Regenerative Joint Therapy Pasadena | Regenerative Injection Therapy

Live Pain-Free with our Regenerative Joint Therapies

Are you tired of not getting results from your conventional Regenerative Joint Therapy treatments for pain?
Would you like to be free of pain naturally?
Find out about prolotherapy, platelet rich plasma (PRP), and ozone/Prolozone, stem cell injections, which are all non-surgical treatments to permanently heal and regenerate your joints.

Regenerative Injection Therapy

Regenerative Injections are therapies that stimulate the body to repair tissues – from ligaments, tendons, cartilage, bones, muscles, skin and even organs. Regenerative injection therapies include Prolotherapy, Prolotherapy with Ozone, Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP), Ozone Clot Matrix (OCM), and Stem Cells.

Tendons, ligaments, and cartilage tend to heal slowly and rarely recover to 100% of their original strength. If you have ever sprained your ankle, you may be aware that it can quite easily be sprained again. If left untreated over time, unstable joints may lead to increased pain, joint damage, and disability.

Typically, pain experienced within joints is due to the weakness and injury of the ligaments and tendons that stabilize the joint. Insufficient healing after injury or overuse of the joint can cause the ligaments and tendons to be weak and damaged. Pain can also occur around the joint locally or can be in other areas (referred pain) as well.

Regenerative injections can give your joints another chance at healing!

What is Prolotherapy?

Prolotherapy is a non-surgical technique to repair joints and eliminate pain. Prolotherapy is a therapeutic injection technique that stimulates the body’s own system to regrow and rebuild ligaments and tendons.

Prolo- means to proliferate, because the treatment causes proliferation of new ligament tissue, namely collagen. The injection solution contains dextrose (simple sugar), lidocaine or procaine (local anesthetic), and nutrients such as B12. These injected solution ingredients create a local controlled inflammatory process that stimulates the body to send blood and nutrients to the area of damaged tissue allowing your body’s own natural healing response to occur. This strengthens and repairs the damaged ligaments and tendons and in turn brings stability to the joints. After several treatments, pain may be significantly reduced because proper function of the joints can be restored.

What are Ozone/Prolozone Injections?

Ozone is a reactive form of oxygen that is used for enhancing the immune system, releases growth factors that stimulate damaged joints and degenerative discs to regenerate, and provides cells with oxygen to increase healing. Ozone on its own enhances tissue healing, dissolves scar tissue, controls inflammation, and enhances the immune system. Prolozone is a term used to describe an injection of a proliferative agent (generally vitamins and amino acids) with ozone. The type of injection is effective at stimulating damaged tissue to heal optimally. Ozone injections can be combined with prolotherapy, PRP, or stem cells.

What is PRP and How Can it Help?

Your blood contains life-giving fundamental protein growth factors, one of which are platelets. Platelets are the first responders in the healing process when your body is injured, they signal all the body’s growth factors to begin regeneration. Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) is an innovative and promising approach in tissue regeneration. PRP is defined as an autologous concentrated preparation of platelets and their associated growth factors in a small volume of plasma. Platelets are a natural source of a myriad of growth factors in their natural and biologically determined ratios.

PRP is thought to promote physiological wound healing and rapid soft and hard tissue regeneration by delivering growth factors at high concentrations to the treated site. PRP’s safety and effectiveness have been established for accelerating soft and hard tissue healing in treatment of tendinopathies, osteoarthritis and various joint and muscle pathologies in Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. PRP is administered similar to Prolotherapy and can be used along with ozone for enhanced effectiveness.

Ozone Clot Matrix (OCM)

OCM is an enhanced form of PRP, which combines ozone and activated blood to form a matrix that hold PRP into a joint for up to 14 days. Typically when PRP is injected, it is only active in the tissue for 24 hours. OCM can be used to significantly enhance tissue regeneration.

Stem Cell Enhancing Therapy

Regenerative Joint Therapy can be enhanced with the use of stem cell enhancing therapy. This procedure avoids complicated and potentially dangerous surgical procedures, but can also can be used in conjunction with surgery to significantly reduce inflammation and speed up the healing process. Stem cells can replicate copies of themselves and stimulate other cells to do the same. They are cells that can stimulate repair of damaged tissue and maintain health of the body. As we age, we lose the effectiveness of our own stem cells.

At birth, one stem cell can replicate to 1 billion cells in 30 days; at age 35, one stem cell can can turn into 32,000 cells in 30 days. At age 65, one stem cell can only turn into 200 cells in 30 days.

Enhancing your own stem cells can allow your body to be fully repaired. Stem cell enhancing therapy is at the forefront of regenerative medicine, there are many positive research trials and patients with success at repairing joint injuries non-surgically.

Are Regenerative Injections Right for You?

Do you have pain or weakness associated with your joints? Does the pain limit your range of motion and/or affect your daily life? Do you occasionally have flare ups of pain with certain actions? Do you have muscle pain, spasm or soreness around the affected joint? Does the pain occasionally travel elsewhere in your body? Do your joints pop or click easily? If this sounds familiar, Regenerative Joint Therapy may provide benefit for you.

Conventional Treatments for Joint Pain Versus Regenerative joint Therapies

Conventional medical treatments for joint pain include ice, anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs), cortisone shots, and if all else fails surgery. Besides surgery, all of the previous treatments have one thing in common: they inhibit inflammation. Inflammation after injury can be painful but it is necessary in order to protect the joint from further injury. Inflammation is the body’s own signaling system to begin the repair process. If the process is disrupted, the entire healing process may not be completed.

With regenerative joint therapy injections, the premise is to stimulate the natural healing response by initiating a local stimulation at the area of injury. With the start of inflammation comes the rest of the healing cascade which recruits cells that repair and rebuild damaged tissue. Over time the tissues can be restored naturally. Using regenerative injections, the need for surgery may even be eliminated.

Alternative Treatments Versus Prolotherapy

Alternative treatments such as acupuncture, trigger point injections, physical therapy, massage may be helpful at reducing joint pain. But if the source of the pain is originated from damaged tendons and ligaments, these therapies may only provide temporary relief. Regenerative injections used in conjunction with these other treatments can provide more lasting pain relief than conventional treatments.

How to Optimize Healing

There are other factors that may improve healing alongside regenerative injections. First of all, nutrition is important to the healing process. The body must have the proper and adequate amounts of building blocks required to rebuild tissue. Therefore, Regenerative Joint Therapy intake of quality nutrition must be a priority. Second, many behavioral or environmental factors may interfere with healing such as smoking. Third, there may be underlying medical conditions that can delay the healing process such as diabetes. Every patient is unique and will have different conditions and needs. Dr. Lee will evaluate you to see if you are a good candidate for prolotherapy, ozone, PRP, OCM, or stem cell treatments. Finally, proper exercise and joint mobilization is essential in maintaining the health of the joints. Physical therapy can provide this service. In order to optimize the healing process all of these factors must be addressed. As a team of naturopathic practitioners, we are trained to treat all aspects of the person and can provide you with the care you need for your journey toward pain-free optimal health.

Conditions Treated But Are Not Limited To

Arthritis – osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis
Back pain – disc issues, sciatica, facet injury, stenosis
Hip pain – iliotibial IT band syndrome, piriformis syndrome, hip degeneration
Headaches – migraines, tension headaches
Neck pain – disc issues, whiplash, cervical instability
Golfer/tennis elbow – forearm pain/weakness/numbness
Knee pain – ACL, MCL, PCL, LCL, jumper’s knee, torn meniscus, cartilage defects
TMJ – jaw pain, locked jaw
Shoulder pain – rotator cuff injuries, SLAP lesion
Ankle pain – Achilles tendonitis, sprained ankle, heel spurs
Wrist pain – carpal tunnel, TFCC
Plantar Fasciitis
Shin Splints
and more

For more information please check out the links section on prolotherapy.

New York Times article about Prolotherapy.

Written by:

Clement K. Lee, NMD

source: http://www.caringmedical.com/therapies/prolotherapy-info/imgs/proloknee_lrg.jpg

Disclaimer: Contents of this site are for education purposes only. They are not intended to diagnose or treat in any way. Please consult with your healthcare provider before initiating treatment.