What are the Benefits of Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative medicine is all about healing. Using layman's terms, it involves taking cells and genes from a person’s body to repair various tissues, joints, and ligaments. In Sports Medicine, we use regenerative medicine to treat injuries and slow the wear and tear on your joints.
So what are the benefits of regenerative medicine? Here’s a general overview of how regenerative medicine is currently used to treat sports-related injuries.
Different Types of Regenerative Medicine In Orthopaedics
Whether it’s from osteoarthritis or a previous injury, joint pain can be debilitating. Regenerative medicine offers four different therapies that can help reverse the damage. These include:
Prolotherapy: In this procedure, glucose is injected into the joint. Acting as an irritant to stimulate your body’s natural defense mechanisms, it works to jumpstart the healing process. Prolotherapy helps reduce joint inflammation and pain while promoting the regeneration of damaged tissue.
Stem Cell Therapy: Stem cells can be harvested from fat tissue or bone marrow. In orthopedics, we tend to harvest the cells from the iliac crest. The concentrated bone marrow contains growth factors and enzymes which help to create a healing environment inside the knee. Studies have shown significant pain relief for up to 2 years in patients with mild to moderate osteoarthritis.
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP): PRP is a concentrated solution of blood platelets, which contain proteins and growth factors. PRP is more often used in tendons and soft tissues to help promote healing.
Amniotic Membrane Injections: These cells come from the membrane and fluid of a woman’s placenta (donated after birth). Injecting the amniotic membrane into your joint aids the healing process and reduces inflammation.
In orthopaedics and sports medicine, these minimally invasive treatments amplify the body’s natural process to restore lost tissue and heal injuries. Dr. Sterett is a firm believer that these therapies can make a big difference in healing potential for many injuries, when used as an adjunct to surgical treatment.
The Benefits of Regenerative Medicine for Athletes and Active People
Regenerative medicine can help improve:
Functionality: We rely on our tendons and joints to move freely as we go about day-to-day tasks. Regenerative medicine can promote collagen production in the body, which strengthens the tissues and tendons on and around the joint.
Healing and Pain: PRP and stem cell treatments deliver growth factors to injured or damaged areas, reducing pain and enhancing healing.
Recovery: The growth factors used in regenerative medicine kickstart the body’s regeneration of tissues and tendons. This reduces your recovery time and allows you to return to activities sooner.
Risk of Injury: Using collagen to strengthen and tighten the tendons in the joint, regenerative medicine can reduce your risk of injury in the high-impact world of sports.
Typically speaking, regenerative medicine is used to treat the following conditions:
Cartilage damage
Early-stage osteoarthritis
Tendon injuries
Ligament injuries
As no two bodies are the same, the regenerative medicine treatment you receive will depend on your unique condition. Most regenerative procedures are performed in-office, with patients typically returning to normal activities in two to three days.
Am I a Candidate for Regenerative Medicine?
Team Sterett will help determine whether any of these procedures are right for you! To learn if you are a candidate for regenerative medicine, contact Dr. Sterett and his team for a personal consultation.