PRP: Why It's a Game-Changer in Remedying Joint Pain and Injuries
Vinay Chopra, MD, is a board-certified and fellowship-trained sports medicine physician at Genesis Regenerative Sports and Aesthetic Medicine in Westfield, New Jersey. Dr. Chopra specializes in sports medicine, regenerative medicine, non-surgical orthopedics, concussion management, and aesthetic medicine. He treats a... more
Whether you’ve suffered an injury on the playing field or you’re grappling with degenerative joint pain, your top priority is to tame the pain and restore your mobility. Oh, and you want to accomplish this as quickly as possible!
While the human body needs time to heal properly, therapies that fall under regenerative medicine may speed up this process appreciably, all by tapping and redirecting the healing power within your own body, in this case your platelets.
At Genesis Regenerative Sports and Aesthetic Medicine, our team of orthopedic and sports medicine specialists understands the frustration that comes with musculoskeletal damage, especially progressive problems like arthritis. Our Westfield, New Jersey, practice offers a wide range of services that tackle everything from chronic back pain to sports injuries, and we’ve found great success in all of these areas with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy.
Here’s a look at why PRP therapy is a game-changer in remedying joint pain and injuries.
A Closer Look at your Platelets
Your blood contains four ingredients:
- White blood cells
- Red blood cells
- Plasma
- Platelets
Your platelets are flat cells that are primarily responsible for clotting your blood; this clotting ability prevents you from bleeding out. But their work is far from over once they’ve accomplished this. Your platelets also contain powerful growth factors, which they release at the site of the damaged tissue to reduce inflammation and help with repairs.
When they release these growth factors, they call on additional resources in your body, including stem cells, to create the ultimate healing environment.
Harnessing The Power of your Platelets
While your platelets do a fine job of aiding in healing and repairing damaged tissue, the response may not be strong enough to get you up and moving again as quickly as you’d like. Through PRP therapy, we draw some of your own blood and isolate the platelets in a special centrifuge. We then take this concentrate, mix it back in with your plasma, and inject the powerful healing resource directly into your damaged tissue.
In other words, we amplify your body’s healing and regenerative response by redirecting additional resources.
PRP: A Multi-use Tool
The use of regenerative medicine is fairly new, and we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of its potential. Because PRP is an all-natural therapy that uses your own resources, we’ve found that PRP is an excellent treatment for most musculoskeletal issues, and the following represents a small sample of its applications:
Indeed, any time you damage connective tissue, PRP therapy may play a key role in helping you heal.
Getting Back to it
You’re eager to find relief from your pain and to have your mobility restored, of course, but while our PRP therapy can help speed up your recovery, you still need to be patient. In most cases, we perform a series of PRP injections, which we space apart by a week or two to allow time for your body to respond.
As you progress, you should realize gradual improvement, but every case is different in terms of how quickly your body regenerates and heals itself.
If you’d like to explore how PRP therapy can help you, please contact us! Call us at 908-588-2311, send us a message here on our website, or use our convenient online booking feature to set up a consultation.
