Omega-3 Fatty Acids Help Boost the Effectiveness of Glucosamine
Recently in the Journal of Advances in Therapy German researchers discovered that adding omega-3 fatty acids (from fish oil) to glucosamine sulfate improves the symptoms of arthritis compared to just taking glucosamine alone.
One hundred seventy seven men and women diagnosed with moderate to severe hip or knee osteoarthritis were randomly placed in two groups. The first group received glucosamine sulfate without omega-3 and the other group received glucosamine sulfate with the omega-3 fatty acid. Both groups took the supplements for 26 weeks.
Eighty percent of the group noticed a reduction in pain, 44% of those were from the group that received the combination of glucosamine and omega-3, and 32% of those were from the group that received only the glucosamine sulfate.
The authors of the study remarked that glucosamine sulfate improves cartilage metabolism, and omega-3’s help further reduce degradation of cartilage by reducing inflammation which ultimately helps reduce pain and swelling.
Note: Glucosamine/Chondroitan/MSM should be used as a SUPPLEMENT to care. It is not a ‘cure all’ but if the correct dose and correct type of glucosamine is taken daily then you will notice a difference overall symptomatically. (Please keep in mind that not all glucosamine is created equal. This is a topic that I discuss with my patients because there seems to be a lot of confusion about it.)
If you have chronic pain in your knees due to arthritis, ‘bone on bone’, a meniscus tear, a Baker’s Cyst, tendonitis, bursitis, a knee injury, or unsuccessful arthroscopic knee surgery, and live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area call our office at 214- 596-1051 to find out if you’re a candidate for Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program.
Or if you would like more information about Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program fill out the form on the right side of this screen to get your FREE report mailed to you entitled, Amazing Cold Laser Therapy the Missing Link to Knee Pain Relief!
Dr. Alexandra K. Schnee, B.S.,D.C.,-Your Cold Laser Professional of the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas Area-“Helping People with Knee Pain and Joint Pain in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area since 2001.”
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Does NOT Recommend Arthroscopic Knee Surgery for Osteoarthritis Knee Pain
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Clinical Practice Guidelines clearly state, “We recommend against performing arthroscopy with debridement or lavage in patients with a primary diagnosis of symptomatic OA (osteoarthritis) of the knee.” 1
Why don’t orthopedic surgeons recommend ‘cleaning up’ the knee with arthroscopic knee surgery for osteoarthritis knee pain? Because it doesn’t work, and most patients feel worse after the surgery and eventually need total knee replacements!!!
Try conservative treatments first before you get cut on!! After all, surgery is always an option, but once surgery is performed there is no turning back.
Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program is a conservative, non surgical, safe, effective treatment program that may help you avoid knee surgery. Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program is considered a complete treatment plan that combines cold laser treatments, non-weight bearing exercises, and other modalities that promote rehabilitation of the knee.
If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and suffer with arthritis, ‘bone on bone’, meniscus tears, bursitis, tendonitis, Baker’s Cyst, post surgical arthroscopic knee pain, or a combination of the listed conditions call our office at 214- 596-1051 to find out if you’re a candidate for Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program.
Or if you would like more information about Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program fill out the form on the right side of this screen to get your FREE report mailed to you entitled, Amazing Cold Laser Therapy the Missing Link to Knee Pain Relief!
At the DFW Spine & Joint Center we also have programs available that can help most musculoskeletal conditions such as low back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, sciatica, disc and nerve problems, hip, ankle, foot, hand and wrist pain, etc… Dr. Robert Hanson, an associate at the DFW Spine & Joint Center, offers a very successful non-surgical program that treats herniated, bulging, degenerated discs, stenosis, and pinched nerves with Cold Laser/Spinal Decompression Therapy.
Dr. Alexandra K. Schnee, B.S.,D.C.,-Your Cold Laser Professional of the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas Area-“Helping People with Knee Pain and Joint Pain in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area since 2001.”
1.Suggested Citation for referencing this document: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Clinical Practice Guideline on the Treatment of Osteoarthritis of the Knee (Non-Arthroplasty). Rosemont (IL): American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS); 2008.
I’ve Already Had Knee Surgery Am I Still a Potential Candidate For Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program?
The good news is that knee surgery is NOT a contraindication for receiving cold laser treatments. As a matter of fact the two most common surgeries patients have had prior to getting treated in our office are arthroscopic knee surgery and/or a total knee replacement. After undergoing unsuccessful arthroscopic knee surgery or a total knee replacement the most common complaints from people is pain, swelling, stiffness and/ or decreased range of motion.
Cold laser therapy is a highly effective treatment for those who have undergone surgery and are still complaining of knee pain. Cold laser therapy is a conservative treatment that painlessly reduces/eliminates pain, swelling, and stiffness and increases range of motion in the joint. During treatments not only are multiple cold lasers utilized, but several other modalities, including therapeutic exercises, are performed to accelerate the healing process.
Depending on the tissue damage and the severity of the condition people usually need a series of knee treatments. Fortunately, unlike surgery, there is no downtime with treatments, and people can go back to their usual activities or work immediately after the therapy.
Located in Irving, Texas, the DFW Spine & Joint Center includes a team of professionals that are dedicated to improving your quality of life. World champions, sports legends, professional and amateur athletes, dancers, musicians, and people who are just suffering with pain go to the DFW Spine & Joint Center for care. Using the facility to improve their condition, thousands of successful cases have been treated since 2001.
Dr. Alexandra Schnee primarily treats patients suffering with knee pain due to unsuccessful knee surgery, arthritis, bursitis, ‘bone on bone’, tendonitis, meniscus/cartilage tears, and Baker’s Cyst’s. However, at the DFW Spine & Joint Center we have programs available that can help most musculoskeletal conditions such as low back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, sciatica, disc and nerve problems, hip, ankle, foot, hand and wrist pain, etc… For instance Dr. Robert Hanson, an associate at the DFW Spine & Joint Center, offers a very successful non-surgical program that treats herniated, bulging, degenerated discs, stenosis, and pinched nerves with Cold Laser/Spinal Decompression Therapy.
If you live in the Dallas/ Fort-Worth Metroplex and you would like more information about Dr. Schnee’s Cold Laser Knee Program please call our office at 214-596-1051, or fill out the form on the right hand side of this page and a FREE 16 page report about the treatments will be mailed to you within 72 hours.
Article by Dr. Alexandra K. Schnee, B.S.,D.C.,-Your Cold Laser Professional of the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas Area-“Helping People with Knee Pain and Joint Pain in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area since 2001.”
Cold Lasers Are Far More Effective Than Light Emitting Diodes (LED) and Super Luminous Diodes (SLD) for Treating Deeper Joint, Soft Tissue Conditions
Phototherapy is the general term for light therapy. Light energy can be produced by a variety of devices such as Light Emitting Diodes, Super Luminous Diodes and Cold Lasers (low-level lasers). All three of these devices have therapeutic effects; however, the depth of penetration and tissue that is affected greatly varies between all three forms of therapy. Due to their unique properties and penetration depth Cold Lasers are far more powerful then LED’s or SLD’s, so they are more effective at treating deeper conditions.
LED’s (light emitting diodes) and SLD’s (super luminous diodes), produce broader beams of light that are referred to as non-coherent light sources. This type of light therapy is dimmer and is not as photoactive as cold lasers but can be very helpful for treating superficial wounds, ulcers and burns. LED’s will normally penetrate less than 1 cm. SLD’s are more powerful and can penetrate about 2.5 cm below the skins surface. LED’s and SLD’s are often sold to consumers on the internet or on infomercials they are not considered true cold lasers or low-level lasers.
In contrast, Cold Lasers (low-level lasers) produce coherent light waves. Coherence is at term that refers to light that is well ordered, and has synchronized light waves and has shown to be more active at deeper tissue levels. Coherence is a very unique property found only in lasers. This property is maintained when the light enters the tissue. Therefore, cold lasers are used to treat deeper joint and soft tissue conditions so discs, nerves, tendons, ligaments, muscle and other soft tissues are able to be treated. True Cold Lasers with a wavelength around 830*nm can penetrate 1-4 inches deep with a lateral spread of 1.5 inches. The wavelength of the laser is also important. For the deepest penetration 790nm-830nm has shown to be far more effective in treating tissue than any other wavelength. This is important because not all cold lasers are created equal. In our office we use FDA cleared, IIIB cold lasers such as the ML830™, Med X™, Apollo™ etc. when treating knee pain so that we can get to the source of the problem.
If you live in the Dallas or Fort Worth Metroplex and are tired of suffering from knee pain, and would like more information about my Cold Laser Knee Program fill out the form on the right side of this screen to get your FREE report mailed to you today!
This blog is meant to be interactive, and informative. I’ll be adding new information regularly on this blog, so stay tuned. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to share them below.
Article by Dr. Alexandra K. Schnee, B.S.,D.C.,-Your Cold Laser Professional of the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas Area-“Helping People with Knee Pain and Joint Pain in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area since 2001.”
References: Photomedicine and Laser Surgery. Volume 23, Number 4, 2005; Pp. 431-434
Arthroscopic Surgery for Arthritis Knee Pain is Proven Worthless
Prior to receiving treatment in my office, half of my patients have had at least one or more arthroscopic knee surgeries, which did not meet their expectations. Unfortunately, after the surgery many of these patients still suffered from knee pain, swelling, reduced range of motion or some other problem that arthroscopic surgery did not fix. If only those patients would have known about the double blind studies that the New England Journal of Medicine had published about the results of arthroscopic surgery. The information would have saved them months of unnecessary suffering…
The New England Journal of Medicine, after two years of follow-up, reported on the results of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of arthroscopy for osteoarthritis of the knee. It was concluded that patients who had arthroscopic surgery (lavage or debridement) performed were no better off than those who underwent the placebo (fake surgery) procedure. (1) Dr. Kenneth Fine, an orthopedic surgeon at the George Washington University School of Medicine, said the procedure had long seemed to do nothing for patients’ “underlying arthritis”. (2)
As a matter of fact arthroscopic surgery actually creates more of the same problem that it is trying to repair. ‘Cleaning out’ or taking out cartilage just leads to more arthritis in the future. Unfortunately, this leaves the knee vulnerable to becoming ‘bone on bone’ and eventually a knee replacement must be performed.
Why undergo arthroscopic surgery and possibly set yourself up for a knee replacement in the future when you can undergo our Cold Laser Knee Program, and get results without any side-effects?
If you have had arthroscopic knee surgery to ‘clean up your knee’ and you’re still in pain then our Cold Laser Knee Program may be able to help you. Join the hundreds of patients who we have helped by eliminating their knee pain, swelling, increasing their range of motion, and strengthening their weak muscles, and ultimately helping them avoid knee surgery.
If you live in the Dallas or Fort Worth Metroplex and would like more information about my Cold Laser Knee Program fill out the form on the right side of this screen to get your FREE report mailed to you today!
Article by Dr. Alexandra K. Schnee, B.S.,D.C.-Your Cold Laser Professional of the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas Area-“Helping People with Knee Pain and Joint Pain in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area since 2001”
1. Moseley, JB, O’Malley, Peterson NJ, et al. A Controlled Trial of Arthroscopic Surgery for Osteoarthritis of the Knee. New England Journal of Medicine. 347(2): 7/11/02: 81-88.
2. Kolata, G. Arthritis Surgery in Ailing Knees is Cited as Sham. New York Times. July 11, 2002: Al.
Dr. Schnee Introduces Her Blog On Cold Laser Therapy In Irving, TX
Hi, my name is Dr. Alexandra Schnee, and since 2001 I have been in private practice and clinic director of the DFW Spine & Joint Center.
I often get asked why I chose to focus solely on knees and why I incorporated cold laser therapy into my practice. The answer is simple. Years ago I tore the meniscus in my knee practicing yoga. Arthroscopic surgery was recommended by the doctor who consulted with me. I knew that if I had surgery it would promote arthritis in my knee, and probably set me up for a future knee replacement because the cartilage or meniscus that was removed during surgery would never grow back. Surgery was not what I wanted! I knew that I needed to try a safe, nonsurgical option FIRST!
As a result, I studied and researched all of my options available to fix my knee pain. The most common suggestion was to take medication or have a cortisone shot. Fortunately, I knew that those were not solutions to the problem instead medications/shots would just mask the knee pain. Physical therapy was also suggested, but wasn’t an option for me because it would do nothing to heal or repair the problem.
I had first learned about cold laser therapy in college, so I decided to do more research about the topic. I found thousands of published studies and I discovered that the therapy was being performed in hospitals and clinics in Europe and Asia for decades. I was pleased to find out that general practitioners, orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, pain management doctors, and chiropractors had been using low-level lasers, aka cold lasers, for years. They successfully treated and managed patients suffering from a variety of joint and soft tissue problems. Doctors were using lasers to help heal and repair tissue, reduce/eliminate pain, and decrease swelling and inflammation.
At that point, I knew that I had found a treatment for my knee pain that made sense, was safe and had tons of research to support its efficacy. I decided that I had nothing to lose, and that cold laser treatments were the best option for my situation.
In my case not only was the cold laser treatment effective but I was able to avoid knee surgery, and I was able to get back to doing everything I loved. At that time, my experience also helped me realize that cold laser therapy was being underutilized in the United States to help treat musculoskeletal problems.
Fortunately, now all of that has changed, since 2001 cold lasers have been FDA cleared and are utilized all over the United States by doctors in rehabilitation centers, hospitals, and in clinics.
Cold laser therapy made such a profound impact in my life that after I graduated Valedictorian of my class with a Doctor of Chiropractic Degree, I received extensive training on the topic, and over the years I have successfully incorporated cold lasers with other therapies to create a specialized Cold Laser Knee Program for patients suffering with knee pain. In my office we use this cutting edge technology to treat patients suffering from knee pain due to meniscus/cartilage problems, arthritis, baker’s cyst, tendonitis, bursitis, ‘bone on bone’, sprains/strains… etc. Since 2001 I have successfully completed over 18,000 cold laser treatments, and I constantly train other doctors on how to properly use cold lasers. In 2007 I wrote an article about Knee Pain and Baby Boomers, and that same year I was invited to join the renowned Medical Advisory Board for Microlight lasers. In April 2009 I was chosen as Doctor of the Month after my article on Cold Laser Therapy was peer-reviewed and published on Spine-Health.com. I am Texas Board Certified and National Board Certified. I am also a member of the North American Association of Laser Therapy.
If you live in the Dallas or Fort Worth Metroplex and would like more information about my Cold Laser Knee Program fill out the form on the right side of this screen to get your FREE report mailed to you today!
This blog is meant to be interactive, and informative. I’ll be adding new information regularly on this blog, so stay tuned. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to share them below.
Article by Dr. Alexandra K. Schnee, B.S.,D.C.,-Your Cold Laser Professional of the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas Area-“Helping People with Knee Pain and Joint Pain in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area since 2001”
