By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Myth #11: Going Along to Get Along — Why Playing It Safe with Steroid Shots and Surgery Can Cost You Your Joints There’s an old Southern phrase, "Go along to get along.”I t means you keep doing what everyone else does… not because it’s working, but because that’s what’s familiar. But when it comes to your health and mobility, “going along to get along” can cost you something you can’t get back: your joints. For decades

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano The Hidden Bias Behind “Covered Care” There’s a deeply ingrained belief among both patients and physicians  that if an insurance company doesn’t cover a treatment, it must be unproven or worse, “fringe.” Even excellent, forward-thinking physicians fall into this mindset. We’re trained from day one to consider cost and coverage because we genuinely care about our patients. We want to ease their suffering without creating

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Orthobiologic Myth #7: “Older Adults Don’t Respond to PRP” There’s a persistent myth that once you cross a certain age, regenerative medicine is off the table. That your platelets are “too old” or your body no longer knows how to repair itself. That simply isn’t true. It’s accurate that platelet viability and stem-cell activity gradually decline with age, and that certain medications (like platelet inhibitors or anti-in

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Pain Transformation: When Pain Becomes the Teacher: Adversity as the Catalyst for Transformation When Pain Interrupts Your Power One day it’s simple. Twisting a cap, shifting gears, or signing your name. Then, seemingly overnight, that freedom disappears. Pain at the base of your thumb, the wrist that once steered your car or typed your vision into reality, now protests every small movement. Blow-drying your hair become

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano  “PRP is just spinning blood and injecting it.” A colleague of mine once called and asked how much blood I draw for a PRP knee procedure.I was honestly flabbergasted—because that question misses the entire point. That’s like asking, “How much anesthesia do you give?” Any experienced physician knows the answer depends on the patient, the pathology, and the plan. When a patient comes in with knee pain, I don’t simply inje

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano It’s human nature to look for one culprit. “One bad disc.” “One torn tendon.” “One joint gone wrong.” But the body doesn’t work that way—because it’s not a collection of parts. It’s a living, moving system. The One-Problem Illusion “My Pain Is Coming from One Problem” We grow up believing that pain must have a single cause. After all, we live in a medical world built on specialists, each one focused on one part of the b

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano The Umbilical Stem Cell Myth: What the FDA Really Says The Myth: You’ve probably heard it. “Umbilical stem cells are the most powerful, youthful cells you can get. Why use your own when you can have younger ones?” It’s a seductive story, especially in an era obsessed with quick rejuvenation. Clinics across the country promote umbilical, placental, and amniotic products as if they were a medical revolution already blesse

And that’s the problem. Because to “feel” your way into a joint, you often have to touch bone — or even hit it — to know you’re deep...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano “PRP Works Instantly " Is Expecting Instant Gratification From Biology In a...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Outdated Thinking About Cartilage Repair After 50 They told you cartilage can’t...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano The Problem: When back pain care is built for profit, not people Chronic low...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano The Problem: We’ve Normalized Joint Replacement as “Inevitable” For decades,...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano In the doctor’s lounge last week, a knee-replacement surgeon claimed that...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano You Shouldn’t Mix Steroids with PRP Because PRP Needs “Good Inflammation” to...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano The Conversation That Sparked This Blog Recently, in the orthopedic hospital...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano PRP Alone Often Isn’t Enough for More Advanced Cases. If you’ve been told you...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Muscle Mass Longevity is Important and Why Muscle Mass Declines With Age In...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Sales Hype vs. Safety Reality with PRP vs Birth Products In regenerative...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano Nerve Burning Risk | Balanced Alternatives to Radiofrequency Ablation in Dallas...

By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano The Problem with New Drugs for Chronic Pain Pharmaceutical companies continue to...