Cyndi Edwards: Hip and knee pain are feelings that many people know all too well. Dr. Rudy Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group, joins us today to talk about what could be causing this and how you can treat it. Dr. Gari, welcome back to Daytime.
Dr. Gari: Thank you. Thank you.
Cyndi Edwards: Let’s talk about hip pain in women in particular. What are the main causes of that?
Dr. Gari: Okay, well hip pain results from pain in your joints. So our bodies consist of joints everywhere. Now what’s unique about the hip and the knees, is they tend to be much larger joints. And if you can think about that, your hips is where most of your weight is carried. So in women or men, what causes that is basically inflammation.
Cyndi Edwards: Okay.
Dr. Gari: So you can get inflammation at the joint. Sometimes the inflammation could be caused by injuries, whether it’s the tendon or the capsule around there. But basically, it’s some sort of inflammatory process that causes that. It could be arthritis. It could be just all kinds of causes.
Cyndi Edwards: Okay. So there’s a correlation right, between weight gain and hip pain?
Dr. Gari: Absolutely. So like what we discussed earlier, was the fact that the weight is carried there. So the more weight that you have, the more in pain you’re gonna be. Just try to imagine trying to carry a 30-pound dumbbell.
Cyndi Edwards: Yeah, no thanks. Can you relieve that pain? How can you do that?
Dr. Gari: Absolutely.
Cyndi Edwards: Without getting a hip replacement?
Dr. Gari: Sure. So a lot of people have heard of, you know, Motrin, Advil. Those are all what’s called NSAIDs, they’re non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs.
Cyndi Edwards. Yeah.
Dr. Gari: So basically it’s to reduce inflammation, so you take a pill for that. The problem with that pill is that all it has to go into your stomach, right?
Cyndi Edwards: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Gari: And then a very small percentage travels into the blood, and then an even smaller percentage of that goes to the actual joint.
Cyndi Edwards: Right. So how do we get to the joint without actually cutting you open and going to the joint?
Dr. Gari: So what we do at Florida Pain Relief Group, is we can actually go ahead and visualize that joint. We give you a sedative and a local anesthetic. And using image guidance, we can place a needle right into that joint and place the medication there to reduce the inflammation. There’s also other types of treatments. So for example, we have this treatment that’s kind of like a lubricant that can last months.
Cyndi Edwards: Oh, great.
Dr. Gari: That can lubricate your joint. We even have regenerative medicine, that’s been fantastic. So what that does is, there are these things called allografts for example. And the allografts are this material that we use that helps your own body’s stem cells…
Cyndi Edwards: Regenerate?
Dr. Gari: …concentrate…
Cyndi Edwards: Oh.
Dr. Gari: …and regenerate your own damage that you have in those joints. So that it’s your own body healing itself.
Cyndi Edwards: Oh, love the sound of that. And so I suppose, just like the hip you can do the same for the knee. I have to ask about shingles, because we’re hearing a lot about that lately. A very painful affliction. How can you help people that come in with shingles?
Dr. Gari: Sure. So shingles is a very common occurrence, especially as we get older. And what shingles is, it’s actually a recurrence of the chickenpox.
Cyndi Edwards: Right.
Dr. Gari: So the chicken pox virus never goes away, it lives in us in a dormant state. And then something happens that triggers that to express again.
Cyndi Edwards: Right.
Dr. Gari: What happens is that the virus, when it expresses, it travels through your nerves. And that’s why you see it in like a certain distribution.
Cyndi Edwards: Yeah.
Dr. Gari: And as it travels, it just causes major havoc…
Cyndi Edwards: Can you do something for that…
Dr. Gari: ….in your nerves.
Cyndi Edwards: pain really quickly?
Dr. Gari: Yes we can.
Cyndi Edwards: Thank you, very good. But get the vaccine too, if you can.
Dr. Gari: Yes.
Cyndi Edwards: Dr. Gari, appreciate you coming in. If you want relief from any kind of pain, you can make a same-day appointment at Florida Pain Relief Group. Be sure to visit their website floridapainreliefgroup.com or give them a call: 844-KICK-PAIN. We’ll be right back.
