Wounds, injuries, and wear-and-tear damage cause damage to the interior of your body. Whether your pain comes from joints worn ragged by arthritis or from torn tissue or ligaments in your body, regenerative medicine helps you heal from the inside out focusing your natural ability to heal where you need it the most.
Any time your body experiences damage, elements in your physiology activate to start repairs. Regenerative medicine involves isolating and targeting the work of natural elements in the human body, such as platelets from your blood or stem cells from bone marrow, to treat conditions like tissue damage or joint pain.
At Alpenglow Pain & Wellness of Anchorage, Alaska, Dr. Nichelle Renk and Dr. Gavin Nixon provide regenerative medicine treatments including platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and autologous stem cell therapies. In this blog, we give you more information about these treatment options, and who is a good candidate for this approach to drug-free healing.
When your tissues or joints suffer mild to moderate damage due to an issue like osteoarthritis, PRP treatment offers you a minimally invasive regenerative treatment option that works well to speed tissue restoration. At Alpenglow Pain & Wellness, we recommend PRP therapy for patients who need moderate healing support and prefer minimally invasive and inexpensive treatment.
Platelets travel within your bloodstream ready to help with wound healing and new tissue growth. By concentrating your own platelets, Dr. Renk and Dr. Nixon create an injection that accelerates healing and regrowth in a more specifically targeted treatment area.
At the beginning of your PRP treatment session, we take a sample of your blood. After spinning it in a centrifuge to separate the blood components, we return the PRP to the area of your body where you need it. Your appointment is quick and easy, and there's no downtime.
New cell growth and blood circulation increase in the treatment area, relieving conditions like joint pain or muscle injuries. PRP treatment can even improve the condition of your hair and skin! It takes some time for your full results to appear, and you may benefit from repeat treatment sessions.
Platelets are a specific element in your body intended to help with healing. Stem cells are a little different. Stem cells are undifferentiated, meaning that they can potentially be used by many parts of your body. Stem cells can become tissue cells, specific organ cells, or even bone cells, depending on what’s needed for you to fully regenerate after injury or damage.
Dr. Nixon provides autologous stem cell therapy using the Regenexx® network. This non-surgical type of treatment uses injections of stem cell-containing bone marrow to boost natural healing. As with PRP, we source stem cells from your own body, often from bone marrow or fat tissue. Under lab conditions, we isolate and concentrate stem cells, and return them to the treatment site via injection or infusion.
The new stem cells replace damaged or diseased cells at the treatment site. Stem cells work effectively to improve healing for orthopedic issues like osteoarthritis, joint overuse, and sports injuries, and can even help with cancer treatment and blood infections.
When are stem cells better than PRP? Stem cell treatment is more invasive and expensive than PRP. Save stem cell treatment for when you need it to address a serious condition or injury, or once other treatment options no longer provide enough symptom relief.
Talk to the team at Alpenglow Pain & Wellness about the right regenerative medicine treatment for your condition and needs. Schedule your initial consultation appointment online or over the phone today.
