There are more than 54 million people who suffer from arthritis in the United States, and this number is expected to rise to 78 million by 2040 thanks to an aging Baby Boomer population.
The frustration that comes with aching joints and limited mobility is only topped by the frustrating lack of effective treatments — until now. New regenerative technology is showing great promise in cracking the arthritis puzzle.
Here at Genesis Integrative Medicine, Stephanie Schuster, APRN, and our team believe that effective and successful treatments don’t just mask the problem, but rather address the root cause of the issue. Through regenerative medicine, namely platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, we’re able to provide our clients in Geneva, Illinois, with a powerful healing boost that leads to sustainable results.
If you’d like to explore how our PRP therapy is helping our arthritic patients regain active, pain-free lives, read on.
The breakdown
To better understand how PRP therapy works, it helps to quickly review what happens when arthritis strikes your joints. In this case, we’re talking about osteoarthritis.
Otherwise known as degenerative arthritis, osteoarthritis results in the breakdown of the articular cartilage in your joints — the slippery substance that covers the ends of your bones, allowing them to glide together smoothly.
When your cartilage breaks down, it leaves your bones unprotected. This can lead to pieces of cartilage and bone floating within your joint, which causes pain and inflammation. And this problem only gets worse as you continue to use the joint, further compounding the issue.
Unfortunately, there’s no cure for arthritis, which has largely left the medical world to treat its symptoms rather than the underlying breakdown of tissue. And this is where regenerative therapies like PRP are changing the game.
The power of platelets
Your blood contains four ingredients:
- Red blood cells
- White blood cells
- Plasma
- Platelets
Your platelets are primarily tasked with clotting your blood, preventing you from bleeding out when injured. But the job doesn’t stop there. Once your platelets stem the flow of blood, they release growth factors, or proteins, in the damaged area to aid in rebuilding and repair. When your platelets release the growth factors, these proteins signal additional resources within your body to come in and help with the regeneration, as well as reduce the inflammation.
Putting your platelets to work
With our PRP therapy, we are simply concentrating, and redirecting your body’s own natural healing resources. To accomplish this, we draw some of your blood and separate out your platelets in a special centrifuge. We then mix this concentrate back in with your plasma and inject the PRP into your arthritic joints.
With these additional resources, which your body readily accepts with generally no issue, you receive the healing boost your joints need to rebuild and repair your connective tissue.
The PRP process does take some time and you may need more than one treatment, but your patience will be rewarded when you regain pain-free movement in your joints.
If you’d like to get started on this revolutionary treatment for arthritis, please give us a call at (630) 283-6563 or use the online scheduling tool to set up an appointment today.