Healing the Body from Within
Regenerative medicine is a new sub-specialty in medicine to enhance and accelerate healing, but using the body’s natural mechanisms of repairing itself. You may have heard of stem cell therapy, which is the most common regenerative treatment to heal a wide variety of conditions, from ostearthritis to chronic back pain, to cardiovascular tissue repair, and even certain types of cancers. This kind of therapy falls under the umbrella term of regenerative medicine, which you will learn about in this article.
What is Regenerative Medicine?
Before we talk about how this sub-specialty of medicine works, let’s first discuss what it is so you can better understand its processes.
Generally, regenerative medicine is the study of stimulating and maximizing the body’s natural regeneration of healthy cells to treat adverse health conditions. The body has the natural ability to heal itself in the form of stem cells.
For example, you injure your wrist. When the tissues in your wrist become damaged or inflamed, your stem cells come to the rescue to fix these cells. However, as you age, or if your body doesn’t have enough stem cells, it will take longer to heal your wrist. Regenerative medicine allows doctors to inject or implant healthy stem cells into your body, which stimulates faster and accelerated healing. Stem cells act like additional helpers to repair your tissues, thereby, healing your broken wrist.
There are three main goals of regenerative medicine:
1. To reduce pain and inflammation.
2. To stimulate the body’s natural ability to self-heal.
3. To mobilize the immune system to the affected area.
Regenerative medicine can achieve these goals by optimizing the cellular environment in your body to allow it to heal naturally.
How Regenerative Medicine Works
Regenerative medicine is not limited to stem cells alone. It is a group of clinical and biomedical treatments that involve plasma, stem cells, medicine, and biomaterials that stimulate the body to repair its cells, tissues, and organs.
One of the sources of stem cells and biomaterials is umbilical cords from full-term babies and placental tissues. Stem cells, proteins, and growth factors found in these tissues are harvested and processed in laboratories. These cells are potent and young, as well as have the ability to divide and generate new tissues. When injected, implanted, or given to patients through an IV, millions of healthy cells enter the body, targetting damaged tissues from injuries or disease, and giving the body more natural fighters to kill off bacteria, viruses, and damaged tissues. Aside from helping to repair your body, they also stimulate the production of healthier cells and thereby advancing the healing process.
More and more regenerative medicine LA clinics are offering these kinds of therapies for a wide range of conditions. If you’re planning on having stem cell therapy or any form of regenerative medicine treatments done, a good number of independent clinics all around the city can offer targeted treatments that bring hope to chronic pain and other health conditions.
