Start the new year with a new you! Kick chronic pain to the curb with the power of regenerative therapy. Regenerative Medicine utilizing stem cell therapy provides a promising alternative to surgery by promoting safe and natural healing. We offer a low-invasive regenerative therapy utilizing an amniotic allograft tissue matrix at our office. Here is what you need to know about regenerative therapy, its benefits, and what a joint injection can do for you!
What Is Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative therapy is a simple, yet revolutionary treatment for people with chronic pain, chronic conditions, and injuries. Stem cells are cells that every person is born with. These are neutral cells that can turn into any other type of cell. They lie dormant in your own body until you sustain an injury.
When an injury strikes, your blood platelets rush to the site of injury and your stem cells follow them. As blood platelets clot the wound, stem cells begin to transform into the cell type your body needs to rebuild muscle, tissue, bone and more. Regenerative therapy was created with the idea that you can be injected with donor sources of stem cells. The injection goes into a specific area. Instead of healing slowly over time, you can heal quicker with many new stem cells working to help you. Plus, stem cells solutions are naturally anti-inflammatory, meaning that they can reduce your joint inflammation as they work to help your body heal. Consider stem cell therapy if you want relief from chronic pain caused by arthritis or other injuries/conditions such as:
- Compressed and/or pinched nerves
- Bulging discs
- Shoulder inflammation, elbow and wrist problems
- Back pain, muscle pain, neck pain, and other types of chronic pain
- Persistent headaches and migraines
- Sciatica, hip and knee problems
- (Rheumatoid) Arthritis
Arthritis and Joint Breakdown
Did you know that arthritis is the leading cause of disability among adults in the U.S., according to the Arthritis Foundation? Arthritis is any form of inflammation of the joints that causes symptoms such as pain, stiffness and loss of movement. There are over 100 different types of this joint disease.
Osteoarthritis, for example, is a condition known as “degenerative joint disease”. This affects about 27 million Americans. Patients usually have pain, swelling and other symptoms in their knees, legs, hips, back or neck, even though they can have this arthritis in any part of the body. In between the joints you have cartilage. This is a soft, cushioned substance that makes your movements possible without feeling pain every time you move a limb. With osteoarthritis, the cartilage between the joints and bones breaks down over time, or “degenerates”. This makes moving painful, and swelling and inflammation occurs. The more inflammation that happens, the more the joint breaks down.
With rheumatoid arthritis, the body actually attacks a person’s joints. This is an autoimmune disease, where the joints are seen as a foreign substance, so the body tries to break down the cartilage to get rid of it. That causes swelling and pain and the inflammation damages cartilage over time. Both forms of arthritis can be very debilitating and painful to patients, no matter the location in the body. Injuries can make arthritis worse or they can accelerate the formation of arthritis.
Treating Injuries through Joint Injections
Whether it’s a form of arthritis or an exercise/sports injury, your joints are likely to be damaged. Commonly, we use regenerative therapy via joint injections to help patients with arthritis inflammation and joint breakdown. However, patients that experience the same type of damaging inflammation from injuries can benefit just as much from joint injections as arthritis patients can.
Joint injections can reduce pain symptoms from arthritis, but provide the most help when they are coupled with physical therapy so patients can participate in everyday activities to stretch and strengthen the arthritic joint. For athletes, they will want to receive a regenerative therapy solution via joint injection straight into the area of damage in the body. Joints are common areas where tissues, ligaments and muscles connect, which is also where damaging inflammation is the most common. This is the same with arthritis patients and those with joint injuries.
Joint injections are made up of solutions using stem cells and anti-inflammatory medications such as cortisone. The anti-inflammatories will calm down inflammation so your joint can rest from constant attack. Stem cells will help regenerate damaged tissues in the joint, helping to build cells back up stronger. That regeneration is what can help extend the life of your joints, and there is a real difference in patients that invest in joint injections and those who don’t.
Getting Your Injection
Depending on where your pain is located, joint injections will be administered differently. We work with small and large joints differently because of the size of the joint, and the cartilage around the joint. Large joint and nerve injections require precise guidance to achieve the targeted results you need so they are done with an ultrasound. Ultrasound insures that the needle and fluid are going exactly where they need to go. Ultrasound equipment is both non-invasive and safer than x-ray methods. We are able to see exactly where different tissues and joints lie so injections are actually being put to good use in your body.
Unlike conventional medication that must be delivered through the digestive and circulatory system, anti-inflammatory injections can deliver fast pain relief to the treated area without affecting other parts of the body. Plus, other methods with oral medications are slower and less effective when it comes to long-term pain management. Anti-inflammatory injections are versatile, with proven effectiveness in treating soft tissue injuries. When it comes to any muscle or tissue injury you’re experiencing, save time and heal quicker with a regenerative therapy joint injection. Call Spine Correction Center of the Rockies today at (970) 658-5115 today to schedule your free consultation!
