By Andrea Gable
Staff Writer

Dr. Lou Pack wants to start a revolution – to ignite pervasive change in the treatment and prevention of osteoarthritis, the leading cause of pain and disability in America.
According to Pack, current perception identifies arthritis as a byproduct of age and weight, resigning patients to accept arthritis as part of the aging process with no hope of prevention or treatment other than pain medication or surgery.
Not so, says Pack.
He spent his early career in surgery, placing new joints in patients who he knew would be back for new joints every 10 years, often, he said, within three years.
Pack began searching for the root of the problem. It was easy enough to him: “You can’t put new tires on a bent frame.”
Pack began paying attention to the obvious; that no one individual is optimally symmetrical – a leg may be slightly longer, a foot more inwardly turned – and any degree off from that symmetry will decrease an individual’s performance, increase risk of injury and later causes arthritic changes. But once aligned, stress on the weight-bearing joints can decrease at any age or activity level.
Shifting his career path away from surgery, he began working with professional athletes, Olympic trainees, and most recently, U.S. Navy SEALS, to increase their performance, all the while maintaining the same methodology to prevent and treat osteoarthritis without medication and surgery.
Pack recently authored "The Arthritis Revolution" to educate arthritis sufferers on how to prevent the disease, stop its progression, decrease painful symptoms and improve levels of activity.
“I want to stop the perpetuation of this improper way of thinking – that arthritis is a simple result of age and weight – and the propagation of treatment that historically has not worked,” says Pack.
Using his more than 40 years of clinical and surgical experience to outline the basic premise of the book, Pack said he quickly discovered a great deal of data from leading research institutes to substantiate what he’d been saying for years.
“It’s so simple,” says Pack, “but no one has pulled all of this information together to present an alternative to medication and surgery. Misalignment is one of the things in medicine we really don’t examine. We check your heart, your blood pressure, but no one checks your walk. The foot is the most neglected even though it’s the place we should start first – the foundation of the building.”
Pack will be on hand for a book-signing event at Perk Avenue in downtown Madison from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Aug. 27, with brief presentations beginning at 1:15 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.drloupack.com.

Printed in the August 25 2011 edition.