Aging in the 21st century: Age is just a number, but as many of us know, it can also be a feeling. The truth is, the people in society we deem “old” are actually becoming older all of the time. In the past 100 years alone, life expectancy in the United States has risen by about 20 years! That’s a quarter of a lifetime we’ve saved ourselves through better working conditions, medicine, safety, and leading a healthier lifestyle.
However, aging also has its limitations. Our bodies begin to feel the weight of gravity over time and the aches and pains begin and never seem to go away. Joints begin to wear, ligaments begin to tear, and chronic illnesses impede some people’s active lifestyles. So what can we do to help our bodies keep up with us as we live into our 80’s, 90’s, and even 100’s?
The Benefits of Regenerative Medicine for Pain
Regenerative medicine has received much more attention and research in recent years. While we always look for ways to reverse aging, anti-aging treatments become more widespread. But regenerative medicine is not just about looking great, it’s about feeling great as you get older. Old work injuries, sports injuries, and joint and muscle pain increase as we get older and make it more difficult to perform daily tasks and keep up with much-needed exercise.
Treatments like Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP), Prolotherapy, Perineural Therapy, and Prolozone therapies can assist with chronic pain and the repairing of damaged tissues and ligaments. These treatments use the body’s own healing powers on itself to help restore the body back to a better state. The aim of these treatments is to provide patients with a better quality of life all throughout their lives. Living with constant pain is very wearing mentally and physically, and many people do not want to rely on the use of heavier prescription drugs prescribed over time to simply mask the pain. They are looking for a long-term solution without side effects.
Prolozone therapy, a popular therapy at The American Regenerative Clinic locations, begins by injecting vitamins and minerals into the affected area, then uses ozone therapy to spread the solution further into the affected ligaments, muscles, tissue, etc. to help repair them. Prolotherapy, also mentioned above, involves injections of irritant solution (most often Dextrose) into ligaments and tendons supporting affected joints. This causes local, controlled inflammation in these weakened areas, which leads to an increase in blood supply and flow of nutrients, growth factors, and mediators; effectively stimulating the tissue into repairing itself. The purpose of these treatments is to remind the body what it does best earlier in our lives, heal and repair so we can carry on.
The Benefits of Regenerative Medicine for Chronic Illnesses
Not only can pain have a profound effect on our standard of living as we age, but chronic disease also becomes more common. Did you know that 6 in 10 adults in the US have a chronic disease and that 4 in 10 adults have two or more? Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer are three leading causes of death in the United States. Many times, these diseases are caused by risk behaviors that we have control over! Poor diets, tobacco, lack of physical activity, and excessive alcohol use are major factors that contribute to millions of diagnoses each year.
This is the reason why the Regenerative Clinic locations take a functional medicine approach to all treatments. Functional medicine is essentially a patient-centered approach to treatment. It allows practitioners and patients to work in collaboration to address the underlying causes of disease. Functional medicine seeks to understand the diagnosis from a holistic standpoint, taking things like lifestyle and habits into consideration when working towards a treatment plan.
Practitioners typically take the first appointment to dive deep into the patient’s medical history, family, lifestyle, habits, etc. While the cause of a certain health condition can lie deep within an individual, it can be hidden in a patient’s lifestyle or genetics. The openness and communication between practitioners and patients allow our patients to feel like they are an active part of their recovery. Therefore, they will hopefully be more successful in following the treatment plan decided upon and feel better more quickly as a result.
If you suffer from pain or chronic illness, call the American Regenerative Clinic to book an appointment today and see how we may be able to help!
