If you’ve heard of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, it may be as a sports treatment, helping world-class athletes recover from the wear and tear of elite level performance. While you may be miles behind the abilities of pro athletes, PRP can still be an option for you.
As a drug-free pain relief solution, PRP is already in common use, and as research continues, many medical experts believe they’re just beginning to tap its potential. The team at Westside Pain Specialists already uses PRP for patients with certain types of injuries or degenerative diseases.
Any time chronic pain is a problem, check in with Dr. James Nassiri and his team to find out if PRP may be a solution for you.
At one point in medical history, medieval doctors thought that illness was borne by your blood, so controlled bleeding was considered a way toward recovery.
That didn’t stand up to research, of course. In fact, the opposite proved to be true. Blood carries many of the resources needed to fire the amazing recuperative abilities of your body.
PRP takes advantage of a blood component called platelets, perhaps best known for their ability to clot blood and form scabs, allowing your skin to heal unblemished after a cut or scrape.
Platelets also contain human growth factor hormones, messengers that control parts of the natural regeneration that happens during healing. An extra benefit of PRP therapy is often pain reduction from the problem area.
PRP isolates and concentrates platelets extracted from your own blood, and then returns them to your body at the site of an injury to help speed recovery. The injection is derived from a sample of your blood, similar in amount to an ordinary blood test.
Treated in a centrifuge to isolate blood components, platelets settle into the middle of your sample between the heavier red blood cells and the liquid plasma. Extracted from the sample and mixed with a small amount of plasma, PRP is then ready for re-injection.
Since PRP therapy is still in its infancy, there aren’t yet formal protocols guiding its use as a medical treatment. However, because PRP uses only samples of your own blood, which are then returned to your body, there’s an extremely low chance of side effects from treatment.
The risk of infection is very slight, the same as it would be from a blood test or allergy shot, routine everyday procedures with few complications.
That makes PRP an easy choice for anyone who isn’t seeing results from conventional treatments for some injuries or diseases. A common application for PRP is arthritis treatment, particularly when pain continues to restrict daily activities despite other therapies.
If you’re sensitive to anti-inflammatory medications or at the point where additional corticosteroid injections may become harmful, PRP therapy could reduce your dependence on these strategies.
Patients with damage to tissue like tendons and ligaments may also benefit from PRP, since these tissues often have little natural blood supply.
Call Dr. Nassiri and his team at Westside Pain Specialists today at their offices in Beverly Hills or Rancho Cucamonga, California. You can also send them a message here on the website. PRP may be the addition to your treatment regimen that makes the difference.
We offer treatment for neck pain, back pain, sports injuries, along with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Call us to book your appointment today.
