Whether you’ve ever considered cutting-edge, regenerative therapies before or not, there’s something about platelet-rich plasma (PRP) that intrigues you. You’ve heard that PRP helps your body heal damaged tissues without side effects. After all, PRP is made from your own cells.
At the Rheumatology Center of New Jersey, our expert rheumatologists recommend cutting-edge PRP to help you heal — and feel — better and faster. Here’s why PRP works and what its potential benefits for you could be.
If you’re a self-reliant kind of person, confident in your own abilities, the fact that PRP derives from your own blood is probably in alignment with your approach to life. But even if you’ve never been interested in holistic therapies before, you still benefit from PRP.
The process starts when we draw a small amount of blood from your arm. Depending on what conditions we aim to heal or improve, we may just need 2-4 tablespoons, about the size of a standard blood test.
We then spin your blood in a special sterile centrifuge to separate the liquid plasma from platelets and other solids. And then spin again, to isolate the platelets. Within just minutes, we create a serum made of your concentrated platelets and a small amount of your plasma, which we then inject into the treatment site.
The PRP serum delivers a concentrated boost of all the substances your body already relies on to perform the necessary steps of healing and regeneration, such as:
The platelets have abundant proteins and growth factors, and about 300 other substances that help you heal.
When your skin’s cut or bruised, your body rushes blood to the site to repair broken veins and capillaries. The platelets in your blood use a substance called fibrin to form a plug on the broken or torn blood vessels. This platelet plug allows your body to start the healing and rebuilding process.
By delivering extra platelets to the wound, PRP supplies your body with extra clotting power. Platelets also secrete cytokines, which kill and neutralize any pathogens that enter the wound.
You may have first become aware of PRP because you follow sports. Well-known athletes, including professional golfer Tiger Woods, use PRP to help them heal faster so they can get back to their game.
A PRP treatment is appropriate for all types of sports-related and non-sports injuries, including:
We may recommend PRP if you need to undergo any type of surgery, too. Adding PRP to the surgical site augments the healing process, which leads to less downtime.
Whether you have osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, you may benefit from PRP. The PRP serum has anti-inflammatory properties that reduce swelling in painful joints.
There’s some evidence that PRP injections also help your body repair the cartilage in your joints that arthritis destroys.
When your tissues are injured, they swell with blood and fluids as your body attempts to whisk away pathogens and rebuild tissue. But when inflammation persists for weeks or months, you may develop chronic pain. Chronic inflammation may also further damage your tissues over time.
A PRP injection alleviates inflammation and encourages your body to move on to the healing process. PRP can even subdue inflammation in irritated nerves or reduce swelling in tissues that surround the nerves, so you don’t feel as much pain anymore.
If you’re ready to find out how PRP’s benefits may help you heal and feel better, call us for a consultation today. You may also request an appointment using our online tool. Our offices are located in Somerville, Flemington, and Monroe, New Jersey.
