Should you consider platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections in Louisville, Colorado? Once considered elite treatments available only for famous athletes, PRP is now a mainstream treatment used to assist with everything from recovery to performance.
The platelet-rich plasma used for PRP treatments consists of liquid blood and platelets. Both are essential for promoting healing throughout the body. Your body’s platelets are actually rich with growth factors that assist with cell replication, tissue regeneration, and healing. The difference between the plasma that’s injected during treatment and the plasma that’s naturally found in your blood is that plasma prepared for treatment has been concentrated to contain more plasma than usual. However, there’s an important point to be remembered here. The plasma used during PRP treatments is your own plasma that has been taken from your body. It is simply placed in a centrifuge prior to injection to create a higher concentration that has stronger healing and regenerative properties. Next, take a look at five reasons to have PRP treatments on your radar!
1. PRP Can Help to Heal Sports Injuries
It’s not surprising that PRP first became popular among professional athletes. This treatment can be powerful for promoting healing following sports injuries. However, the same regenerative and healing benefits that help the body to come back from an injury that occurred on the field can also help the body to heal from any type of trauma. PRP can be especially effective for helping to heal injuries in the muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, and other areas of soft tissue. While many studies have shown the benefits of PRP for both new and old sports injuries, a 2021 study showed that PRP injections can enable athletes to return to play sooner. That means that it’s not necessary to wait until an injury is an “old injury” to get it treated. PRP can speed up healing for fresh injuries in real-time to ensure you’re not being held back.
2. PRP Can Help to Reduce Inflammation
The anti-inflammation effects of PRP have been confirmed in studies. Inflammation causes pain, discomfort, and reverberating negative health effects. It can be a strong obstacle to healing. PRP helps to reduce swelling and inflammation to potentially cut healing times after muscles, joints, ligaments, and other tissues have been injured. In addition to shortening healing times, PRP can make your healing period more comfortable.
3. PRP Is Minimally Invasive
Hearing that you need surgery to recover from pain and dysfunction can be a defeating experience. Surgery comes with a long recovery, a high cost, and risks for infection and complications. However, surgery may not be the only route for restoring full function and comfort. Many people are able to use PRP as a minimally invasive alternative to surgery. With PRP, patients don’t have to deal with incisions or wounds that need to heal. An injection is a fast, simple treatment that doesn’t require any downtime. Research actually shows that PRP can be an “equal alternative to surgery” in some situations.
4. PRP Can Be a Powerhouse for Providing Relief for Osteoarthritis of the Knee
It’s known that PRP provides regeneration and pain relief for all kinds of soft tissue. However, there are actually some significant findings that show that PRP may be the best way to treat pain and dysfunction tied to knee osteoarthritis. Many people living with osteoarthritis experience drastic reductions in something called hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is a substance that’s naturally produced in the body that helps to lubricate and cushion the joints. This is how we enjoy smooth, swift movements without pain or “sticking.” However people with osteoarthritis often suffer from thinning levels of hyaluronic acid. This is where PRP comes in. It’s known that PRP injections actually help to restore concentrations of hyaluronic acid in the knees. In addition to creating comfort, PRP treatments can ultimately help to reverse joint damage.
5. PRP Can Help With Back Pain
PRP gets lots of attention when it comes to helping to relieve joint and ligament pain. While that attention is deserved, the truth is that PRP’s benefits for back pain don’t get talked about enough. Studies show that PRP treatments can greatly reduce pain and dysfunction in people suffering from chronic back pain. It’s believed that PRP helps with back pain by strengthening the discs, joints, ligaments, and other structural elements that support the back and spine.
Learn More About PRP Treatments Near Boulder
These five points only represent the beginning of what PRP can do for people suffering from pain, dysfunction, stiffness, loss of range of motion, and inflammation. PRP can be used throughout the body to help manage both acute and chronic pain by triggering the body’s natural healing mechanisms. We’re pleased to be able to offer cutting-edge PRP therapy injections at our top-tier wellness clinic in Louisville, Colorado. We can help you to decide if PRP is an ideal treatment based on your medical history, the type of injury you’re recovering from, and your recovery goals. In many cases, PRP injections can be combined with other non-invasive treatments to help patients get on a faster track to healing. Book a consultation to learn more about PRP injections near Boulder by calling (720) 534-2333, emailing, or scheduling online.