Yeah, it doesn't seem to explain how doing something about the pain receptors is actually fixing the issue; it improves quality of life, sure, but does it fix the cause and repair or avoid damage?
That is, if it's only suppressing pain, the people suffering will do more things that may cause more cartilege damage. (disclaimer: I don't know much about arthritis so I may be wrong)
Until I started doing things to help my knees, the stuff I was doing, that I covered with NSAIDs actively made things worse.
I’ve had osteoarthritis in my knees since I was 16. At 27 I was opened up and told I had worn grooves through the cartilage and into the bone (I guess that’s why it hurt to ride a bike).
Doc told me quite literally to sit on a couch. Instead I took up karate, and the enforced stretching there relieved a ton of the pain. It didn’t fix anything, and i’d still get knee pain when riding a bike (I cut way back) or running, but my every day experience was tolerable.
In the past few years I started going to a functional fitness gym, and our coach got me towing a sled backwards- THAT fixed up my knees. Something about it has let my knees repair, and I haven’t had knees that felt this good sinc3 at least 1990.
That is, if it's only suppressing pain, the people suffering will do more things that may cause more cartilege damage. (disclaimer: I don't know much about arthritis so I may be wrong)