"Dr. Ben doesn't believe in cortisone injections."
One of my practice members said this last week and I had to clarify. Let me state for the record that I believe in cortisone injections as much as I believe in gravity and chiropractic. Cortisone injections work for a lot of people. By "work" I mean they are great at reducing inflammation which is causing pain. However, at the end of the day they are still a "treatment" for pain - and that I have issue with.
Every single year thousands of people receive cortisone injections in various joints with the primary goal being to alleviate pain. But why is there pain? Why is there inflammation in that joint? Why just your left hip and not your right hip? Why just your lower back and not your neck? It is just a small minded approach towards your health because it focuses on dealing with the symptom and not the cause. Getting a cortisone injection for low back pain and having it work and thinking it is fixed is like putting the proverbial tape over the check engine light. It didn't "fix" anything.
Actually it has the potential to make things worse for two major reasons.
1. The pain is your body's way of telling you to back off. If you knee is painful and you get a cortisone injection and it feels better you will be more likely to use it, correct?
This sounds great but again the problem isn't corrected. So now you are walking and running around on a knee that while not causing you pain is still not functioning correctly. You can hopefully see how this could make matters much worse and oftentimes lead to another injection which might be less effective.
2. Cortisone injections have been founded to advance degenerative changes.
There is a reason your doctor has been cautious about giving you that injection.
When cortisone injections were first introduced they were touted as a modern marvel! TIME Magazine even the injection on the cover because the injections were so great at reducing pain. Experts everywhere were certain that these injections were the answer to chronic pain - but then something happened. Time happened.
After decades of several injections in any joint that was painful, radiologist started to see something alarming. Joints that were introduced to cortisone injections were showing a higher level of degeneration. It was found that the injection irritated the bone tissue and made it more likely to degenerate. So again. I believe in cortisone injections. I believe, if used sparingly, can help to temporarily relieve pain so that someone can actually correct the issue.
If you are in too much pain to get adjusted or see your physical therapist then a cortisone injection might be useful. But please - don't believe for a second that if a cortisone injection has relieved your pain that you are in fact "healed" because you aren't out of the woods just yet.