If you happen to bring up “stem cells” in conversation amongst mixed company, you most likely will receive varying reactions. For instance, 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 in Utah
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 is stem cell therapy. Stem Cell Therapy focuses on repairing tissues damaged by injury, chronic condition, or disease. This is achieved 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 numerous Olympic and professional athletes that live in Utah. 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. That includes 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. Undifferentiated stem cells are 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. 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, for instance. 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’s had orthopedic surgery knows the pain and recovery time associated with going under the knife. 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.
For example, you can find a comprehensive list of injuries and conditions that can benefit from stem cell therapy, PRP injections, and other orthobiologics treatments here.
Whole-Body Health and Wellness in Utah
Dr. Albano specializes in treating orthopedic injuries with regenerative medicine. Additionally, his approach to health and wellness begins with a focus on whole-body wellness. 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.
The Albano Clinic has its patients use Ideal Protein which is a 3-phase physician-supervised weight loss program. They receive weekly one-on-one coaching sessions with your wellness coach to keep you on track and help you stay motivated.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) is used to help our patients get their hormones back to the most optimal levels. This helps individuals decrease the frustrating symptoms of aging and gets them back to that ‘thirty-year-old feeling’!
PRP for Aesthetic and Sexual Health
Similarly 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 has become famous thanks to celebrity social media posts and endorsements. With 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.
Microneedling with PRP hair restoration similarly uses PRP injections in the scalp in order to generate natural hair production for long-lasting results. This is safe for both men and women.
PRP injections also help men and women dealing with sexual dysfunction. For instance, erectile dysfunction (ED), vaginal dryness, and inability to orgasm. Called the O(hh) Shot – or Orgasm Shot – for women and the Penile 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.