When you break down the healing process, it’s a complicated, multi-step affair that our body does on its own. However, sometimes our bodies slow down and something deters its amazing healing powers. Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) is a natural, pain relief treatment that helps accelerate the healing process, boosting our body’s own innate healing mechanism.
The treatment is created using your own blood and turned into an injection by acquiring a highly concentrated solution of your body’s platelets (which is found in your blood). PRP is a type of regenerative medicine that helps with chronic pain and/or injury without undergoing surgery.
Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy
PRP therapy starts with taking out a sample of your blood and running it through a centrifuge. The centrifuge separates the red blood cells from the platelets inside the test tube—the platelets are what is needed for the PRP injection. Platelets help with blood clotting so that you don’t bleed excessively and lose too much blood during the healing process. Platelets also contain protein that helps the wound heal.
This therapy is an all-natural, regenerative medicine treatment derived from the patient’s own blood. The PRP injection’s high concentration of platelets (normally 5-10 times more than normal blood) helps speed up the natural healing process.
By injecting the high concentration of platelets in the damaged area, it helps repair the cells (by attaching its protein to the cell) and tissues that are causing the pain. And since it’s part of your own blood, there is little risk for rejection. Also, there is very little recovery time. Most patients are able to receive a PRP injection and continue with their daily activities.
PRP therapy helps treat not just the symptoms (pain, redness, inflammation, open wound, etc.) but the cause itself, which is why surgery isn’t needed. Several athletes have used PRP therapy to help with sport-related injuries.
PRP therapy can be used to treat:
- knee pain
- back pain
- neck pain
- shoulder pain
- elbow pain
- joint pain
- hip pain
- damaged or degraded cartilage
- torn ligaments
- elbow pain
- neuropathy
- plantar fasciitis
- disc problems
- bone issues
The key is that it gets to the root cause of your pain for long-lasting relief. Conventional medicine typically treats the symptom, which is the pain, but ignores whatever is causing the pain. It’s always important to realize that the pain or discomfort you might feel is just a by-product of the deeper issue. We are used to treating pain as the issue, but that isn’t the case.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy is not that new and has shown increasing success. Several all-star athletes have done PRP therapy in lieu of surgeries because of the recovery time and the immediate pain relief they have felt. It is a natural approach to pain relief and more importantly, it treats the cause. Talk to your doctor about PRP Therapy and find out more about alternative forms of pain management.