About
Our mission
Beyond Wear and Tear is a not-for-profit initiative that translates osteoarthritis research — particularly the growing understanding of its metabolic side — into plain language patients can actually use. We're not trying to sell anything, and we're not trying to replace your clinician. We're trying to close the gap between what researchers are learning and what patients get to hear about it.
Where this started
The idea for this site came from a simple, recurring frustration: patients doing their own research online kept running into either dense academic papers or oversimplified, sometimes misleading, wellness content — with very little in between. Beyond Wear and Tear is our attempt at that middle ground: careful, honest, readable, and upfront about what's actually known.
Founder
Founder
Darsh Tripathi
My research began as a personal question. After a surgeon attributed my knee osteoarthritis to obesity but could not explain why, I set out to find the answer myself.
I started Beyond Wear and Tear after seeing how much osteoarthritis research never reaches the people living with the condition.
Team
Patient Partner
Deb Baranec
Lives with osteoarthritis. Sets our topic priorities and reviews every draft for clarity, tone, and usability before it goes near a scientific reviewer.
Scientific Reviewer
Walter Herzog, PhD
A leading international expert in using pre-clinical models of diet-induced obesity and metabolic interventions to study bone, joint, and muscle degeneration, work he has done for the past 30 years.
Scientific Reviewer
David A. Hart, PhD
A molecular biologist whose expertise covers the processes behind joint and bone disease, including the modulation of inflammation and sex differences in musculoskeletal conditions.
Scientific Reviewer
Raylene A. Reimer, PhD
A nutritionist and metabolism scientist whose expertise covers how diet affects the microbiome, and how dietary interventions can improve gut microbiota composition and function in chronic disease.
How we keep this honest
Every explainer is reviewed by a subject-matter expert for scientific accuracy and by our patient partner for clarity, and every claim is graded by evidence strength before it's published. See how we grade evidence for the full system.