Chronic or long-lasting health conditions, whether they’re from injuries, diseases, or associated with aging, can cause debilitating or otherwise troublesome issues for those who suffer from them. However, we live in a modern age where regenerative medicine has now become a reality, and stem cell therapy has proven to be safe and effective. Here at Priority You MD in Clearwater, FL, we’ve been using this treatment to treat a wide variety of conditions with excellent results.
Not only does this therapy work by harnessing your body’s natural healing abilities, but it can be used to reduce pain, improve mobility, or even revitalize one’s appearance. So if you’re considering this treatment and wondering if you’re a good candidate, here’s how it works and who might benefit the most from it.
Regardless of whether you’ve been experiencing a chronic health issue or would like to treat the signs of aging by rejuvenating the skin, you may be the perfect candidate for stem cell therapy. Stem cells are highly versatile, so this therapy can be used to treat just about any condition that might respond to an enhanced immune response.
Painful conditions can be caused by tissue, muscle, cartilage, or bone issues, as well as inflammation, and all of these can potentially benefit from stem cell therapy. Cosmetic conditions, such as lines and wrinkles or sagging skin, may also benefit, as this therapy can boost collagen production and improve circulation, leading to brighter, more youthful-looking skin.
Treatment with stem cells involves using your body’s immune system to stimulate healing and the repair of damaged cells. Mesenchymal stem cells, which are the types used in this treatment, are found naturally throughout your body. They have a wide variety of medical applications since they can create virtually every other type of cell.
Unlike other treatments, this form of therapy is not simply a band-aid to mask symptoms temporarily. While the results themselves can take a bit of time to appear, they are normally long-lasting because stem cells can get to the root of a problem by gradually repairing damage wherever it exists, whether it’s in joints, tissue, muscles, or skin cells.
After you’ve scheduled your first appointment with us, you can expect your treatment session to go as follows:
When you arrive for your appointment, we’ll carry out a brief consultation and examination, just to ensure that this is the right treatment to address any current health conditions you may have. We’ll want to know about these conditions, as well as your medical history and any medications might be currently taking.
During your treatment session, we’ll gently harvest stem cells from an area of your body where they’re highly concentrated, and this location can differ based on your body type and other factors. This may take a bit of time, so it’s recommended that you schedule your appointment on a day when you’re not too busy.
We will then re-introduce the stem cells back into your body at the target locations where treatment is needed, and this is typically done with a needle, so we may apply a topical numbing ointment beforehand if you’re sensitive.
After your treatment session, the stem cells we’ve injected will begin the gradual process of repairing areas where damaged cells exist. The following steps normally occur during this process:
The stem cells first detect where repairs need to be made or where inflammation is occurring and mobilize or migrate to these locations. They’re able to naturally detect these locations by receiving the signals that damaged cells send out.
Once the stem cells reach their intended location, they attach themselves to the damaged areas where repairs need to be made and begin to replace unhealthy cells with new ones. They also send out signals that stimulate the immune system, which can also lead to tissue damage repair and reduced inflammation.
The immune response stimulated by stem cells can continue long after the initial treatment, and this is why many people experience their first significant improvements months or even up to a year later. It’s also not uncommon for continual improvements to be seen many years later, depending on the severity of a condition and other factors.
Many factors can play a role in how quickly results will be noticed, but for most conditions, the first improvements are typically noticed within a few weeks. However, these may be subtle at first, and it can still take anywhere from a few months to a year to see more significant improvements. For injuries, whether acute or chronic, pain reduction is often one of the first improvements noticed, and this can be experienced long before gradual improvements in mobility take place.
Stem cells can work quickly to reduce inflammation, which is one of the reasons why improvements in pain can take place more quickly. For cosmetic conditions, skin issues often take longer to improve, though once results are noticed, these are long-lasting as long as you continue to take care of your skin and avoid excessive sunlight or other factors that can affect it.
Due to their immune-stimulating properties, stem cells can be used to treat many different conditions and injuries. The following are just some of the different types of issues that are commonly treated with this therapy:
After your treatment session, while the stem cells are still repairing and replacing damaged cells, you should live as healthy a lifestyle as you can to achieve optimal results. Depending on what type of condition we’re treating, we may make the following recommendations:
While there is very little downtime with this treatment, we’ll normally recommend that you rest and take it easy after you’ve returned home. Any activity you engage in should be light and not strenuous, though most patients are able to return to work the next day.
Although you should avoid strenuous exercises for at least a week after your treatment, remaining mobile and active with light exercises in the months after treatment can help to keep the body healthy so the injected stem cells have a suitable environment to proliferate or multiply in the treated areas.
It’s also a good idea to live a healthy lifestyle by avoiding tobacco and alcohol while eating a well-balanced diet that’s low in fat, sugar, and triglycerides. All of these things can affect stem cells and how they multiply during the healing and regeneration process.
Because this therapy relies on an immune response, taking anti-inflammatory medications, such as NSAIDs, can negatively affect the results. If you’re currently taking any medications that reduce inflammation or suppress the body’s immune function, you should speak to your prescribing doctor to see if they’re still necessary or if you can safely stop taking them.
For some conditions, physical therapy with a professionally-trained therapist may be needed, especially for any conditions that have affected your mobility for long periods of time. Muscles that haven’t been used often need to be rehabilitated and strengthened slowly, and proper movements to avoid reinjuries sometimes need to be re-learned.
During your first visit with us, we’ll provide you with more personalized post-care instructions in regard to how long you should wait before doing certain activities.
This treatment is minimally invasive and is considered to be a much safer option than surgical procedures and other types of treatments. Instead of injecting fillers or medications into your body, we simply reintroduce your own stem cells after harvesting. This reduces the chances of your body rejecting this treatment because the stem cells are not treated as a foreign substance.
Stem cell therapy offers an effective option for treating, injuries, pain, joint problems, skin conditions, and a wide variety of other issues and is both safe and effective for adults of all ages. Contact us today at Priority You MD in Clearwater, FL to get started with this treatment by scheduling your initial consultation.
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