Are you thinking about getting platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy? If so, you are like millions of others who seek out PRP for all kinds of conditions, ranging from minor aches and pains to very serious maladies like osteoarthritis and painful cartilage tears.
Whether your condition is the result of overuse, a vehicle accident, aging, or something else, PRP holds the promise of safe, effective, convenient treatment at an affordable cost. What most prospective patients ask is, “Why should I get PRP therapy?” they’re usually surprised to learn that not only has it been proven effective and safe in many scientific studies, but that it’s gaining in popularity among people of all ages for dozens of different conditions.
The best way to educate yourself about PRP is to learn the basics, find out about the medical reasons so many people opt for it, and understand the general reasons the PRP has such an advantage over some of the more traditional, usually invasive, treatment options. Because it’s not all about lower cost and convenience. There is much more to the equation when it comes to the multiple benefits and advantages of PRP therapy.
Basics
PRP is a modern form of regenerative medical treatment that has a wide range of uses. Simply put, it uses your own body’s blood platelets in order to effect a remedy for pain and many varieties of medical conditions. Here’s how it works.
A technician does a blood draw from you and then spins out the blood platelets from the sample into a highly concentrated form. The platelets are the part of human blood that contains multiple components for healing. For example, when your arm is accidentally cut or scraped, it’s the platelets in the blood that cause the wound to heal.
Of course, cuts and bruises don’t heal instantly. That’s because the body can only send so many platelets, via the blood, to the point of injury. In PRP treatment, medical professionals remove platelets from the blood sample they take and then re-inject that plasma where it’s needed most, perhaps into an aching joint, a section of torn muscle tissue, or other locations. This speeds up the healing process and makes it even faster than your body would respond on its own.
Conditions PRP Can Treat
The number of conditions that PRP is used for is constantly expanding. The following are ones that tend to be among the more common reasons people seek this type of regenerative therapy:
- Patellar tendonitis:
- Rheumatoid arthritis:
- Tendon and ligament tissue tears:
- Osteoarthritis:
- General tendonitis:
- Sprains:
- T/G Elbow: T/G elbow, or tennis/golf elbow, is …..
- Bursitis:
- Acute tearing of muscle tissue:
- Cartilage injuries:
- Instability of joints:
Reasons Why PRP Makes Sense
When people ask, “Why should I get PRP treatment?,” they often hear a listing of the conditions it treats (like the one above). But, that’s not really a complete answer, because what you want to know is the logic or the motivation behind getting PRP therapy for a particular condition.
For instance, if you currently suffer from bursitis, you already know that lots of people seek out PRP for relief and healing. But, why do they choose this particular kind of regenerative solution over all the traditional options? The answer is pretty complex and involves all sorts of factors, like convenience, effectiveness. comparatively low cost, and more.
While there are dozens of reasons someone might select a provider who does PRP therapy, here are some of the more common ones:
- It’s highly convenient: You don’t need to check-in to a hospital, undergo long tests, or endure any of the standard routines for surgery or major medical procedures. For PRP patients, there’s a simple blood draw that begins the process, which takes just a few minutes.
Later, even when the actual therapy beings with a series of painless injections, you’re only in the medical office for about a half-hour and can usually return to work immediately.
- It’s fast: As noted above, PRP is not a long, drawn-out process. After the initial blood draw, you return to the clinic several times for PRP injections, each session lasting just a few minutes up to an hour. After that, you’re done until the next session, which might be a week or two later.
- There’s virtually zero risk: One of the huge advantages of PRP therapy is low risk. There’s virtually zero chance for negative reactions because what is injected into your body is your own blood plasma. You can’t, by definition, be allergic to your own blood.
- PRP has a variety of uses: PRP is not all about pain relief. As time passes, medical science continues to discover new ways to benefit people by using their own blood platelets for various reasons. For example, there’s now a large body of research backing up the use of PRP as a hair-restoration method.
- Preparation is simple and hassle-free: You need not spend hours preparing, fasting, and doing special “pre-op” types of activities to get ready for PRP treatments. Basically, you just arrive at the clinic on the first day to do the blood draw. After the platelets are spun out on a centrifuge and concentrated, they’re injecting into the pain site on your body during the first procedure. It’s a simple and non-complicated procedure.
- There’s no pain involved: When people hear words like “injection,” they immediately think about getting shots in the arm, for purposes of vaccinations, tetanus, or whatever. But PRP injections are not like that, and tend to be much less invasive, more like tweaking of the skin. The goal is to get the platelet-rich plasma under the skin near the site of the pain and discomfort, not to inject it into a vein.
- It can be targeted to any area of the body: PRP can be done on just about any area of the body, which means that medical professionals can target it to the exact point where the healing platelets will do the most good. It’s for this reason that PRP therapy is considered one of the most versatile, adaptable types of treatment for pain.
- The healing process is all-natural: Because PRP uses only your own blood and no artificial substances, the process can be called all-natural. Especially when it comes to the healing process itself, all the work is done by your own body’s platelets, not by a pharmaceutical drug.
- It’s ideal for joint pain of all kinds: PRP really shines when it’s used to treat joint pain that does not respond to other kinds of therapy. Many patients who opt for PRP for knee pain, arthritis in their elbows, or other joint-related discomfort, have tries several other approaches already. Often, PRP treatment is the only thing that brings them relief.
Choosing PRP For Your Condition
When you decide to look into your treatment options and consider PRP as one of the possible routes to recovery, you should get some solid professional advice. At Integrative Physical Health, we know PRP first-hand because we’ve been using the treatment for our patients for years.
If you have questions about whether PRP is the right approach for your particular medical condition, feel free to give us a call at (302) 993-9113 for a no-cost phone consultation. We’ll help you explore your options and find a solution you can live with. To learn more about what we do at Integrative Physical Health, browse our website and discover why so many people turn to us for complete care that delivers relief from pain and increased mobility.
