Yeah, I'm discovering that the hard way. My old rheumatologist was more proactive in her care. She's my around my age and is much more current with recent medical findings that hyaluronic acid gel injections are better for osteoarthritis in the knees versus steroid injections. Knee OA is actually made worse over time if too many steroid shots are given. The hyaluronic acid gel injections are the safer choice. Anyone can read these studies online by running a basic Google search.
My new doctors are millennials in their mid 30s. The new rheumatologist believes in horribly outdated info about steroids supposedly being better and the gel lubricant shots supposedly not working. Simply not true. The gel shots have been helpful for me with joint stiffness improvements and increasing range of motion in the past, which is why I want to resume them.
The podiatrist is even more of a problem. He's a competent foot and ankle surgeon and knows about arthritis, but at the same time he's also into alternative medicine remedies, fad diets as a cure-all, and co-owns an online supplement business and a small private alternative medicine clinic in NYC with friends. He has a large online social media presence focused more on the fringe medicine stuff versus his mainline practice as a podiatrist and foot and ankle surgeon. Unfortunately he is the only podiatrist stationed at this hospital's group practice office. He is trying to push me into going onto a diet that is his modified version of the Keto diet, except regular Keto allows whole milk dairy and he bans it. He thinks dairy products along with grains are the causes behind illness and disease, so he's pushing a no dairy, no grains diet where you mainly eat meat, fish, nuts and seeds with some veggies and fresh fruit on the side and should obsessively weigh yourself every day. He claims doing this will reverse my arthritis. Yeah, no....restrictive diets don't 'cure' osteoarthritis. I don't want to do this nonsense. I have to make an appointment with my primary care doc and discuss this problem with him. I just want the podiatrist to run the diagnostic tests to see the extent of the damage the arthritis has done to my feet and ankles, not push me into alternative medicine fads.
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