You get out of bed one morning to discover that you can’t place any weight on your knee without howling in pain.
When you’re in pain, how you developed it is not the concern. You just want it to go away.
Cycle of Disease and Chronic Pain
Many diseases and types of chronic pain have enough factors in common to identify a predictable cycle. While not true in every case, several long-term health issues begin with inflammation, a faulty immune response, interruptions to the blood supply, and premature death of cells and tissue.
Typical treatments for chronic knee pain includes prescription medication, physical therapy, steroid injections, or joint / knee replacement surgery. These solutions often provide relief of knee pain, but there’s a good chance the pain returns because the treatment did not address the underlying issue.
Enter stem cell therapy
Stem cell therapy is a growing field that may provide a solid pain solution to some patients. Injecting foreign cells, such as with an organ transplant, runs the risk of rejection. With stem cell therapy, cells are harvested from your own body, thus mitigating that risk.
Potential benefits
In addition to repair and replacement of existing cells, adult stem cells may assist in boosting blood flow to affected tissue. In the case of chronic knee pain stem cells offer a number of additional potential benefits…
- They contain cytokines and other anti-inflammatory agents
- Healthy new tissue may grow in place of the damaged tissue
- Scar tissue is mitigated
- Can prevent premature cell death in the future
- Immune response is mitigated
Perhaps the greatest benefit of treating your chronic knee pain with adult stem cells is that you don’t have the downtime or recovery you would have if you opted for surgery.
There are also fewer side effects or and the need to devote time to physical therapy may be diminished. This allows to get on with your life shortly after receiving stem cell treatment.
Weighing Options
Knee replacements have their own risks include replacement failure, erosion of metal and plastic parts, potentially leaking into the body, recovery time, internal bleeding and others. Researching and weighing alternative treatments is a must for anyone considering therapy for knee pain.