Have you ever watched a futuristic movie and noticed that the characters are able to heal people instantly or regrow back body parts? While this all my seem like a Hollywood fantasy now, medical science is getting closer and closer to perfecting this kind of technology. In some ways, you could argue it’s already here thanks to the amazing use of stem cells.
At Hansen Health Solutions, our team believes in an integrated and holistic approach to wellness that relies less on circumventing Mother Nature and more on using the tools at hand, namely our own regenerative capabilities. Using human stem cells and platelets, we’re able to help our patients in San Antonio overcome painful and chronic joint problems by amplifying our own healing resources.
Here’s a look at how regenerative wellness is changing the game when it comes to dealing with joint pain.
The power within
In the simplest of definitions, regenerative wellness is a process that creates living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue that’s been lost due to age, disease, or damage. One of the most appealing aspects of regenerative therapy is how easy the procedures are. For most people, the entire procedure takes less than an hour from start to finish, and patients can immediately walk themselves out of the office, upon completion. And the best part? Many patients can have regenerative therapy done for less than the cost of their deductible.
Stem cells
Stem cells is one popular form of regenerative therapy. While stem cell technology is still fairly new in the United States, it’s been used for decades in other countries. Movie stars and professional athletes including Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Christiano Ronaldo, and Alex Rodriguez (just to name a few), have all traveled to Europe or Central America and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on stem cell therapy. Today, stem cell therapy is widely available in the US for a fraction of the cost and within reach of most people.
When it comes to “regenerative” approaches, most of them are geared towards supporting the body’s natural healing process, alleviating inflammation, encouraging a healing environment, and more. This is, of course, important and vital. But, stem cells take it one step further because they are ACTUALLY regenerative. Stem cells are able to re-grow tissue, restore normal function, and make things new again – making them absolutely the future of healthcare.
There’s no better example of the amazing capabilities of the human body than stem cells. Most of the cells in your body are designed with one purpose in mind — your liver cells function in your liver and your brain cells stay within your brain. Stem cells, on the other hand, are what we call undifferentiated cells, which means that they aren’t confined to one duty. Instead, these incredible cells can become different kinds of cells and then multiply indefinitely as that cell.
To give you an idea of what stem cells are capable of, they’re the key to embryonic development. When a new life is created, stem cells flood the embryo and transform into whatever cell is needed to build a human life from the ground up.
As an adult, you still carry stem cells in your body, which lie in wait in your tissue and jump into action when signaled for rebuilding and repair. These stem cells are less potent than the ones found in embryonic development, but they still play a crucial role in helping you regenerate damaged tissue, and they also contain growth factors, hyaluronic acid, and anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Platelets
Your body also contains another nifty resource, which is found in the platelets in your blood. The primary job of your platelets is to helps clots form, but once that’s accomplished, they also release growth factors. These proteins signal your body to send in healing resources, such as additional growth factors and stem cells.
While we’ve long known about both of these resources, we’ve now discovered ways to harness their powers and redirect them through stem cell treatments and platelet-rich plasma therapy.
Regenerating your joints
Joint pain affects millions of people in the United States, with more than 31 million in the grips of osteoarthritis. Whether your joint pain is the result of degenerative arthritis or injury, the pain typically stems from damage in your connective tissue.
The traditional solutions for joint pain have largely come through surgical procedures or medications, and the results are mixed. To begin with, adding surgery to the mix creates collateral damage and leaves you open to the risk of infection. And medications, including steroids, may provide short-term relief, but they are ineffective for long-term solutions for your joint pain.
With regenerative medicine that uses stem cell and platelet-rich plasma therapies, we redirect your body’s own incredible healing resources to where you need a healing boost — in this case, your joints. Once we introduce these all-natural resources, they go to work to repair and rebuild the connective tissue in your joints on a cellular level, relieving both your pain and inflammation in the process.
If your life is limited by joint pain, please give us a call at 830-326-6132 to see how regenerative medicine can help. Or you can use the online scheduling tool on this website to set up a consultation.