"Bob F" wrote in message
...

stuff snipped

Knowing personally someone for whom the stem cell therapy had very good
results
makes me less skeptical. Reading the book I pointed to suggests good
reasons to
not have surgery. It also suggests things you can do to promote natural
healing.

There are other good reasons to consider non-surgical alternatives. A
recent study showed that "fake" knee surgery appeared to be as effective as
real surgery in reducing knee pain:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...65e_story.html

During both sham and regular surgery, small holes are poked through
either side of the knee, so doctors can insert instruments to examine the
joint. With the surgery, known as arthroscopic partial meniscectomy, pieces
of the cushioning material that may be out of place and interfering with the
motion of the knee are trimmed away.

Because about 700,000 such surgeries are done in the United States each year
at a cost of $4 billion, the new findings "will not be welcomed with open
arms," Jarvinen predicted in a phone interview.

The study was done at five medical centers in Finland. All the volunteers
had experienced knee pain for at least three months, and doctors believed
the problem was a tear of the medial meniscus. Nonsurgical treatment had not
helped them.

Patients did not know whether they had real surgery because of the way the
researchers set up the experiment. Once a doctor had used arthroscopic
techniques to examine the knee and determine that surgery seemed
appropriate, the medical team opened an envelope - with their equipment
still in place - to reveal whether the patient would receive fake surgery or
real surgery.

For sham surgery, the microshaver that is typically used by the surgeon for
meniscus removal didn't have a blade.

--

Bobby G.