If you’re suffering from arthritis, you know that it can cause persistent pain. For some patients, arthritis pain begins the moment they wake up in the morning and continues until they fall asleep at night.
While there’s no known cure for arthritis, there are treatments available for arthritis pain management. With the right treatment approach for your needs, you can achieve lasting pain relief.
What is Arthritis?
Before we explore arthritis pain management treatments, let’s clarify what arthritis entails.
Arthritis refers to inflammation in one or multiple joints. There are several different types of arthritis, the most common of which are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
- Osteoarthritis occurs as a result of age-related wear and tear on the cartilage that protects your joints. As the cartilage breaks down, more friction occurs in the joints, leading to swelling, tenderness, and pain.
- Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition that occurs when the immune system harms healthy tissue. This condition causes swelling in the lining of the joints, leading to pain, tenderness, and stiffness.
Arthritis Treatments For Pain Management
Patients suffering from persistent arthritis pain may want to consider the benefits of regenerative treatments. Regenerative medicine can reduce the need for surgery, such as joint replacement, by stimulating the body’s ability to heal and regenerate damaged tissue.
PRP Therapy
PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma and is increasingly being used as an arthritis treatment. In PRP therapy, your doctor will extract some of your blood and spin it in a centrifuge to isolate the platelets. Then, the platelet-rich plasma is injected into the arthritic joint.
Over time, PRP stimulates healing within the arthritic joint, which can lead to less pain and improved joint function.
Stem Cell Therapy
Stem cells are natural healers with the ability to repair cells throughout the body. Used in the treatment of arthritis, stem cell therapy can speed up the body’s healing process for symptom relief.
PRP and stem cell therapy may be used alone or together to help manage arthritis pain. To learn more, schedule a free consultation at the Regenerative Orthopedic Institute.