What Is Regenerative Medicine?

No matter how advanced medical science becomes, it’s unlikely to match the astonishing healing power already available to you from your own body. We already count on natural functions like regenerating skin after cuts and incisions and knitting broken bones. 

In its broadest terms, regenerative medicine is any intervention or therapy that enhances the body’s ability to heal itself fundamentally rather than treating symptoms with procedures and medications. 

In practical terms, regenerative medicine involves procedures like bone marrow transplants or stem cell therapy, where the practitioner sets up conditions for the body to create cellular, molecular, or tissue regeneration. 

At 360 Orthopedics, we primarily use platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy as a versatile treatment for arthritis, soft tissue injuries, and hair loss. PRP even aids surgical recovery by enhancing the efficiency with which you heal. 

Safe and compatible

Many technologies within the field of regenerative medicine are comparatively new and still in research and development. Unlike medications, though, many regenerative processes are biocompatible. 

There’s little risk of side effects or adverse reactions using human tissue, often your own. This aspect of treatment means that many regenerative medicine techniques can work alongside more traditional treatments without drug interactions or incompatible processes. 

Specialties within regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine is far from a single technique. There are several approaches to regenerative treatment strategies that group together. Some of these include: 

Cellular treatments

This concentration includes treatments like PRP and stem cell therapy. Stem cells exist throughout your body and serve as building blocks for tissue repair. On their own, stem cells have no function except to make copies of themselves or to convert into specific types of cells with defined roles. 

Platelets include hormones called human growth factors. They serve as messengers that help guide healing processes, such as converting stem cells to tissue cells. PRP aims to help healing by creating a surplus of resources and supplying platelets faster than your body normally can through the bloodstream. 

Tissue engineering

Some healing processes require a platform or matrix upon which to build repairs, such as with large skin wounds or bone fractures. Bioengineered tissue can act as a matrix that attracts and supports new tissue cells, including skin, bone, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. 

The PRP process

PRP starts with a sample of your own blood, about the same amount as an ordinary blood test. This sample is then processed to harvest platelets before injecting this concentration into the area of an injury, where its regenerative effects come to the fore. 

As PRP specialists, we use regenerative medicine to treat conditions like: 

• Osteoarthritis for pain relief and, potentially, cartilage repair
• Strained muscles
• Joint sprains
• Torn ligaments
• Hair loss

While the precise way that PRP works isn’t yet fully understood, it’s thought that more human growth factors reduce excess inflammation and pain so that you depend less on medications. 

Reduced inflammation may also improve joint flexibility and mobility while encouraging faster healing. 

Find out more about PRP and regenerative medicine in consultation with the physicians at 360 Orthopedics. Contact the nearest of our three locations by phone or online today.