“inflammation is now understood to be a key mediator of OA that contributes to cartilage loss and progressive degeneration of affected joints… OA is no longer considered a noninflammatory arthritis or a ‘wear and tear’ disease”
I heretofore thought age-related cartilage loss was the cause of osteoarthritis and inflammation. Turns out it’s the other way around: the inflammation degrades cartilage. Okay, no more slogging through joint pains for me, regardless of how small.
Edit: added a phrase for clarity
My back and knees tingle reading this. Just waiting on the knee cortisone inflammation to ease off 😉
Bruddah/sistah/non-binaryah, I know your pain intimately. I got my first shot in the knee 3 months ago. “And to think… I hesitated.” Sending warm recovery thoughts your way. What kind of physical therapy regimen does the sawbones have you on?
Read up on cortisone - related cartilage/tendon concerns.
Your doc probably overstates the risk a great deal. Check NLM for studies, it looks like there’s a risk, but all the studies are of patients with injury and on-going degeneration. By the time you get to injections you’ve exhausted other treatments.
Huh, a TIL within a TIL! :D I came across this systematic review (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4622344/). Looks like for cortisone <6mg is the sweet spot.