Good Research Generates More Hope
Botox Eases Shoulder Pain
The active ingredient in Botox not only smoothes our aging faces, it also reduces the pain of shoulder arthritis. Patients who received a single injection of Botox reported less pain and improved shoulder function for at least 28 days. This finding was reported at the November, 2007 meeting of the American College of Rheumatology held in Boston. The study’s authors also claimed that relief lasting up to six months had been observed in similar injections for knee and ankle osteoarthritis pain. According to the authors, further study of these and other arthritis applications are needed.
More Relief with Surgery Than Steroids for Carpal Tunnel
Steroid injections don’t work as well as surgery for long lasting relief from carpel tunnel. This finding was reported at the November, 2007 meeting of the American College of Rheumatology held in Boston. In this study almost half of the participants who received steroid injections for carpal tunnel syndrome needed additional treatment after 7 years, while only 12 percent of those who had surgery needed additional treatment. Both surgery and steroids were equally effective as treatment in a one-year follow up, but not in the long term. The authors noted that these findings only applied to those who had primary carpal tunnel syndrome and not an underlying disease such as rheumatoid arthritis.
A Good Reason To Monitor Your Own Blood Pressure
Patients who monitored their blood pressure at home were able to reduce their blood pressure medication dosages without losing blood pressure control. Out of 430 patients, 216 measured their pressure at home and received treatment based on those results. The home-measured ended up using less medication as reported in the Dec.1, 2007 of Hypertension.
Vitamin D Deficiency May Cause Knee Pain
Patients with knee osteoarthritis who have low levels of vitamin D are more likely to have greater knee pain and trouble walking than patients with good levels of vitamin D. This finding was reported at the November, 2007 meeting of the American College of Rheumatology held in Boston.
Warmly,
Ruthan Brodsky
