Your guide to stem cell therapy for painful knees
November 25, 2019 at 5:00 AM
by Carl Gittens, MD Regenerative Medicine
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As the second-highest cause of chronic pain, knee pain can make your life miserable. Your knees are complex joints that depend on the fluid movement of several tissues. When something happens to disrupt that movement, it isn't long before you're experiencing pain. At Carl Gittens MD, Regenerative Medicine, we see patients with various types of pain. We're here to explore stem cell therapy for painful knees and how it can make a difference to your wellbeing.

Common causes of knee pain

From injuries through to aging, the causes of knee pain vary wildly. A lot of the patients we see come to us following sports injuries. Certain movements can lead to tears in ligaments that cause significant knee pain and a reduction in mobility. As your knee relies on bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles to help it move, damage to any one of those elements can feel quite painful.

Another common cause of knee pain is aging. As we all age, our connective tissues begin to weaken and break down. Our bodies also become less adept at healing themselves. Age-related knee pain is often compounded by our lifestyles. For example, if you're obese, you're placing more pressure on your knees throughout the day. Essentially, this results in greater wear and tear.

Whatever the cause of your pain, using stem cell therapy for painful knees could reduce your recovery time. If you're yet to explore this option, it's good to learn more about how it works.

How stem cell therapy works

Stem cells are human cells that have the ability to develop into various tissues. Because they're so adaptable, they've become a key focus in regenerative medicine. At Carl Gittins MD, Regenerative Medicine, we use stem cell therapy to treat a variety of injuries.

We source stem cells from your tissues before injecting them into the area where you require treatment. As the stem cells start to self-renew, they adapt to form the tissues you're missing. Although this is an area of medicine where lots of research is taking place, we've seen excellent results among our patients.

Using stem cell therapy for painful knees

At Carl Gittins MD, Regenerative Medicine, we use stem cell therapy for painful knees. As we've already mentioned, your knee partially depends on cartilage to function. Your cartilage acts like a shock absorber that cushions other elements of your knee against sharp movements. When that cartilage begins to break down, your knees don't have as much protection. As a result, you'll experience inflammation that's painful, as well as the degeneration of bones.

Once we've harvested some of your stem cells, we'll inject them into key locations throughout your knees. It's a minimally-invasive procedure, but we find that it yields excellent results. According to some studies, the stem cells we inject adapt to become cartilage cells. This means that your knee starts to benefit from the protection it requires to function painlessly. Additionally, this type of therapy reduces inflammation. As your body's inflammatory processes involve signals that cause pain, this, too, results in pain reduction. Finally, our stem cell injections will encourage your body to release cytokines. As proteins that play a role in healing and reducing pain, they too can prove useful.

Other self-help techniques for you to try

We also advise our patients with knee pain to lead a lifestyle that eases their woes. If you're overweight, losing weight makes a significant difference. Additionally, eating more fruit and vegetables increases the number of antioxidants in your body. As a result, you could fight some of the toxins that make pain more likely.

If you're experiencing knee pain and you live in Palm Beach Gardens call (561)337-3351 or Stuart (772)288-4111 .