According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), chronic knee pain affects up to 25% of all adults. In addition, osteoarthritis is the most common cause of chronic knee pain in adults over 50.
Until recently, the only options for relief of chronic knee pain are home remedies, pain medications, or surgery that provides a total knee replacement. However, this surgery’s expense, downtime, and invasiveness are not an option for some patients.
Advancements in regenerative medicine, also known as stem cell therapy, may allow patients to potentially find relief from chronic knee pain without knee replacement surgery. In addition, the use of stem cells in managing arthritis, joint pain, and inflammation have been researched with promising results.
What Is Stem Cell Therapy?
Stem cells serve as the building blocks of all cells. Like all cells, stem cells reproduce by dividing and creating two cells. However, what’s unique about stem cells is that when they split, they can make one new stem cell, a daughter cell, and one new specialized cell.
A specialized cell is a differentiated stem cell that serves a more specific purpose. Specialized cells can be blood, bone, brain, and other types of cells. Only stem cells can naturally generate new types of cells.
Stem cells serve several purposes in understanding disease and testing new drugs and treatments. Additionally, scientists can coax stem cells into differentiating into specific cells whose existing counterparts experienced damage through injury or disease. These new cells have the ability to replace diseased cells and regenerate and repair tissues.
How Can Stem Cell Treatments Relieve Chronic Knee Pain?
Stem cell therapy is a form of regenerative medicine, which means that stem cell treatments aim to heal the cause of pain, not just mitigate symptoms. For example, most chronic knee pain is due to the degeneration of healthy tissues and cartilage in the joint.
Stem cell therapy aims to reverse that degeneration. Stem cell injections grow into healthy tissue intended to help repair the joint, potentially improving function and mobility. In addition, stem cell injections may have the potential to stimulate collagen production and decrease inflammation.
While many studies still examine the use of stem cells and the best treatment methods to achieve optimal results, initial work on stem cells for chronic knee pain offers promising results in reducing pain and increasing mobility.
This post was written by a medical professional at Stemedix Inc. At Stemedix we provide access to Regenerative Medicine for knees, also known as stem cell treatment for knees florida! Regenerative medicine has the natural potential to help improve symptoms sometimes lost from the progression of many conditions.