Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)
Musculoskeletal Pain Therapies (PRP) offers New Frontiers for Pain Management and Rejuvination of Joints with Osteoarthritis.
What if the human body could use its own blood to repair itself? PRP, which stands for Platelet Rich Plasma, is a relatively new type of pain therapy that both the “latest research” and “orthopedic doctor’s” say has great potential. “Researchers in a New York hospital studied patients with early-onset osteoarthritis, using MRIs to track their recovery six months and one year after their initial treatments. They say in at least 73 percent of the cases, the platelet-rich plasma stopped the advance of the disease.”
Athletes such as Tiger Woods and the Pittsburgh Steelers’s Hines Ward have undergone platelet-rich plasma therapy, to aid in healing … but how about the rest of us?
The procedure begins with drawing blood, usually from the patient’s arm. The blood is then put into a centrifuge to spin it into plasma with a high concentration of platelets, which is then injected into the site of the pain. The growth factors that platelets secrete induce tissue repair and recovery.
Dr Susan Janssens, in conjunction with Elite Sport Performance in South Calgary, offers PRP for muscle tears, knees, elbows and shoulders. Dr Janssens has performed over 200 injections for damaged knees with a greater than 90% success rate. I am very impressed with the results for the repair of meniscal injury and medial and lateral ligament tears. However, even more than that I have been combining hyaluronic acid with PRP for osteoarthritis knee pain. I have clients who are now walking normally and pain free. I feel like a miracle worker these days, it is wonderful to delay knee replacements or simply help people go about living again.
PRP is certainly not in any way a performance enhancer. It’s more about enhancing the body’s own healing response, a principle close to my heart as a Naturopathic Doctor. For more information or to book an appointment please call Elite Sport Performance at 403-689-9889.