An X-ray is useful only when it matches your soreness

Tests help when they answer a clear question

Blood work may help when several joints are stiff or swollen. Another scan may matter after a hard injury, new weakness, or other warning signs.

No single test explains every sore knee, hip, shoulder, or hand. You don't need another test merely because a machine is nearby.

Before paying, ask how the result could change your care. If the answer isn't clear, ask your doctor to explain it again.

Treatment results come with honest limits

Regenerative treatments at QC Kinetix begin with blood taken from you. Medical providers means the licensed clinicians who'll examine you and explain the choices.

To prepare platelet-rich plasma, the clinic takes blood from your arm and spins it. The portion with more platelets is placed into the aching joint.

The aim is to lower soreness and improve how you move, but one person's result can't promise yours. Your health, the cause, and earlier care can change the result.

First ask when you'll know whether the care is helping. Then ask how the clinic will measure that change.

Get the cost of each visit before agreeing. Ask what happens if the soreness doesn't ease enough.

The useful answer applies to your joint

Results for knees may not tell you much about shoulders or several sore joints. Ask whether people receiving the care had soreness like yours.

A treatment may help some people and leave others disappointed. That's an honest limit, and you deserve to hear it before paying.

Take the test report to your visit and ask whether it matches the exam. The answer should make sense in plain words.

Sources

1. NHANES data from 2017 to March 2020 show that 27.9% of US adults aged 20 and over (67.1 million) report diagnosed arthritis of some kind - but 'arthritis' names more than 100 different conditions. Among those with diagnosed arthritis, 49.6% had osteoarthritis, 15.8% rheumatoid arthritis and 1.4% psoriatic arthritis, while 11.5% reported some other unlisted type and 21.6% - more than one in five - did not know which type they had. Not knowing rose to about one in three among adults without health insurance (36.1%) or with less than a high school education (31.8%).

   Foster AL, Boring MA, Lites TD, et al. — Distribution of Arthritis Subtypes Among Adults With Arthritis in the United States, 2017-March 2020.. Preventing Chronic Disease, 2025. DOI: 10.5888/pcd22.240393.

2. The 2016 revision of the fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria combined the physician and questionnaire versions and added a 'generalized pain criterion' - pain in at least 4 of 5 body regions - specifically because the 2010/2011 criteria misclassified regional pain syndromes as fibromyalgia. Against the 1990 and clinical criteria the median sensitivity was 86% and specificity 90%. The revision also removed the previous confusing recommendation about diagnostic exclusions: a fibromyalgia diagnosis is valid irrespective of other diagnoses and does not exclude the presence of other clinically important illnesses.

   Wolfe F, Clauw DJ, Fitzcharles MA, et al. — 2016 Revisions to the 2010/2011 fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria.. Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2016.08.012.

3. CDC analysis of the 2019-2021 National Health Interview Survey found that in 2021 an estimated 20.9% of US adults (51.6 million people) had chronic pain - pain on most days or every day for three months or more - and 6.9% (17.1 million) had high-impact chronic pain that substantially restricted daily activities. Prevalence was higher among American Indian or Alaska Native adults, adults identifying as bisexual, and adults who are divorced or separated.

   Rikard SM, Strahan AE, Schmit KM, Guy GP Jr — Chronic Pain Among Adults - United States, 2019-2021.. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2023. DOI: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7215a1.

4. A systematic review of 33 studies reporting CT or MRI findings in 3,110 people with NO symptoms found that degenerative changes are close to universal with age. Disc degeneration was present in 37% of 20-year-olds and 96% of 80-year-olds; disc bulge in 30% at 20 and 84% at 80; disc protrusion in 29% at 20 and 43% at 80. The authors concluded that many imaging-based degenerative features are likely part of normal ageing and unassociated with pain.

   Brinjikji W, Luetmer PH, Comstock B, et al. — Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations.. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2015. DOI: 10.3174/ajnr.A4173.

5. A Cochrane overview of 21 systematic reviews (381 studies, 37,143 participants) covering rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, low back pain, neck disorder and other chronic pain conditions concluded that physical activity and exercise are interventions with few adverse events that may improve pain severity and physical function - but that the quality of the evidence is low, effects on pain were inconsistent across reviews, and physical function improved significantly in 14 reviews with only small-to-moderate effect sizes. The commonest reported adverse event was increased muscle soreness that settled within weeks.

   Geneen LJ, Moore RA, Clarke C, Martin D, Colvin LA, Smith BH — Physical activity and exercise for chronic pain in adults: an overview of Cochrane Reviews.. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2017. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011279.pub3.

6. OARSI's 2019 guideline is the only major osteoarthritis guideline that grades treatments separately for people with disease in MULTIPLE joints. Its Core Treatments for polyarticular OA are arthritis education and structured land-based exercise. Critically, intra-articular corticosteroid and intra-articular hyaluronic acid were Level 1B/2 options for knee OA only and were NOT recommended for hip or polyarticular OA; oral NSAIDs were not recommended at all for people with cardiovascular comorbidity or frailty; and paracetamol/acetaminophen was conditionally not recommended.

   Bannuru RR, Osani MC, Vaysbrot EE, et al. — OARSI guidelines for the non-surgical management of knee, hip, and polyarticular osteoarthritis.. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.joca.2019.06.011.