Millions of Americans live with debilitating conditions like chronic pain and arthritis. If you’re one of them, you may have already tried the conventional medical approach and found little relief.
A newer treatment called platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy offers relief that other approaches cannot. It uses factors in your own blood so your body can heal itself. In this blog, our providers at Elite Integrative Medical explain what PRP is and what it does.
To create platelet-rich plasma, we take some of your own blood and extract the protein-rich platelets using a centrifuge. After creating the PRP, we inject the concentrated plasma into the area of your body that needs it.
Platelets are a key component of your blood, along with plasma and red and white blood cells. Platelets work to make your blood clot more effectively, and they have healing properties.
PRP is an effective treatment for many reasons. One of the top benefits of PRP is that it uses your own blood and platelets, making it unlikely that you’ll have any negative reactions to the procedure.
Another benefit of PRP is that its high concentration of healing factors can go to work repairing the parts of your body that need it the most. We use ultrasound to guide the needles into just the right spot.
Once we’ve injected platelets into the injured areas of your body, they stimulate growth factors that act as natural healing compounds.
Most of our patients don’t experience any more pain than from any other blood draw or injection. But because the injections of the PRP can sting a bit, we give you a numbing treatment. The whole process usually takes about an hour.
PRP is a highly effective treatment for many common ailments, including some of the following:
Studies show that arthritis and degenerative disc disorders benefit from PRP therapy. PRP helps to restore hyaluronic acid levels, which results in reversing joint damage and stops disease progression.
For those living with arthritis, especially knee pain, PRP therapy can make the pain go away. You may feel so much better that you even feel younger again and can become more active.
Tendinitis and any injuries to the tendons respond well to PRP therapy. Athletes tend to have problems with injuries to the tendons, particularly in the knees and Achilles tendons. In fact, even professional golfer Tiger Woods has used PRP therapy to overcome injuries.
A 2018 study by Stanford University found that PRP was especially effective in treating tendon injuries, and researchers have been continuing to test its uses and efficacy ever since.
Chronic pain is very common among American adults. Many have already tried the conventional medical route, with pain pills, physical therapy, or even surgery. Still, the pain persists, as may stiffness, limited range of motion, and difficulty with sleep or exercise.
PRP therapy can provide true relief where these other treatments have failed. One theory is that the body sees the cause of chronic pain as something that needs to be healed, focusing all the body’s resources on trying to overcome it.
By introducing the growth factors and proteins of PRP, your body can truly begin to heal.
These are just a couple of examples of how PRP therapy can help you heal. To learn more about how PRP can benefit you, call our Beverly Hills, California, office today or request an appointment online.
