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What kind of pain are you battling? Diseases, illnesses, and injuries can trigger excruciating pain that plagues you until the condition heals or responds to treatment, and sometimes it lingers long after it should have subsided.
You may be dealing with arthritis and deteriorating joints, or perhaps you had a fall or were in a car crash that tore a ligament in a knee or shoulder. Maybe you’re an athlete sidelined by an injury that just won’t heal.
We get it. At reNu Medical & Injury Center in Newark, Delaware, our doctors see patients with all kinds of pain. Of course, the first step is to get to the source and resolve the underlying condition if possible.
But pain tends to have a mind of its own and doesn’t always respond to traditional treatments and therapies.
That's why we offer regenerative medicine to jump-start and accelerate the healing process. Here’s what regenerative medicine can do for you.
Regenerative medicine explained
Regenerative medicine is a field that focuses on natural treatments to regenerate and replace diseased or damaged cells and tissues.
There are several different types of regenerative medicine, and each approaches healing differently, but they all rely on the power inherent in your body to reduce pain and inflammation and promote healing.
Here at reNu Medical & Injury Center, we offer both platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy and stem cell therapy.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy
PRP therapy starts with a small sample of your own blood. Drawn from your arm, this part of the procedure is similar to any routine blood draw you may have had throughout your life.
We then process your blood in a centrifuge, which spins it at such a high speed that it separates the individual components of your blood. Once the platelets are isolated, Dr. DeFroda injects them directly into the area of your injury.
Super-charged with growth factors (up to 10 times as many as in regular blood), this natural serum goes to work activating your body’s own healing properties.
Over the next few weeks following your treatment, accelerated healing takes place and repairs the damaged or diseased tissue so the source of your pain goes away.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy is an effective treatment for:
- Knee osteoarthritis
- Tendon injuries
- Muscle injuries
- Chronic tendinitis
- Surgical wounds
Your pain won’t disappear immediately and may even feel a little worse for a few days, but when the relief kicks in, it’s because true healing has taken place rather than temporary pain-masking.
Mesenchymal stem cell therapy
All mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) descend from a single original stem cell in the body and are unique because they are unspecialized. Unlike skin cells, heart cells, and brain cells, which never change, MSCs have the ability to morph into other types of cells as needed.
Our medical staff uses a combination of MSCs (typically derived from umbilical or amniotic tissue of a full-term baby with the mother’s consent), exosomes, cytokines, and hyaluronic acid to treat your injured or diseased tissues.
Once injected, the MSCs begin to differentiate into the type of cell needed to heal various tissues, such as ligament, muscle, and tendon tissues.
MSCs also significantly reduce inflammation, a major contributor of pain, and may improve immunity.
Which is better: PRP or MSC therapy?
These treatments have similarities and differences. Both promote your body’s natural healing abilities, and they both use properties found within the human body to do it. But PRP is a generalized healing promoter, while MSCs are specialized.
When it comes to deciding which is best for you, you really need the experienced insight of a medical professional like those at reNu Medical & Injury Center.
But these two treatments aren’t either-or choices. They work very well together. In some cases, the one-two punch of both types of regenerative medicine can lead to comprehensive, long-term healing.
While the results may take a few weeks to kick in and a few months to reach their maximum potential, the permanent pain relief that’s possible is well worth the wait.
To find out if you’re a candidate for regenerative medicine, call or click to set up a consultation and take the next step toward a pain-free life.