Regenerate Your Joints for the New Year: An Introduction to Stem Cell Therapy

Common repetitive stress injuries and degenerative joint conditions like osteoarthritis (OA), tendinitis, and bursitis may only cause mild, brief discomfort when you use the affected joint, or they may give rise to severe, persistent joint pain that: 

• Prevents normal joint use
• Limits the joint range of motion
• Restricts physical mobility
• Makes routine tasks harder

If chronic joint pain has you considering steroid injections or surgery, board-certified pain management specialist Dr. Okezie N. Okezie of Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates has a better alternative: stem cell therapy.  

Let’s take a close look at how this groundbreaking restorative medicine treatment repairs worn, damaged tissues and restores pain-free joint function—from the inside out.

When joint pain treatments don’t work 

Whether it’s the product of overuse-related damage (repetitive strain) or age-related degeneration (osteoarthritis), treatment for chronic joint pain typically begins with conservative care measures like: 

• Rest, ice, compression, elevation (RICE therapy)
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
• Extra joint support via bracing or a resting splint
• Physical therapy; joint-friendly exercise routines

When joint swelling, stiffness, and pain persist or worsen despite these strategies (or in the face of other helpful efforts like weight loss and improved footwear), you may find yourself considering steroidal joint injections — or even surgery.   

Restorative medicine heals your joints 

Fortunately, Dr. Okezie has another solution for chronic joint pain—one that provides long-term relief by promoting joint healing and regeneration from the inside out. To understand how stem cell therapy works, it helps to know more about your body’s natural healing process: 

Early inflammation

When tissues within a joint are irritated or damaged, nearby blood vessels flood the area with fresh cells (inflammatory response) to clear irritants and deliver healing factors directly to the damaged tissues. 

Initial tissue repair

This initial inflammatory response kickstarts your body’s natural tissue repair cycle. As inflammation intensifies, it triggers the recruitment of specialized repair cells that release proteolytic enzymes and growth factors to repair tissue damage. 

Tissue regeneration

At the tail end of the tissue repair cycle, these enzymes and growth factors work together to stimulate collagen synthesis and elastin renewal, forming fresh, undamaged tissue.

Accelerating the process

Restorative medicine helps accelerate your body’s natural tissue repair and healing process. How? By injecting all-powerful reparative stem cells directly into the damaged joint.

Stem cells: a regenerative powerhouse

Stem cells reside in many of your organs and bodily tissues, including your brain, bone marrow, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, gut, liver, ovaries, and testes.

Tissue maintenance

At first glance, these widespread body cells don’t seem all that remarkable. Although they play an essential role in maintaining the tissues in which they reside, they’re dormant (non-dividing) most of the time. 

Activated healer cells

When you sustain an injury, however, your stem cells spring into action. Once they’ve been activated, they head directly to the damaged area, where they quickly transform themselves into the same type of cell that’s been injured to help accelerate the healing process. 

Undifferentiated power

Stem cells are so powerful because they’re undifferentiated, meaning they can take on virtually any form and perform a wide range of healing functions. They can transform into cartilage tissue, for example, and help regenerate worn-out cartilage in aging joints. They can also heal and help rejuvenate damaged tendons, ligaments, muscles, and bone tissues. 

Heal and regenerate your joints today

Stem cell therapy involves injecting a high concentration of adult or amniotic stem cells into a chronically painful joint. Adult stem cells are harvested from a small sample of your own bone or fat tissue, while amniotic stem cells come from a pre-screened donation of amniotic fluid. 

This highly advanced, minimally invasive treatment has been successfully used to relieve a range of painful joint conditions, including rotator cuff injuries (shoulder pain), sacroiliac (SI) joint dysfunction (lower back pain), and osteoarthritis (joint pain).  

By harnessing and “supercharging” your body’s own corrective mechanisms to heal and repair joint damage in the days and weeks following treatment, stem cell therapy can:

• Decrease joint inflammation
• Reduce or alleviate joint pain
• Repair damaged joint tissues
• Restore normal joint function

As the stem cells gradually restore new, healthy joint tissues, you can expect to experience the kind of long-lasting pain relief that fosters improved mobility and range of motion. 

Is stem cell therapy the best next step in your joint pain management plan? To find out, schedule a visit at your nearest Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates office in Humble or Baytown, Texas, today.