Have you recently experienced an acute injury, like a ruptured tendon? Do you suffer from chronic pain that never seems to fully go away? In either of these circumstances, it’s likely that the one thing you want more than anything else is to find relief.
If your body just doesn’t seem to be healing and traditional medicine hasn’t helped, regenerative therapy is an option that’s worth exploring. What is this groundbreaking treatment and what types of conditions does it treat? Read on to learn more!
What Is Regenerative Medicine?
First things first, what is regenerative medicine? This is a type of medical treatment that encourages the body’s natural healing process. It helps your body rebuild damaged tissue and significantly reduces or even eliminates pain.
This treatment option replaces or “regenerates” human cells, tissues, or organs. It can be used to replace damaged tissues and stimulate the body to repair itself.
Regenerative health treatments don’t rely on medication and can improve a patient’s mobility and function with a shorter recovery time than surgery. This outpatient treatment option is successfully used to treat a variety of problems with joints, ligaments, tendons, and many spinal conditions.
In some cases, scientists can grow organs or tissues in a lab and then implant them into the body. This is often used when the body doesn’t have the ability to heal itself.
Types of Regenerative Therapy
There are four types of regenerative therapy treatments: stem cell therapy, platelet-rich plasma (PRP), lipogems, and prolotherapy.
Stem cell therapy is used to create all different types of human cells, including cartilage, bone, and fat cells. Some suggest that stem cells may one day be used to replace donor organs for transplants. This therapy is currently used for problems involving major joints like the hip, knee, shoulder, ankle, and even the spinal discs.
PRP is done by injecting concentrated platelets into a damaged area of the body that won’t heal. This accelerates healing and promotes tissue repair. PRP is a permanent treatment that doesn’t wear off after time.
Lipogem injections use the reparative cells found in body fat to support, repair, reconstruct, and replace tissues that have been injured or damaged. Finally, prolotherapy is used to reduce pain and strengthen weak connective tissues.
When you undergo stem cell therapy, you’ll donate your own cells, which are often obtained either through adipose (fat) tissue that is liposuctioned from your upper thigh or abdomen or pulled from bone marrow in your pelvis.
For PRP, the doctor will draw blood from your arm, centrifuge it to isolate the healing platelets and inject them into the damaged area. As soon as the injection occurs, the platelets will go to work building new cells and repairing the damage.
Most patients will receive these treatments for a length of time that varies from one week to three months. However, most begin to see benefits like a reduction in pain and improved mobility after just one or two treatments.
Benefits of Regenerative Therapy
There are many excellent reasons to consider regenerative therapy. Following are a few of the most important:
- Accelerated healing
- You may be able to avoid surgery
- You’re likely to have a shorter recovery time
- Most patients experience improved functionality and range of motion
- You should experience a reduction in both pain and inflammation
- Your bones, muscles, tendons, and skin will be stronger and healthier
- It’s a natural procedure
- Anesthesia isn’t required
- It’s safe, simple, and fast
Regenerative therapy addresses the root cause of a person’s pain instead of simply covering up the symptoms. Because the increased collagen growth tightens and strengthens the body’s tendons, patients who undergo this treatment are less likely to experience similar injuries in the future.
This treatment is also an outpatient procedure, making it extremely convenient for most patients. While patients sometimes experience tenderness or pain at the injection site, there are rarely any other side effects.
What Conditions Can Regenerative Therapy Treat?
There are many different types of conditions that doctors can successfully treat with regenerative medicine.
This treatment is often excellent for a variety of chronic pain, including issues with the joints of the knee, elbow, hip, shoulder, and ankle. It’s also very helpful for treating chronic pain and slow healing associated with conditions including:
- Osteoarthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Degenerative disc disease
- Sciatica
- Lower back pain
- Spinal cord injuries
- Sports injuries
Other conditions that regenerative therapy has successfully treated include COPD, Type 1 Diabetes, Erectile Dysfunction, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
Stem cell therapy can help encourage the healing of wounds and incisions following surgeries. It has successfully been used to treat brain trauma, hair loss, and vision impairment. It’s also effective for treating an array of cardiovascular diseases including coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, hypertension, and stroke.
Take Control of Your Health Today!
Now that you understand regenerative therapy and the many different types of conditions it treats, you’re ready to start taking your health into your own hands.
If you think you could benefit from this type of treatment, talk to your doctor about it right away. If your doctor isn’t receptive, consider getting a second opinion. There’s no reason for you to suffer in silence if relief is potentially right around the corner.
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