Can Regenerative Therapy Get Athletes Back in the Game?

Can Regenerative Therapy Get Athletes Back in the Game?

The popularity of extreme fitness is on the rise, with increasing numbers of participants flocking to intense, high intensity interval training (HIIT) programs like Crossfit. These programs tend to focus on functional movements, and combine strength training and cardio intervals to give participants the ability to burn more calories in less time. Athletic individuals are also drawn to extreme obstacle course races like Tough Mudder and high-level competitions such as the Ironman.

It’s never good when you’re injured doing something you love. When a sports injury happens, there are therapies that can help get you back into the game.

The Role of Regenerative Therapy

Treating overuse injuries can be challenging because the injury site often remains chronically under-healed. Various factors prevent the injury from fully healing, so the already-weakened area is extremely prone to re-injury.

Regenerative therapy, although relatively new, holds substantial potential for healing these generally chronic injuries. Regenerative therapy combines Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) and regenerative therapy. An injection is made into the injured area, anti-inflammatory and growth factors promote healing of the affected soft tissue. Regenerative therapy is thought to accelerate the healing by magnifying the body’s own natural healing response of rebuilding damaged tissues.

How Does it Work?

Our body tissues contain platelet rich plasma (PRP) that has the ability to go to a damaged area and help repair and regenerate new tissue.

Sometimes, as we get older or suffer a serious injury, the body cannot naturally heal itself, so regenerative medicine helps it along. Doctors figure out the best techniques to use and then inject the cells directly into the damaged tissue. This gives a jump-start to the healing process.

Platelet-rich plasma therapy. It’s a simple 1-2-3 process:

  1. Take your own blood
  2. Increase the amount of platelets and thereby boost the blood’s growth factors
  3. Allow your body’s natural mechanisms to work in promoting healing

Study: PRP beats surgery & steroids

Today, scientific findings are increasingly showing that platelet rich plasma or PRP therapy is a safe and effective way to treat injuries. In fact, a study published in January in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association suggests it is preferable to both steroid injections and surgery.

The study, conducted at the University of Miami, involved looking at the existing clinical trials to establish a broad understanding of effectiveness. The study authors determined that PRP resulted in better outcomes for patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis (OA) and other conditions. The positive results of the therapy were long-term in many cases, with patients in some trials still benefiting two years following the injections.

PRP seems to harness the natural healing ability of the body, explains Mayo Clinic Arizona internist Robert Orenstein, DO. “By inciting and augmenting inflammation, PRP appears to enhance tissue repair resulting in progressive functional improvements.”

One of the trials reviewed by the UM researchers showed that platelet rich plasma had a positive impact on most people suffering from wear-and-tear arthritis in their knees. Of the OA sufferers assessed in that study, the injections both alleviated pain and improved joint mechanics in nearly three-quarters (73%) of participants.

Problems With Traditional Approaches

Until recently, the most common approaches to treating overuse injuries included the RICE protocol (rest, ice, compression, elevation), a consistent regimen of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Aspirin or ibuprofen, and steroid injections (including Cortisone). While all of these interventions can be successful in the short-term as far as reducing pain, they do not heal the injury. They address only the symptoms and do not offer significant positive long-term results. When all options have been exhausted, patients turn to surgery expecting a full resolution. There are risks inherent in any surgery, including reactions to anesthesia, infection, significant pain and downtime, and the need for repeated surgery.

Benefits of Regenerative Therapy

While traditional approaches to overuse injuries address pain and swelling, they fail to address cellular and collagen degeneration and the resulting deficiency of these soft-tissue building blocks. Regenerative therapy stimulates the building of new connective tissues without the negative side effects of traditional therapies and surgery. As the connective tissues are regenerated stronger than before, patients can actually experience an increased range of motion and activity (whereas traditional treatment methods often reduce the patient’s range of motion).

Along with the chiseled muscle tone, high aerobic capacity, and low body fat that extreme fitness offers, participants can experience traumatic acute injuries as well as chronic overuse injuries. Regenerative Therapy is continually being shown to promote the healing and regrowth of tissues, eliminate pain and restore a patient to his or her optimal activity level.

Getting back in the game

If you want to get back in the game, you owe it to yourself to consider PRP therapy.

Once available only to elite and professional athletes, Flexogenix now provides these non-surgical solutions to you. Learn more here.

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† While we are in network for most major insurance carriers we have some treatment programs that are not recognized or covered by many insurance carriers.