If you happen to bring up “stem cells” in conversation amongst mixed company, you most likely will receive equally disparate reactions. Some people are strongly opposed, others ambivalent, and most are severely misinformed.
While the general public’s knowledge of stem cells tends (in Utah especially) to trend more toward headline-grabbing experimental stem cell research and the resulting backlash, stem cell therapy has been around for a long time and has drastically improved the lives of many.
Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Therapy
The National Institute of Health defines regenerative medicine as “the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage or congenital defects.” One of the many subsets of regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy focuses on repairing tissues damaged by injury, chronic condition or disease through the natural healing power of the body’s own stem cells.
As any athlete or active person knows, injuries are just a fact of life. And as we get older, injuries happen more frequently and arthritis can quickly become a painful daily battle. Thankfully, stem cell treatments and PRP injections can provide a better alternative to surgery with faster recovery time.
In Utah, stem cell therapy is a popular treatment option for the numerous Olympic and professional athletes that call Park City home. Just down the canyon in Salt Lake City, Dr. Joseph Albano has provided his patients in Utah with stem cell therapy since 2007 and is a leader in the field of regenerative medicine. He has learned and evolved with the incredible advances in stem cell and platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections, including the introduction of musculoskeletal ultrasound for precision guidance and the expansion of regenerative medicine into the orthopedic, aesthetic and sexual health fields.
What Are Stem Cells and What Do They Do?
Stem cells are your body’s natural healers. Because they are undifferentiated cells – cells that don’t yet have a specific structure or function – stem cells can grow into the type of cell your body needs to heal. Stem cells also call other healing cells to the area as part of the healing process.
As we age or suffer from an injury, our bodies are unable to accumulate stem cells where we really need them. For Dr. Albano – and his patients in Utah – stem cells help fill this gap and supercharge the body’s own natural healing response.
There are two different types of stem cells used in stem cell treatments: autologous and allogeneic cells. Autologous stem cells are harvested from your own body and allogenic cells are obtained from a variety of sources outside the body.
While the term “stem cell therapy” is commonly used as a general term, Dr. Albano typically uses orthobiologics injections instead of just stem cells. Orthobiologics are a customized spectrum of concentrated cells – including stem cells and PRP – that are injected into injured areas to boost the body’s natural healing process and the regeneration of healthy tissue.
Who Does Stem Cell Therapy Help?
Anyone who has undergone orthopedic surgery knows that the pain and recovery time associated with going under the knife can be grueling. While orthobiologics treatments cannot treat severely broken bones or similarly severe injuries, for Dr. Albano’s patients in Utah, stem cell therapy has been effective in healing a whole host of orthopedic injuries and chronic conditions.
You can find a comprehensive list of injuries and conditions that can benefit from stem cell therapy, PRP injections and other orthobiologics treatments here (link to PRP page).
Whole-Body Health and Wellness
While Dr. Albano specializes in treating orthopedic injuries with regenerative medicine, his approach to health and wellness begins with a focus on whole-body health. More often than not, underlying health issues such as obesity or a hormone imbalance, can greatly impact a new injury or chronic condition.
For that reason, physician-supervised weight loss programs and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can be vital to the success of stem cell therapy.
PRP for Aesthetic and Sexual Health
Similar to stem cell treatments, PRP injections help supercharge the body’s natural healing process – making them extremely useful for a variety of aesthetic treatments and sexual health procedures.
In the world of medical aesthetics, microneedling with PRP facials have become famous thanks to celebrity social media posts and endorsements. This advancement in PRP use, microneedling facials deliver the rejuvenating benefits of PRP to microchannels in the skin, which are created by microneedling the face, neck and hands. This is a great regenerative facial available today.
Safe for both men and women, microneedling with PRP hair restoration similarly uses PRP injections in the scalp to generate natural hair production for long-lasting results.
PRP injections also help men and women dealing with sexual dysfunction, such as erectile dysfunction (ED), vaginal dryness and inability to orgasm. Called the O Shot – or Orgasm Shot – for women and the P Shot for men, these PRP treatments help people of all ages regain an active, healthy sex life.
Ready to see if PRP treatments are for you? Call the Albano Clinic today at 385-220-9009. We want to help you move better, feel better and live better – for good.