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Medical data is for informational purposes only. You should always consult your family physician, or one of our referral physicians prior to treatment.

Supplement to

The Art of Getting Well

Cartilage Replacement:

The Polymer Age

Anthony di Fabio.

Foundation for Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease

AKA The Arthritis Trust of America

7376 Walker Road, Fairview, TN 37062

Creeking, Painful Joints

We estimate that perhaps as many as 56,000,000 Americans

need cartilage replacement, usually from some form of active

arthritis such as Osteoarthritis or Rheumatoid Disease, including

Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Although nutritional factors can be a dominating causative

source, there are all too many reports of the ineffectiveness of

chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine sulfate, with or without special

herbs and essential fatty acids, to believe that these ingredients alone

are the final answer.

Don't take the above statement wrong. We were the first in the

nation to report on the importance of glucosamine sulfate and

chondroitins through one of our medical seminars via Luke Bucci,

Ph.D., and his research. (See "Prevention and Treatment of Osteoar-

thritis," http://www.arthritistrust.org). The many letters we've re-

ceived describing the ineffectiveness of these two ingredients,

despite public relations hoopla, has led to formulation of this

general answer, when asked: "We believe that glucosamine sulfate

and chondroitin sulfate are excellent nutritional supplements in

most cases, and will actually improve some arthritic conditions,

particularly if these are among the nutrients lacking."

In most of us though, no matter the cause(s), cartilage simply

disappears little by little until joints creek, and deathly pains spring

alive from their creeking.

So, what can be done when cartilage is gone?

Normal Solution to Lessened or Absent Cartilage

Alternative Medical Methods

Bone that rubs on bone without cartilage to cushion their

actions creates a clicking or grating sound, and often inflammation

at the joint.

F. Batmangheildj, M.D. maintains that it is the lack of suffi-

cient water intake (plus appropriate salt intake) that causes the

cushioning effect of cartilage to be reduced, thus leading to joint

problems. (See Prevent Arthritis and Cure Back Pain; How to Deal

With Back Pain & Rheumatoid Joint Pains and Your Bodies Many

Cries for Water, http://www.arthritistrust.org.)

Morton Walker, D.P.M. and William J. Faber, D.O. and Ross

A. Hauser, M.D. and Marion A. Hauser, M.S., R. D., maintain that

it is often lax or torn ligaments and tendons that create unstable

joints, thus leading to a wearing away of cartilage. The body's

attempt to compensate for this instability also may lead to calcium

spurs that cause additional joint immobility, and pain. (See Pain,

Pain Go Away and Prolo Your Arthritis Pain Away, http://

arthritistrust.org.)

Traditional Medical Methods

Before a joint becomes totally unusable, traditional medical

advice recommends an "unloader" brace. This is often a hi-tech-age

combination of titanium and space-age carbon straps shaped into an

exo-skeleton around the unstable joint. The idea is to take the load

off of the joint, and transfer weight to the exo-skeleton around the

joint.

Many people are helped by this expensive device ($1,100 or

more), but many also find it more of a psychological boost than of

immediate joint benefit, as it was with me.

When the joint becomes unusable, due to pain and inability to

function, traditional orthopedic advice is to have a joint replace-

ment. A costly, rather serious operation is performed which cuts

into the joint bone, and either splices onto the bone, or replaces the

socket entirely, with metal and/or plastic replacements. This fright-

ening procedure has been performed by the hundreds of thousands,

and has also been a boon to hundreds of thousands, with some

notable failures. It is also a boon financially to those who specialize

in this operation.

One failure I have in mind is the hip replacement made on one

of our founders, Jack M. Blount, M.D., who is also one of the two

people whose name graces our legal company name. (See Rheuma-

toid Disease Cured at Last, http://www.arthritistrust.org.)

Dr. Blount was bedridden from Rheumatoid Arthritis as his hip

had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer walk. He

decided to have a hip replacement which involved a ball and socket

arrangment that was embedded in the remainder of his large leg

bone and his hip.

His first operation was a great success, but he limped terribly,

because the doctor had not measured distances correctly, and one

leg was now shorter than the other, requiring built up shoes and

uneven trouser legs.

After a second operation,this flaw was fixed to some extent,

but the most that could be said about its success was that Dr. Blount

was not bedridden again until after his second retirement, when

additional health factors became apparent.

Others, of course, have great success with replacing finger

joints, and other joints of the body.

The major problem with these joint replacements, aside from

the trauma, lengthy recovery, pain and cost, is that they never

function as well as the original joint, and also, according to materials

used in forming the artificial joint and the amount of use made of the

joint, may also need replacement periodically -- more money,

trauma, lengthy recovery, pain and cost!

Needless to say, joint replacement is a medical procedure not

to be taken lightly!

Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry

E.I. du Pont de Nemours chemical company (and munitions

manufacturer stemming from our revolutionary days) may have

been the first to coin the phrase of "Better Things for Better Living

Through Chemistry." They, after all, helped the ladies get rid of

stocking seams and sagging silk, introducing the age of stretchable

Nylon, cellophane wrappings for our foods, and many other

plastics.

Since those early 1940s developments and productions of

plastics has become a fantastic engineering process, wherein it has

been said by some in the business that "any and all parts of a gigantic

building can now be made of plastics were one willing to pay the

price, such is the knowledge we now have of formulating the desired

material characteristics on demand."

Polymerized Cartilage Replacement