REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: NOW AFFORDABLE!
There has been a growing interest and research to support regenerative medicine. Steroid injections are currently used to reduce inflammation, with the downside of breaking down muscle, bone, cartilage and tissue if used repeatedly.
The good news is that there is literature to support long-term benefits (compared to steroid) for conditions such as lateral epicondylitis, knee osteoarthritis or spinal disc degeneration. The bad news is that there are many false promises that are floating around. I would like to help you understand what regenerative medicine is and what it isn’t.
HOW DOES YOUR BODY HEAL?
Your body has an innate mechanism to heal. This takes 2 steps: 1) After injury, there is a pro-inflammatory phase, where your body’s immune system comes to defend against bacteria and other unwanted cells. We start recruiting cells for tissue repair in the phase; 2) After your immune system has initiated the defense mode, it goes into the regeneration mode. In this phase, stem cells are activated to turn into the tissue you are repairing (ex. skin cells, muscle cells, etc). You need both steps to heal. You need adequate blood flow to heal. Babies are great at going from step 1 to 2. As adults, we accumulate more reasons to be pro-inflammatory and stay in this phase for longer, thus inhibiting tissue regeneration. The goal with regenerative medicine, with the treatments we have today, is to initiate the inflammatory cascade and help create a pro-healing environment for your tissues. There is a lot of exciting research coming down the pipeline to actually recreate parts of your musculoskeletal system, but be wary if anyone is promising you a brand-new body part with the research we have today.
WHAT REGENERATIVE MEDICINES ARE OUT THERE?
PRP: What we have to offer for pain and rehab is platelet rich plasma (PRP) or stem cell treatments. For PRP, we take some of your blood, spin it out using a centrifuge and inject back in the remaining elements (such as growth factors). If you have had good relief with steroid injections, there’s a significant chance you will get longer lasting relief with less side effects after doing PRP.
Stem Cell Treatments: With stem cell therapy, we can harvest mesenchymal stem cells from your bone marrow, or get stem cells from elsewhere. This also requires a centrifuge (if we are taking your own bone marrow), and an injection back into the injured body part. These mesenchymal stem cells will signal other cells to move along in the regeneration process.
Hyaluronic Acid: We also have a simple injectable solution which is essentially “lube for your joints” – this is called hyaluronic acid which helps create the natural fluid you have in your joints, good for arthritic patients.
IS THERE RESEARCH?
The key here is, choosing regenerative medicine for the right condition. This is called patient-selection. With proper patient selection, outcomes are great! Here are some examples of the science behind all of this:
- Double-blinded study: For chronic tennis elbow, they have shown that PRP is superior to steroid when monitoring these patients at 1 and 2 year follow-up (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22929046)
- Meta-analysis: For knee osteoarthritis showed that PRP is superior to hyaluronic acid or saline at 6 and 12 month follow-up https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28012636
- Systematic Review: Stem cell treatments for knee osteoarthritis have shown excellent results for patient’s regaining functionality as well as the healing of cartilage defects https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26798765
- Randomized Controlled Study: PRP for degenerative disc disease has shown improvement in pain and function 1 year out (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f87c/2afe98c604a5136d64ff4830a9d3191efc25.pdf)
- Randomized Controlled Study: Stem cell treatments for degenerative disc disease has shown improvement in pain and function 2 years out (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28191592)
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
In clinic, I have discussed with many of you, supplements, diet, exercise and other things that help create health. You want to optimize your chances of creating a pro-regenerative environment in your body and reduce overall inflammation. Things like smoking, eating processed foods, consuming lots of sugars, eating toxins (ex. pesticides), losing sleep and being stressed all go against healing.
You also want to think about what gave you your joint or spine pain in the first place. We have to come up with changes you can make in your daily life that will also give you a healing advantage.
If you are interested in regenerative medicine, I will go over your condition and let you know if you are a good candidate (or not). We can go over research as well as anecdotal data (ex. what other patients and doctors are experiencing). You should always feel educated and comfortable if you choose this treatment.
BEST PRICES IN TOWN
I am delighted that we have just created a pricing structure to make this as affordable as possible, the lowest prices you will find in the Bay Area! Please give me a call 408.364.1616 if you would like to schedule a consultation appointment.
