How useful is arthroscopic surgery?

A study soon to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that arthroscopic knee surgery for a torn meniscus or osteoarthritis produced results little better than physiotherapy and exercise. On a hundred-point functioning and pain scale those who had surgery had an average of 20.9 points of improvement and those who did physiotherapy and exercise, 18.5. The results were more or less the same at 6 months as at 12 months. An earlier study comparing surgery with exercise alone showed similar results for patellofemoral syndrome (pain in the front of the knee) and another done in 2002 comparing arthroscopic surgery versus sham surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee found that

In this controlled trial involving patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, the outcomes after arthroscopic lavage or arthroscopic débridement were no better than those after a placebo procedure.

In my own little study two participants, one with chronic patellofemoral syndrome and another with chronic severe knee pain, have found significant improvements both in pain relief and functioning immediately after the first session, and experienced further improvements in subsequent sessions, both well beyond the 18.5 or 20.9 per cent improvement posited by the NEJM study for surgery and physiotherapy with exercise.

Update April 10th: One participant who had been told by a doctor that she was looking at a knee replacement "down the line" reported zero pain and full functioning after her last (fourth out of four) bioenergy treatment. The other participant, who had been diagnosed with chronic patellofemoral syndrome, reported full functioning and zero pain after her third treatment. I will now do regular follow-up to monitor their condition.

Knee study distance healing extension

If you live anywhere in Canada outside of Toronto or in the U.S. and you have knee pain, you may be eligible for the distance portion of my knee study.

Please contact me if you are interested in participating.

Surgical wait times for knee replacements not improving - CBC

I just ran across this item on CBC news: "surgical wait times for priority medical treatments like hip and knee replacements are not going down despite concerted efforts in all provinces to improve the situation, a new report shows."

That means there are a lot of you and a lot of your loved ones out there in considerable pain, suffering daily and looking at a diminished quality of life, not able to do many things that make life worth living.

You are probably taking pain-killers and anti-inflammatories, receiving steroid injections, and possibly having painful physiotherapy and even paying for it out of pocket.

At the same time you are probably unaware that there is something out there that could help you: bioenergetic rehabilitation.

If you were willing to try it, you could already experience noticeable change after one single treatment. There is no manipulation of tissue; no drugs; only bioenergy. You may feel some heat, some electricity, some tingling, or nothing at all but an easing, relaxation, and less pain. If it doesn't work for you, you will know it the day after that first treatment. But if it works, you might be amazed at the change.

One person who was amazed was my former fellow college alumnus George, now a neurologist, whose debilitating knee pain gradually vanished after one single treatment. He needed pain-killers to drive and when I asked him what his pain level was on a scale of 0 to 10 when he came, he said it was 8. He had had the knee condition for two years and even steroid injections had only helped temporarily. His knee felt better immediately after I treated him, two weeks later his pain level was 3 (and he no longer needed pain-killers to drive) and over the space of a month he said his pain went away. He was so impressed, he wrote a testimonial on my website.

Please come and try it. You could be in less pain and experiencing more mobility tomorrow, instead of waiting for months or years.

Update on knee study

My knee study is proceeding apace -- except now it's a knee and shoulder study. People are coming in saying "yes, I have a knee problem but my (fill in the blank) is worse". Sometimes the fill in the blank, for instance plantar fasciitis or heel pain, would affect the gait and therefore the knee, so it makes sense for me to treat it as well. And so many people responded who had shoulder issues that I expanded the study to include shoulders.

I am meeting some very interesting people. So far everyone has been a believer in energy healing. But I don't just want believers. I also want to include people who know nothing about energy healing and people who think it's bunk. In the intake questionnaire I ask respondents both about their injury and their general attitude to energy healing. I am curious to see whether belief correlates to outcome.

Respondents receive four free energy treatments for their condition. In addition to the intake questionnaire, there is regular follow-up to document progress. Ultimately my hope is to take the results (if the results warrant) to doctors who deal with patients who are waiting for knee surgery and to present energy healing to them as an alternative to the current protocols used for pain relief.

Participants wanted for bioenergy healing knee study

I have had a good deal of success treating injured and painful knees and have had many people vouch for my skill. However, all this is "anecdotal", which carries little weight with the medical community. As a result, I would like to do a more comprehensive study of the effectiveness of "bioenergetic rehabilitation" in treating knee pain. Please note that bioenergetic rehabilitation does not involve physical manipulation of the knee.

I am looking for participants located in Toronto for the hands-on portion of the study and for participants living anywhere in Canada, the U.S., or the U.K. for the distance portion. Participants will be asked to provide a name, a recent photograph, and contact information, and to fill out a questionnaire about their condition and their attitudes to energy healing prior to receiving treatment. Four half-hour treatments will be given, with follow-up in between and afterwards. The cash value of the treatments is $200, but they will be offered free in exhange for participation in the study. Participants agree not to receive other treatment such as acupuncture, physiotherapy, or chiropractic for the duration of the study, which should be a month.

Please click here if you would like to participate or if you have questions.

Yet another successful knee intervention

This testimonial came from a skeptical MD:

"I injured my knee 2 years ago and developed persistent pain. It was interfering with walking, exercising and even driving. I tried anti-inflammatory medications, and an orthopedic surgeon injected steroids in the knee. As a physician (I am a neurologist) I have very conservative views of how illness occurs and how treatments work, but I became desperate. I was really skeptical when Judith offered to help me. To my complete astonishment (and joy) the healing touch worked, and the pain gradually disappeared after a month. I am able to do everything now, and I don’t take any pain killers. I still don’t know how or why the treatment worked, but work it did. I am grateful to Judith for what she did."

Click here to read all the testimonials.

Who is a good candidate for "bioenergetic rehabilitation"?

Over the past 14 years I have treated many people with many kinds of injuries. I've treated injured shoulders, backs, knees, ankles, hands, fingers -- you name it. A lot of those treatments were what I call "guerilla" treatments: in my training or my teaching or just walking on the street I would meet someone in pain, and I would offer to treat them. In some cases I've seen stunning results and in a small minority of cases no results, and I've often wondered what makes the difference. I believe that most physiotherapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists and osteopaths have also encountered the same phenomenon: many clients who respond well and a few who, for whatever reason, don't.

In my experience injured athletes and people in a great deal of pain are the ones who respond most quickly and most readily. For both, there is huge incentive to get better. Athletes want to get back to their sport. People in a lot of pain want the pain to stop. They don't care how it happens, so long as it happens. They don't go into a lot of thinking and rumination about what energy healing is and how and why it works. They are just willing to try it. There is openness to the experience, a feeling of allowing, and sometimes even curiosity. In this way they become participants in their own healing, and we can both watch it unfold.

Several of my teachers have told me that I should not call myself a healer. The person I am treating heals him or herself. They are the healers. I am the facilitator. The people who understand this are the ones who heal most quickly. We are doing this together.