Stem cells have been touted as a cure for many conditions, including pain. However, if you live with chronic pain and want the best natural treatment, you need to understand the difference between stem cell therapy and cellular regenerative treatments.
Not all cellular treatments are created equal. Regenerative cells adapt to and assist the body’s natural healing processes, giving them natural restorative properties. Stem cell therapy is a treatment that involves extracting cells from your body and reinjecting them into an injured site. This can pose a number of unwanted risks, which is why our doctors prefer alternative treatments.
Alternatives to Stem Cell Therapy
Our doctors consider mesenchymal cellular therapy a gold standard in regenerative medicine. These young, plentiful cells come from a substance called Wharton’s jelly, harvested from donated umbilical allografts after healthy C-section births. The donor mothers are carefully screened and fully consenting.
These young cells are immune-privileged, meaning they do not yet have an immune system, and so they can easily adapt and serve any part of the body without risk of rejection. Rich in healing properties, they target the source of pain – joints, tendons, cartilage and more – and rally to help the body heal itself.
Other alternatives to stem cell therapy include platelet-rich plasma, or PRP. This is extracted from a blood sample. The platelets in this sample are isolated, and the concentrate injected back into the patient. Platelets bathe your injured, inflamed or compromised tissue with the growth factors and proteins needed for healing.
Adipose Tissue
Adipose tissue stem cell therapy extracts stem cells from a patient’s body fat, isolates them, and re-injects them into painful areas. A cannula, like that used in liposuction, is used to puncture the skin and draw out the fat. The procedure can be uncomfortable and invasive. Another downside is the quality of the cells: they are as old as the patient and usually not as plentiful as mesenchymal cells. In addition, fatty tissue is like a sponge for environmental toxins. For these reasons, our doctors do not practice adipose tissue stem cell therapy.
Bone Marrow
Bone marrow stem cell therapy requires a very painful extraction of stem cells from the patient’s body. A doctor must drill into the patient’s femur (thigh bone) or hip bone. In addition to a risk of infection, the extracted cells have aged along with the patient, and have decreased in potency over time. Our doctors do not practice bone marrow stem cell therapy for these reasons.
Regenerative Cellular Tissue
At Elite Healthcare Physical Medicine, we prefer to treat pain conditions with mesenchymal cellular therapy. This regenerative cellular tissue contains a powerful restorative mix of cytokines, proteins, lipids, messenger cells and growth factors.
