By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Every so often, life offers a moment of stillness. Mine arrived over dinner with a friend of nearly three decades, a reminder of how quickly time escapes us. One moment we are building our careers, certain of our future paths; the next, we look up and wonder how 25 years passed in a blink. The truth is undeniable:The world we are living in now is not the world we lived in even six years ago.Not medically. Not economical

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Recently, a patient shared that during his MRI, a radiology technologist told him, “PRP really doesn’t work for most people.” The statement wasn’t malicious but it was incomplete. And for patients trying to make informed decisions, incomplete information is often the most damaging kind.  “PRP Doesn’t Work” A Misinterpretation of Technique, Not Science When you hear that PRP is unreliable, the issue is almost never the

NSAIDs, Steroid Injections, and Turmeric are Often Options Joint pain flares push many people toward two common options: Oral NSAIDs Intra-articular corticosteroid injections Both have been widely used for decades. Both temporarily reduce pain. And both have well-documented downsides for cartilage biology. Oral NSAIDs inhibit COX-1 and COX-2 and can impair: Cartilage cell metabolism Proteoglycan synthesis Collagen turnover Long-term cartilage recovery Repeated intra-articular