Regenerative Medicine FAQ Answered in Portland, OR
Medical procedures typically require an external solution to treating your pain and other problems. However, your body has the power to heal through the use of regenerative medicine, which sometimes uses your cells. For example, many of the procedures like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy use substances taken from your body to promote healing and reduce your pain. At The Wellness Center PDX, serving Portland, OR and the nearby region, we offer PRP as part of a regenerative treatment plan to help your problem, but before you undergo the procedure, it's important to have a thorough understanding of it.
What Is Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative medicine is a special healthcare practice that utilizes living tissue to correct issues related to damage, disease, age, or even congenital defects. Sometimes, the procedures use lab-created tissue while it's also possible to use your cells to help with healing.
What Types of Regenerative Medicine
Most commonly, the regenerative procedure used is platelet-rich plasma therapy, which consists of our practitioner drawing blood and separating the portion of it that promotes healing. To separate the blood, a machine called a centrifuge spins the blood. As it spins, the different blood cells separate from one another and organize into different components based on the density of the cells. Then, our practitioner puts just the platelets back into a syringe. The platelets are the portion of your blood comprised of growth factors.
Finally, our practitioner injects the platelets into the area of your body that has diseased or damaged tissue. The blood than encourages that area to heal using its growth factors.
What Can Regenerative Medicine Heal?
Regenerative medicine has shown to have promising results in a variety of areas, including cancer treatment. It has been approved for the use of bone grafts. However, researchers still have more research to conduct in this field of medicine. The goal is to find a solution to replace organs one day. Today, regenerative medicine helps heal injuries to your soft tissue. We also prescribe it to patients who have arthritis.
Is PRP Safe?
Since PRP consists of using your tissue, your body will rarely reject your blood like what can happen after a blood transfusion. You also don't have any risk of getting a communicable disease since it's your blood. You could, however, experience pain, irritation, or bleeding where injects the PRP.
Schedule an appointment with The Wellness Center PDX to discuss if platelet-rich plasma therapy is right for you by calling us today at 503-717-6538.