Your joints give your body motion. They allow you to bend, move, and do all the activities you love — but their unique structure makes them susceptible to injury, deterioration, and pain.
Joint pain can stop you in your tracks. While it’s normal to feel sore after strenuous exercise, about a third of American adults have joint pain that doesn’t go away within a few days.
Joint pain that persists can have a serious impact on your activity level and your quality of life. It can be difficult to find effective treatment that helps you feel like yourself again. Luckily, with the arrival of regenerative medicine, you have more treatment options than ever before.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy offers an alternative to prescription medication and invasive procedures — and it’s completely natural. John Stavrakos, MS, MD, is a PRP injection specialist at Heritage Regenerative Medicine. Alongside our compassionate care team, he strives to offer patients the best in musculoskeletal pain relief.
PRP injection therapy shows incredible promise for treatment, and it’s time to see how this breakthrough in regenerative medicine is revolutionizing the way we heal painful joints.
PRP therapy is a type of regenerative medicine. It utilizes elements of your own blood to stimulate healing in your body. To understand how PRP can treat joint pain, we’ll start by exploring the science of platelets.
Platelets are just one component of many in your blood. While most people know that they help your blood clot/stop bleeding, they also contain proteins called growth factors that support tissue healing and regeneration.
Growth factors naturally create blood vessels that bring oxygen, agents that stimlate collagen rebuilding, and attract other essential building blocks to damaged tissue inside your body. These factors provide your body the power to help to heal itself. PRP therapy involves creating a highly concentrated platelet solution and injecting it into an injured area to accelerate your body’s natural healing ability.
To create your PRP solution, Dr. Stavrakos takes a sample of your blood and separates the platelets from other blood components in a centrifuge. PRP therapy is a flexible treatment that can:
Dr. Stavrakos injects the PRP solution directly into the joint that’s causing you pain, and the solution stimulates healthy tissue growth. It’s a revolutionary treatment for joint pain because it targets the pain at the source.
Joints are some of the most complex components of your musculoskeletal system. Every joint contains at least two bones, and the cartilage, muscles, tendons, and other connective tissues that hold them together.
The causes of joint pain are often just as complex. Traumatic injury, overuse, and age-related degeneration can all leave you with joints that are painful, stiff, or swollen.
Dr. Stavrakos has experience treating a wide range of joint conditions with PRP therapy. He may suggest it for you if you have:
If you’re living with joint pain, Dr. Stavrakos and our team work with you to develop a customized treatment plan. Because it’s a flexible therapy, Dr. Stavrakos may recommend it alongside other treatments, such as physical therapy, ozone therapy and the like.
Most people see improvements in mobility and reduced pain with a series of PRP injections spaced out over several weeks. PRP therapy is natural and drug-free. The risk of side effects is very low, because it utilizes elements from your own blood.
You don’t have to live with joint pain. Find out what PRP therapy could do for you with a consultation at Heritage Regenerative Medicine. Call our office at 704-368-4852 or request an appointment online now.
