Regenerative medicine can ease your pain the best and longest-lasting way possible because it builds new cells that repair inflamed and damaged tissues.
As an expert in rheumatology, Behnam Khaleghi, MD, at Pacific Rheumatology Medical Center, helps people with chronic, painful conditions. He uses many advanced medical treatments to slow down disease progression and improve the quality of daily life.
He also specializes in using supplements and anti-inflammatory diets that support healing and promote your overall health. But regenerative medicine is the only treatment that actively stimulates natural healing.
Here, we give you a rundown on the type of regenerative medicine we frequently use: platelet-rich plasma (PRP).
Platelets normally circulate in your bloodstream, where they have two vital jobs: They make your blood clot when you suffer an injury, and they’re responsible for healing.
When you have damaged tissues, whether due to an injury, inflammatory disease, or degenerative disease like osteoarthritis, platelets immediately travel to the area. Then they release specialized proteins called growth factors.
Growth factors activate and speed up healing activities. They reduce inflammation, stimulate new blood vessel growth, and support tissue regeneration. Some growth factors recruit your body’s natural stem cells to the injured area so they can rebuild tissues.
We produce PRP from your blood by drawing a sample and then processing it to remove the platelets and some plasma (the liquid part of blood). The value of PRP is that it contains significantly more platelets than are normally found in your blood. After we inject PRP, the extra platelets dramatically boost healing.
Regenerative medicine is especially beneficial for easing chronic pain. While it doesn’t work quickly, it produces long-lasting pain relief and improves mobility as tissues heal and inflammation goes down.
We often recommend regenerative treatments for:
This type of arthritis causes cartilage degeneration over years of movement and stress on the joint. As the cartilage wears away, you end up with bone damage, inflammation, and bone spurs.
Rheumatoid arthritis causes significant joint inflammation that gradually damages cartilage and bones in the affected joint.
Tendons deal with nearly constant stress because they connect muscles to bones. Frequently repeated joint movements cause small tears and inflammation, a condition called tendonitis.
Many tendons have a poor blood supply, a problem that slows down healing because fewer platelets reach the area. Regenerative medicine makes up for the lack of healing cells.
Scleroderma affects connective tissues in your body, including your skin, causing inflammation and an abnormal accumulation of collagen. Regenerative medicine is an emerging treatment for scleroderma, as it improves the thick, hard skin patches caused by this disease.
If you need relief from your rheumatologic condition, call us at Pacific Rheumatology Medical Center or book an appointment online. We’ll see you at one of our offices in Tustin or Laguna Hills, California.
