that usually cause “degenerative knee arthritis” are related to age. And the older you get, the more problems you have. According to surveys, half of people over 40 years old face knee pain. 20 to 25% of people over the age of 65 suffer from degenerative knee arthritis.

Obese female workers are a high-risk group

In addition to age, gender is also a key factor. Women are the majority, with a ratio of 2:1 in Western societies and 3:1 in Eastern societies. In addition, working people are also a high-risk group. The more people work, the more likely it is to develop. Others also include body weight. The larger the body, the more likely it is to suffer from it.

When the whole world thinks that knee arthritis is a degenerative or aging problem caused by aging, a condition that everyone cannot escape when they enter old age, an authority on knee joints has researched: A new perspective on “This is not a degenerative problem, it’s a disease!” He is Dr. Lu Shaorui, director of the International Knee Health Promotion Center of Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital in Taiwan.

Dr. Lu not only researched the causes of knee joint problems, but also developed a method of knee protection, which saved many people from having to replace artificial joints, and also saved countless patients with knee arthritis from becoming disabled.

He is known as “the most difficult doctor to register” in Taiwan. It is known that his monthly outpatient clinics are limited to 500 people and he can only operate on 50 patients per month. Patients generally have to wait a whole year to get surgery. treatment.

In order to let more people understand the new perspectives of knee arthritis and let more people know how to protect their knees, Dr. Lu Shaorui has published 16 related papers in international journals and lectured in various countries to share his work. Many people have benefited from it.

A few days ago, he also came to Malaysia to conduct two sharing sessions to let everyone understand that osteoarthritis of the knee is not degenerative but can be cured, and taught everyone how to treat their own knees.

The initiator is medial fold wear.

Talking about his views on knee joint disease, Dr. Lu said: “My team and I have made a major discovery. This discovery has overturned the previous belief that knee arthritis is caused by ‘degeneration’! The medical community has always believed that it is caused by age. Aged degeneration causes knee joint disease, but this is not the case. The initiator of knee joint disease is the wear and tear of the ‘medial fold’!”

He pointed out that the “medial fold” is hidden on the inside of the knee joint and is a joint capsule fold that everyone has. Generally, when the joint is formed in the third month of embryonic life, this fold will be left in the knee joint (just like The same as the wrinkles in clothes).

The “medial fold” is very thin at birth or young, like the membrane inside an egg shell. It is a translucent and soft structure. Because it is sandwiched between cartilage, if the knee joint moves too much, bending too much, too fast, or for too long, this structure will be pinched and rubbed, and it will become inflamed over time. Repeated inflammation becomes increasingly fibrotic and thickening. The most important thing is that when it becomes inflamed, it will also release some chemicals, such as cell enzymes, which will corrode the adjacent cartilage and cause cartilage damage.

“When you take X-rays when you have pain or other symptoms, you usually think that it is a problem of degeneration and aging when you see that the cartilage is destroyed. In fact, it is not the case. The cartilage is destroyed by the repeated friction of the medial folds. In addition to the physical Friction, coupled with chemical corrosion. This is an important factor in the destruction of cartilage, and it is not caused by degeneration.”

He said that this fold is like the appendix, a useless thing left over from the development process. Everyone is born with it, and it varies in size. It is more likely to occur if the family or work environment requires frequent bending of the knees to work.

Published 16 international papers confirming the theory

“I discovered this cause about 30 years ago and thought it was a cause worth exploring in depth. In order to confirm it, my team and I conducted more than 20 years of research and published 16 international papers to confirm my theory. At the same time, it has been confirmed through continuous treatment of patients that many deformed knees are caused by this reason rather than degeneration!”

“At the same time, I also discovered that cartilage can regenerate itself. For example, suppose we wear a watch that is too tight on our hands. When it comes into frequent contact with the skin and rubs too much, the skin will be worn. As long as the watch is worn Relax, deal with the frayed area, and it will repair itself; the folds are like a watch worn too tight inside the knee, or like a rubber band holding it tightly. So the activities we do when we are young are Pay more attention and be careful not to let it rub too much, and you can prevent lesions.”

“As for what has already happened, that is, the cartilage has been worn away, as long as the problem is detected early and the problem is removed through surgery, and you also rely on your own health care to reduce friction and reduce the speed of bending, the cartilage that has been slightly worn will still grow back. So I think degeneration Knee arthritis is not an aging disease, but a disease that has been ignored for a long time, and it can be cured!

“Of course, the most important thing is to be able to prevent it early, and don’t wait until it has been severely damaged and deformed before having surgery.”

Propose promotion plan

Repair and regenerate cartilage

Dr. Lu Shaorui has educated many people over the years on how to protect their knees and proposed knee joint health promotion programs.

“Since knee arthritis is considered not a degeneration but a disease – medial friction syndrome, there are ways to prevent it.”

He pointed out that there are four stages of knee joint disease, namely the incubation stage, the preclinical stage, the clinical stage and the disability stage. Generally, patients only go to see a doctor when they have symptoms. Usually they have reached the third stage, which is the clinical stage. In fact, prevention can be done at the first two stages.

Knees can be saved by continuing to rehabilitate them

He said that the incubation stage refers to excessive use of the knee when young and bending too much and too fast; the preclinical stage is when there are no symptoms yet, but the cartilage inside has begun to destroy. Generally, when symptoms are already present at the third clinical stage, an arthroscope must be used to see the degree of degeneration. If it continues to worsen, the knee will deform, so it must be discovered and treated before the deformation becomes serious.

For treatment, he also designed “arthroscopic cartilage regeneration promotion surgery”, which uses an arthroscope (just like an endoscope) to enter the knee to inspect the cartilage destruction, remove abnormal friction in the joint, remove inflamed tissue, and fine-tune The tightness between cartilages can reduce intra-articular pressure and allow cartilage to have a good environment for repair and regeneration.

“After the operation, if the patient can persist in rehabilitation, the knee can be saved, and the cartilage will not continue to be destroyed and can repair itself. If stem cell treatment is added, the cartilage can be repaired faster.”

However, if the knee is severely deformed, the bone must be corrected or an artificial joint placed inside. He pointed out that even if the patient has reached the stage of disability and needs to correct the bone or replace the artificial joint, they will remove the medial friction, so that the success rate will be higher after the artificial joint is replaced.

“Nowadays, many people still experience pain and discomfort even after replacing artificial joints. This is because the friction has not been removed. According to statistics, 30% of patients who have replaced artificial joints are not satisfied. Our method is to remove friction on the inner side. Once the phenomenon is cleared, the curative effect will be greatly improved, and there will be no pain or tightness. The patient’s satisfaction rate will reach 99%.”

Stem cell therapy helps cartilage regenerate

Can knee joint disease be reversed?

He said that among the 16 papers, two specifically reported the long-term follow-up results of arthroscopic cartilage regeneration promotion surgery and found that 80% of the cartilage will stop being destroyed or even improve, while 20% will continue to deteriorate and require correction or correction. Replace artificial joints.

“After research, we found that there are two reasons. One is that the patient has been delayed for too long and the damage has been too serious before undergoing surgery. This is because the modern orthopedic medical community advocates taking medicine and injections, injecting lubricating and protective preparations such as hyaluronic acid, or performing platelet therapy. Concentrated preparations (PRP) are used to reduce symptoms and allow patients to delay joint replacement until the knee deforms. Therefore, we have now studied that as long as the knee deformation exceeds 7 degrees, surgery must be performed, otherwise it will continue to deteriorate to the point of being difficult to save.”

“The second reason is that the patient did not do rehabilitation seriously according to the method we taught after the operation. In fact, the operation is to relax the joints, and the wound will begin to scar around two or three months after the operation. If the patient is at this stage Without proper rehabilitation according to the methods we teach, the knee joint will slowly become tight again, even tighter than before the surgery, and the cartilage will not be able to regenerate.”

“In order to improve the success rate of treating patients, our latest medical advice is to use stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy is very compatible with our surgery, because when we perform arthroscopic cartilage regeneration promotion surgery, we can extract fat by the way without having to perform another surgery. Afterwards, stem cells are isolated from fat and cultured. The stem cells are injected back into the joints about two or three months after the operation. This can greatly improve the effect of cartilage regeneration. If this method becomes popular, I believe that more knee joints can be saved in the future and fewer knee joints can be regenerated. It’s a chance to get an artificial joint.”

Research and Innovation 3+3

Smart knee brace health care

Dr. Lu Shaorui also developed a set of knee protection methods, which is the “3+3 smart knee protection and health care”.

The first 3 refers to the 3 principles of life

That is, 1. bend your knees less, 2. don’t bend too fast, 3. don’t bend for too long.

“Reduce knee bending and don’t climb stairs often. If you really have to bend, bend slowly and don’t bend too fast. Finally, don’t bend for too long to reduce friction, even if you sit for a long time, it will If your joints are injured, you must get up and move or stretch your knees every half an hour.

The second 3 is the knee brace 3 exercise

1/Lift your legs straight, 2/Hold your knees, 3/Press your knees.

1/The action of straight leg raising is to sit on a chair, lift one thigh straight out, count to 10, slowly lower it, and then move to the other side. Can be repeated 10 times to build muscle strength. The strength of the muscles around the joint is important to help control the slow bending of the knee.

2/Sit on a chair, lift one leg, place the heel in front of the chair, hold the knee with both hands, wrap the hand under the calf close to the ankle joint, and keep the leg and body close to each other. Repeat in turns.

3/Sit on a chair, straighten your feet on another chair, put your hands on top of your knees and apply gentle and slow pressure to help relax your knees.

“Developing a habit of exercising knee muscle strength, increasing flexibility, and reducing static pressure is the basic knee care method.”

Publish books to spread knowledge

Knee braces start at a young age

Dr. Lu Shaorui, 65, joined Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital 23 years ago and established a special research laboratory for degenerative arthritis. He also teamed up with professors from four universities to conduct research on new perspectives on knee joint diseases.

In the past 10 years, he has actively promoted this new perspective on knees and published 4 popular science books to spread the knowledge of knee health. In addition to one English book and periodical, the remaining 3 Chinese books include the earliest “New Knee Outlook” “, “Save Your Own Knees” published in 2017, and the fairy tale picture book “Dr Knee’s Garden of Hope” published three years ago, allow children to acquire this knowledge in advance and implement knee braces from a young age.

Promotion concept in the international orthopedic community

Over the years, he has saved 15,000 patients’ knees through surgery, and countless patients have improved by using his own knee braces based on the methods he developed.

In order to benefit more patients, he began to promote this concept in the international orthopedic community 6 years ago, and holds courses in Taiwan every year to share his results, and welcomes relevant doctors to observe and learn together.

Now he has trained 9 students overseas and nearly 30 students in Taiwan. Unfortunately, the growth rate of students still cannot keep up with the demand of patients. After all, there are too many patients in need.

Since he can only operate on 50 patients per month, countless patients have to rely on the methods he provides to recover on their own while waiting for surgery. Unexpectedly, many patients have stopped waiting for surgery and recovered on their own.

Knee pain reduced after 2 months of rehabilitation

He shared one of the most touching case stories: “One Christmas I received a thank you card. I didn’t know the sender at all. I was in southern Taiwan, and the card sender was from Keelung, the northernmost city. A man in his 40s told me that he had a child with limited mobility at home, and he had to carry him up and down the fourth floor every day. This had been going on for many years, and his knees were in great pain. He was originally going to see my clinic, but he couldn’t. . He read my book and also saw the video on the Internet in which I taught everyone how to protect the knee, so he seriously followed my “3+3 Smart Knee Care Method” for self-rehabilitation, and he did it in less than two days. Within a few months, his knee pain has reduced a lot, and now he doesn’t need to see a doctor at all!”

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