Stem cells are blank, unspecialized cells that have the unique ability to change themselves into many other types of cells to aid the body to heal, grow, and regenerate. In the physical sense, stem cells serve as an in-house repair system for injuries.
How Stem Cells Function
Stem cells are responsive to conditions within the tissues they serve. They can divide without limit to replace or replenish other cells. When a stem cell divides, each of the two new cells can remain as a stem cell or take on the form and function of another type of specialized cell of almost unlimited variety: brain cell, bone marrow cell, muscle cell, etc.
Stem cell therapy is an advanced technology centered around triggering your body’s natural healing power to regenerate a tissue injury without surgery and to speed healing after surgical repair.
Autologous Stem Cells
Autologous stem cells are so named simply because they are harvested from the patient, classed as “adult” stem cells. These cell types are found in tissues and organs. They are capable of renewing as themselves or dividing into the specific cells in a damaged joint. They can be thought of like a built-in first aid kit for that area of the body.
Stem Cell Therapy Procedure
Most active stem cells you carry around with you reside within the bone marrow, fat tissue, and blood. To harvest the cells, some of your own blood is extracted and run through a specialized medical equipment to separate out the stem cells. These stem cells, often ranging in the millions, is injected into the injured area to stimulate natural, internal healing, often allowing a patient to avoid surgery.
Increasingly, Full Range Spine & Ortho uses stem cell therapy to help patients heal more quickly, potentially avoid surgery, and recover function and range of motion in the injured area.
Is Stem Cell Therapy Right for You?
When someone has suffered an injury that is not healing as it should or is in continual pain, regenerative medicine may offer new hope for recovery. Many joint issues addressed with surgery offer an uncertain outcome or a result with compromises at best.
While stem cell research is still advancing, the truth is, stem cells offer the potential of faster healing with less pain. It is quick and often the procedure only needs to be performed once. The time it takes to see results depends upon the patient’s condition and the body’s ability to regenerate cells and use them for healing. We are all different, and some injuries are more extensive and take more time to restore.
Either Dr. Nini or Dr. Lee will consult with you and establish a customized treatment plan to relieve pain and restore mobility and function.
What Conditions Has Stem Cell Therapy Helped?
Stem cells are like tiny building blocks that replace worn or fragmented blocks to restore function and physical flow. When the injury is to cartilage or soft tissue, stem cells can make a big difference in the rate of healing. These conditions are often good candidates for stem cell treatments:
- Tendon injuries. Torn tendons take a long time to heal on their own. Stem cells are known to be effective in relieving pain while triggering the body to heal injured tendon and muscle cells.
- Painful joints. There are many reasons for joint pain, including alignment issues, but it is often the result of worn cartilage or some imbalance in the joint function that is stressing components and preventing full recovery.
- Cartilage damage. This is often the issue in activity related injury and chronic movements such as pedaling a bicycle or running.
- Back injuries. These injuries can be triggered from osteoarthritis, a condition can be treated with stem cell therapy. Even lumbar injuries and bone degeneration have responded to this treatment.
- Hip injuries. Often a loss of cartilage in the hip socket begins a process of degeneration that can lead to the need for hip replacement surgery.
- Bone fracture healing.
How Do Stem Cells Know How to Differentiate?
One of the most exciting aspects of stem cell therapy is that it is opening the door on a number of biologic systems that have not been fully understood until recently. While it was known that stem cells are in some manner “instructed” into how to differentiate and restore damaged areas of the body via signaling pathways in the body around the injury, new research has shed light on a system by which the cells are instructed, a process performed collectively by an entire network of genes and proteins.
This system is also used to maintain adult stem cells in their undifferentiated state until they are needed. What is important for current therapy purposes is to understand that it has been established that stem cell treatments are capable of speeding healing and regeneration in damaged joints. Stem cell treatments leverage nature itself and are leading modern medicine into a more effective, regenerative set of treatments.
For example, stem cells have been used to replace cells damaged from chemotherapy or disease and to rebuild immune systems that have been ravaged. At FullRange Spine & Ortho, we offer advanced stem cell treatments along with a wide scope of regenerative treatments to restore full motion, mobility, and reduce the pain associated with injuries and degenerative spine and joint conditions.
Advanced Regenerative Stem Cell Treatments at FullRange Spine & Ortho
Dr. Nini and the medical team at Full Range Spine & Ortho provide patients with advanced regenerative treatments for a wide range of orthopedic injuries and conditions. We focus on providing our patients with state-of-the-art non-surgical treatments.
Posted on behalf of FullRange Spine & Ortho