At first, you might ignore it. Your joint feels less comfortable than it used to, sure, but you chalk it up to a passing thing or a normal part of aging. To an extent, it is fairly normal. Roughly 54 million people in the United States deal with joint pain because of arthritis alone.
That doesn’t mean you should go through your days in discomfort, though. While joint pain may be common, it’s also treatable. Here at The Painless Center in Carlstadt and Tenafly, New Jersey, Jason Chiu, MD, offers options to bring you relief.
That includes regenerative medicine treatments like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections. To find out if this treatment could help you, let’s look more closely.
In your blood, you’ll find:
Each component plays an important role, but we’ll focus on platelets here. They enable blood clotting after you get hurt, but their role doesn’t end there. Once the flow of blood is halted, your platelets release growth factors at the injury site to help your body do its healing work there.
These growth factors stimulate and support cellular growth and healing. To initiate this process, the platelets send signals that call upon your body’s natural healing resources (e.g., proteins, stem cells). Because of this important signaling, your platelets play a key role in how well and how quickly you heal.
With PRP therapy, Dr. Chiu can apply platelets where you need them to support healing in the damaged connective tissues inside your joint.
This process starts when we take a very small sample of your own blood. Next, we separate out the platelets in a centrifuge. Once the PRP is ready, Dr. Chiu injects it into your damaged tissue.
Through PRP therapy, Dr. Chiu has a targeted way to support healing in your joint on a cellular level.
PRP can help whether your joint pain stems from a degenerative disease like arthritis or an injury. Although treatment depends on what your joint needs, Dr. Chiu generally recommends a series of PRP injections. We space them apart to allow time for your body to initiate and continue the rebuilding and repair process.
Most people see decreased pain and increased mobility within six weeks of their first treatment.
Before you consider surgical options for your joint pain, see if this natural, minimally invasive treatment could help you. To talk with Dr. Chiu about PRP therapy, call The Painless Center nearest you or book an appointment online today.
