What is Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy?
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a powerful therapy that relieves pain and facilitates recovery from all types of acute and chronic injuries, such as sprains, strains, arthritis, and degenerative joint disease. PRP harnesses the healing power of platelets—components in the blood that initiate and regulate tissue repair—by delivering concentrations of the body’s own platelets directly to damaged or degenerated areas.
PRP treatment at Whitaker Wellness involves removing a vial of a patient’s own blood and spinning it in a centrifuge to separate out the red blood cells, plasma, and other components. This produces a very small amount of concentrated platelets (5–10 times the amount in whole blood) in a little plasma (the clear, liquid part of blood). The patient’s PRP is then placed in a syringe and injected into the affected area, which is numbed beforehand to make the injection more comfortable. A single injection to each site is all that is usually needed, although some patients require more, spaced out over time.
Over the next few weeks, the regeneration process that PRP turns on becomes evident, with often dramatic improvements in pain, range of motion, function, and quality of life.
How Platelet-Rich Plasma Can Help You
Platelets are nature’s reservoirs of proteins, peptides, and other compounds that facilitate healing. They include clotting factors to stop bleeding; inflammatory chemicals to drive the acute phase of the healing process; and growth factors to promote tissue regeneration and the formation of blood vessels that nourish new tissues. PRP treatment simply directs and amplifies the natural healing process.
Elite athletes have been benefiting from this therapy for years, and surgeons have been using PRP to speed healing of bones, surgical incisions, and more. However, PRP’s greatest use may be to help relieve pain and restore function in areas affected by degenerative joint disease. This therapy is an excellent treatment for chronic neck and back pain and often delivers results after other interventions have failed. It is also useful for patients suffering with age-related arthritis and may help stave off hip and knee replacement and spinal surgery.
Best of all, because PRP is an “autologous” procedure, meaning it’s derived or transferred from the patient’s own body, it’s exceptionally safe. It’s also minimally invasive, well-tolerated, and requires little to no recovery time. Finally, it costs a fraction of the price of any surgical procedure.
What Conditions Benefit From PRP?
Because platelet-rich plasma turns on the body’s natural healing mechanisms, it is an effective therapy for a broad range of acute and chronic disorders. Various PRP preparations have been used to enhance the healing of bones, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and surgical wounds, and it’s been enthusiastically adopted by orthopedic, plastic, periodontal, and maxillofacial surgeons. At Whitaker Wellness, we use PRP primarily to treat musculoskeletal conditions, including:
- Arthritis
- Back pain
- Degenerative joint disease
- Epicondylitis (tennis elbow)
- Hip pain
- Knee pain
- Neck pain
- Sciatica
- Shoulder pain
- Sports injuries
- Sprains
- Strains
- Tendonitis
Additional Articles on Platelet-Rich Plasma
One-Stop Shop for Wellness
Renowned physician, author, and speaker, Julian Whitaker, MD, opened the doors of the Whitaker Wellness Institute in 1979. Since then, our clinic has helped more than 45,000 patients overcome serious health challenges and get back on the road to healthy living. We’re proud to offer nearly two dozen safe, innovative, healing therapies under one roof—that’s more than any other facility in the northern hemisphere. Just think of us as your “one-stop shop for wellness.”
To get started and find out how receiving platelet-rich plasma therapy at the Whitaker Wellness Institute can rapidly relieve pain, increase function, and speed healing so you can get back to your healthy and active lifestyle, click on the buttons below to schedule a complimentary consultation or contact us to learn more. You can also schedule your complimentary consultation or obtain more information by calling our Patient Services Representatives at (866) 944-8253.
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