How Biologics Can Help You Heal from Within

Chronic pain is life-altering and debilitating. Often, it’s due to degenerative disease, like arthritis. Your body just can’t build itself back up fast enough to match the pace of deterioration. 

Pain medications can sometimes blunt your pain symptoms and physical therapy and movement modification help with function, but at some point, these therapies don’t get at the root cause of your condition. 

At Neuropathy and Pain Centers of Texas, the team offers treatments that stimulate your own body’s healing abilities to get at the root of your pain. Biologics are natural substances that complement other therapies, reduce your dependence on drugs for pain relief, and help you possibly put off surgery.

All about biologics

Biologics are any medical treatment that’s derived from natural organisms and or natural tissues. Two promising biologics treatments – platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell therapy – have garnered a lot of attention lately. These involve using your platelets (PRP) or your own or donor pluripotent cells to induce your body’s healing. 

PRP and stem cell therapy have the potential to stimulate your body’s ability to heal itself. As a result, you experience less pain and inflammation and potentially slow or reverse the progress of degenerative diseases and musculoskeletal damage. 

The benefits of platelet-rich plasma

Platelets, along with red and white blood cells, are a component of your blood. They’re known for their ability to clot blood and start healing injuries.

Platelets also carry tremendous growth hormones that guide the healing process. Platelet-rich plasma is derived from a conventional sample of your blood. We use a high-speed centrifuge to spin it down and separate out the platelets. 

The resulting PRP is injected into a site of injury or deterioration. The injection floods the target area with healing cells and manifests healing. Often, this is the boost the joint or injured tissue needs to feel better.

The PRP injection supplies an abundance of platelets to tissues that need it. For many patients, this means less pain and greater mobility, not to mention reduced dependence on conventional pain medications. 

The power of stem cells

Stem cells are pluripotent – meaning they can become what the body needs in the moment. 

They have few distinct characteristics of their own, but when acted on by messengers of the body, including the growth hormones in platelets, stem cells can make copies of themselves as well as convert into the type of tissue needed for body repairs. 

We harvest stem cells from your own body – usually from your bone marrow or fat around your abdomen. Stem cells are then injected into the area of pain or degeneration to start the healing process from within.

Biologics treatments are not a quick fix for pain. Because they require your body to respond and create a healing process, you’ll see changes in your symptoms develop gradually over several weeks as new collagen, cells, and tissues form. But, many people find their pain fades and function returns, and their reliance on medication reduces.

Find out more about biologic treatments by contacting Neuropathy and Pain Centers of Texas today. Use this website to reach out or call the friendly staff to set up an appointment.