[Ozphysician]

Hello all

Open question for the forum and I'm keen to hear any personal stories that support [or otherwise] the hypothesis.

My own thinking has turned full circle with respect to what is possible through the right nutrition, proper targeted exercise and dealing with lifestyle habits that adversely impact health

Trained in conventional medicine I have spent a lifetime criticising alternate methods for dealing with illness, injury or chronic pain. I'm not talking about the benefits of a balanced diet in mitigating risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes etc. That's well accepted and understood by the medical fraternity, I'm more referring to degenerative disease in the spine including arthritis.

I have accepted through my own journey that degeneration can be slowed or perhaps even halted through a focused nutrition and exercise programme, this is broadly accepted by most in the life science research community but can this be taken a step further ? Is it possible to change the biomechanics of your spine to stabilise it as the first step and then through the right nutrition and exercise "erode" osteophytic growths. If existing cartilage exists in a facet joint or knee, is it possible to build on that tissue without having to resort of biologic intervention ? The latter concept seems outrageous I know but think about it from this perspective - your body generates its own mesenchysmal cells which science has now proven in concentrated form help regenerate the meniscus of the knee. So why isn't it possible to turn your own body on to achieve this ? I'm not naïve enough to suggest you can turn a severely degenerate disc into one that is full height with a well defined nucleus pulposis. Complex avascular cellular structures like IVD's are a little different and another level of challenge

There is limited science to support this other than the anecdotal data that comes out of the self help fraternity who are keen on selling books and have too much vested interest in their arguments

So what's the view here ?