As people get older and their bodies are worn, what kind of things are you seeing?

You mentioned arthritis a lot.

I guess that's one of the big ones?

- Yeah, well, I'm gonna start by saying that age is just a number, and I am a staunch believer in that.

My wife will tell you I say that all the time 'cause we're all getting a little bit older, and some of us like to just ignore that number anyway.

But age really is just a number.

If arthritis, for example, or osteoarthritis, which is kind of what people have for ages referred to as wear-and-tear arthritis, if it was strictly just a function of your age, everybody who is 70 would have the same amount of arthritis when they get to 70 if it was just a function of your age.

There's people that are 70 that have pristine knees that are not painful at all.

There's people that are 70 that have already had surgery to get knee replacements because their arthritis was so bad.

So age really by itself is just that, it's just a number.

There's a lot of other risk factors that go into it.

Prior injuries, prior surgeries, can play a role.

Body weight plays a role.

Your level of activity, physical activity, plays a role.

There's a lot of different things.

And, you know, when I was in training, there were a couple of doctors that I worked with that kind of talked about, well, your cartilage in your joints, for example, like your knees, is kind of like the brake pads on your car that, you know, the more miles you've put on your car, the more you're gonna wear that brake pad down.

And over time, you just get down to the point where there's no pad left, and you're on metal, and it's scraping, right?

I used to tell my patients that, but lately we've realized that it's actually not like that.

The best analogy would be is if your brake pads started to get worn down, if you treated them right, and you babied 'em, and you kind of were nice to 'em a little bit, some of that brake pad material would come back and would self-repair.

So, actually, the cartilage in our joints is a dynamic structure that's a living structure.

There's living cells in your body, and there's lots of different things that can stimulate that cartilage and can actually help it regenerate or at least self-repair.

So it's not just a matter of it wears down this much over a certain period of time, right?

There's a balance in all your joints in your body as to what's breaking down and what's building up.