Kelsey Matichuk, RMT

01/11/2026

01/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AcUGqPeW8/

The COVID vaccines just got a massive vindication from the largest safety study ever conducted. Scientists tracked 46 MILLION people in England and the results are absolutely fascinating. What they discovered about heart attacks, strokes, and those rare side effects will surprise you. This is the kind of research that changes the conversation completely.

01/05/2026

01/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/reel/4264460387164994

01/02/2026

📣 Your most popular blog of 2025 is....🥁

🥇 Noisy Knees – How common is it and does it matter?

Blog ➡️ https://bit.ly/4h75LXA

🎉

12/30/2025

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1196737468536051

12/29/2025

Endometriosis has long been treated as a hormone-driven condition, often managed through painkillers, hormone therapy, or surgery. New research suggests the underlying cause may involve specific bacteria rather than hormones alone.

Scientists identified the presence of Fusobacterium in endometriosis lesions, pointing to a potential infectious trigger behind chronic inflammation and tissue growth. This discovery helps explain why symptoms often persist despite hormonal treatments.

In controlled studies, targeted antibiotic treatment significantly reduced lesion size and pelvic pain in affected patients. This opens the door to non-invasive treatment options that avoid surgery and long-term hormone suppression.

If confirmed through larger clinical trials, this approach could shift how endometriosis is diagnosed and treated worldwide. Early bacterial screening may become part of routine care for patients with unexplained pelvic pain.

Endometriosis affects an estimated 1 in 10 women globally, often taking years to diagnose accurately. A bacterial explanation could accelerate diagnosis, reduce suffering, and reshape future gynecological care.

12/25/2025

𝗧𝗼 𝗖𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝘂𝘁? 𝗥𝗲-𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗠𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗼𝗺𝘀

⬛️ For years, the management of degenerative meniscal tears has been a source of debate within the orthopaedic community.
⬛️ While evidence generally discourages arthroscopic meniscal surgery for degenerative tears, clinical guidelines have remained ambiguous regarding patients who present with mechanical symptoms—such as locking, catching, clicking, or popping of the knee.
⬛️ A new systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Reports 2025 by Zilani et al. challenges the notion that mechanical symptoms justify surgical intervention, offering pivotal insights into the long-term outcomes of surgery versus non-operative management.

⚖️ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝘿𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙢𝙖

📌 Degenerative meniscal tears are common in older populations and are often associated with knee osteoarthritis.
📌 Current guidelines, such as those from the AAOS American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, often provide unclear recommendations for tears accompanied by mechanical symptoms, leading many surgeons to view these symptoms as a valid indication for surgery.
📌 However, the efficacy of this approach has been questioned.
📌 This new review aimed to fill a critical gap in the literature by specifically analyzing 5-year outcomes in patients with degenerative tears and mechanical symptoms, comparing those who received surgery against those managed non-operatively such as physical therapy.

📊 𝙆𝙚𝙮 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: 𝙁𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙫𝙨. 𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙜-𝙏𝙚𝙧𝙢 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝

⬛️ The review analyzed six randomized controlled trials involving 1157 participants.
⬛️ The results highlight a distinct trade-off between subjective health perception and objective joint preservation.

✅ 𝙉𝙤 𝙎𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙆𝙣𝙚𝙚 𝙁𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙧 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣

⬛️ Contrary to the belief that surgery resolves mechanical dysfunction, the study found no significant difference between arthroscopic surgery and non-operative management regarding knee function, activity levels, or meniscal evaluation at the 5-year mark.
⬜ Scores for the Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale measuring limp, locking, and instability showed no statistically significant difference between the groups p = 0.07.
⬜️ Activity levels, measured by the Tegner Activity Scale, were identical between surgical and non-surgical patients p = 1.00.
⬜️ Pain scores VAS for activity and rest also showed no significant statistical difference.

⚠️ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 "𝙃𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣" 𝘾𝙤𝙨𝙩: 𝙄𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙊𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙤𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙨 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣

⬛️ Perhaps the most critical finding of this review is the long-term impact of surgery on joint health.
⬛️ Patients who underwent arthroscopic surgery demonstrated a significantly higher rate of osteoarthritis progression compared to those treated non-operatively.
⬜️ The odds ratio for radiographic osteoarthritis progression was 2.09 in the surgical group.
⬜️ This suggests that while removing torn tissue might intuitively seem helpful, the surgical intervention itself—or the resulting loss of meniscal tissue—may accelerate the degenerative process within the knee joint.

🧠 𝘼 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙭 𝙞𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

⬛️ Interestingly, while specific knee function scores did not differ, patients in the surgical group reported significantly better general health scores on the EQ-VAS European Quality of Life Visual Analog Scale compared to the non-operative group p < 0.00001.
⬛️ This suggests that surgery may offer a psychological benefit or a perceived improvement in overall well-being that is not captured by specific knee function metrics.

🩻 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩

⬛️This study provides high-quality evidence suggesting that mechanical symptoms should not automatically trigger a decision to operate.

👤 For Patients
⬜️ If you have a degenerative tear with clicking or catching, physical therapy is likely to yield similar functional results to surgery over five years, without the increased risk of accelerating osteoarthritis.
👨‍⚕️ For Clinicians
⬜️ The presence of mechanical symptoms does not necessarily predict a better response to surgery.
⬜️ The "quick fix" of removing the mechanical obstruction must be weighed heavily against the doubled risk of long-term osteoarthritic changes.

🏁 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣

📌 The findings of Zilani et al. suggest that non-operative management should be the primary treatment pathway for degenerative meniscal tears, even when mechanical symptoms are present.
📌 While surgery may improve a patient's general perception of health, it fails to provide superior knee function and actively contributes to the worsening of osteoarthritis over time.

-----------------
⚠️Disclaimer: Sharing a study or a part of it is NOT an endorsement. Please read the original article and evaluate critically.⚠️

Link to Article 👇

12/22/2025

Pain is not a signal that something is tight, short, stuck, or needs stretching. Pain is a protective response. It is the nervous system deciding that something feels threatening, unfamiliar, or not tolerated at that moment, and it responds by increasing sensitivity. That sensitivity can show up as pain, stiffness, guarding, or a feeling of restriction, but none of that automatically means a muscle needs to be stretched.

When pain is driven by protection, stretching often misses the point entirely. People stretch harder, longer, and more frequently, yet nothing changes. Sometimes it even feels worse. That is not because they are doing the stretch wrong, but because stretching does nothing to address why the nervous system is being protective in the first place. If the body perceives movement as unsafe, forcing more range rarely convinces it otherwise. It usually reinforces the message that something is wrong.

This is why so many people end up stuck in a loop of constant stretching with no relief. The assumption is that discomfort equals tight muscles, and tight muscles need lengthening. In reality, muscles often feel tight because the nervous system is increasing tone as a protective strategy. Trying to stretch through that response is like arguing with a smoke alarm instead of checking why it is going off.

Improvement tends to come when the focus shifts away from chasing tightness and towards restoring confidence in movement. Gradual exposure to movement, changing how the body experiences load, reducing threat, and improving tolerance all matter far more than pulling harder on a muscle. When the nervous system feels safer, perceived tension often settles without anyone needing to stretch at all.

So if you have been stretching religiously and getting nowhere, that is not a failure on your part. It is a sign that pain is doing its job as a protective response, and that the solution lies in understanding the problem better, not stretching harder.

12/19/2025

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1283114793164069/?fs=e&fs=e

12/17/2025

12/16/2025

🤯 BREAKING: Sam King has just done something that sounds almost impossible. He set a new world record by running 79 ultramarathons in 79 consecutive days. That means 79 days in a row of 50 kilometers on foot.

No rest days.
No shortcuts.

But the distance is only part of the story.
What makes this even more powerful is where Sam started.

As a teenager, Sam was one of the best Call of Duty players in the world. Behind the screen, life looked very different. Unhappy. Struggling with both his mental and physical health.

Gaming had taken over everything.
And at some point, he realized something had to change.

Running became that turning point.
Not as a quick fix.
Not as a trend.
But as a way to rebuild himself, step by step.

This challenge began on Saturday 27 September.
Not for fame.
Not for records.
But for a deeply personal reason.

Sam ran every single day to raise money for Headway.
The charity that supported his family after his mother suffered a near fatal brain bleed.

For 79 straight days, he covered 50K daily.
Through injury.
Through illness.
Through broken sleep.
Through cold mornings and darker evenings as winter arrived.

When he ran his final 50K, he wasn't alone.
But surrounded by supporters who had followed every painful step of the journey.

This is not just an endurance record.
It is proof of what happens when someone replaces escape with purpose.
And chooses to keep going when quitting would be easier.

79 days.
79 ultramarathons.
One life completely transformed.