Stem Cell Therapy: A New Frontier in Healing
Blake (not his real name) is a college basketball player who recently suffered a minor ACL tear. His injury was mild enough that surgery was unnecessary, but he still wanted to ensure he fully rehabilitated his knee so he could get back on the court. Our suggestion? Stem cell therapy. This cutting-edge treatment is a type of regenerative medicine, a group of treatments that harness your body’s natural healing processes to facilitate recovery.
Your stem cells have two properties that make them useful for healing. One is that they can self-renew. More importantly, they can transform into different types of cells through a process called differentiation. In Blake’s case, we took stem cells from adipose tissue in his abdomen. We then injected those cells into his injured knee ligaments, where the stem cells generated healthy ligament cells to repair the damage.
Blake paired his stem cell injections with regular rehabilitation sessions at a local physical therapy clinic, where he moved through targeted exercises to improve his knee’s mobility, strength, and function.
As a result, Blake rehabilitated more quickly than he would have with surgery or physical therapy alone. While he had to sit out for some of the current season, he was back in the game without limits the following year. Stem cell therapy is a wonderful example of the recent strides science has made in finding new ways to help people heal without surgery. We’re proud to offer stem cell therapy services at Sievers Sports Medicine. Today, we want to share more about stem cell therapy to help you decide if it’s the right treatment for you.
What Conditions Can Stem Cell Therapy Treat?
The research on stem cell therapy is incredibly promising, with multiple studies examining how it could potentially help people with leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, and more. However, it’s important to remember that this research is ongoing!
At Sievers Sports Medicine, we primarily use stem cell therapy to facilitate the recovery process for several common sports injuries, such as the following:
Sprains
- Sprains occur when a ligament (the tissue that connects the bones in a joint) becomes overstretched or tears completely. Blake’s ACL injury was an example of a sprain. Symptoms include pain, tenderness, and a sense of instability in the joint.
Strains
- Strains are similar to sprains but affect the muscles or tendons, the tissue that connects muscle to bone. Symptoms include pain, swelling, and limited range of motion in the affected limb.
Chronic Tendon Injuries
- Sometimes, your tendons don’t necessarily tear but do become inflamed, leading to conditions like tennis elbow or Achilles tendonitis. These injuries usually develop over time due to repetitive movements and prolonged stress on the affected area, leading to pain and restricted mobility.
However, stem cell therapy can also be an effective choice for people struggling with chronic pain. It’s particularly beneficial for people with osteoarthritis, a condition in which the cartilage in the joint wears down, causing the tissue to become painful and inflamed.
While research doesn’t currently suggest that stem cell therapy can repair damage from osteoarthritis, it does help reduce pain, making it easier for you to become more active (which is essential when managing OA symptoms).
Understanding the Stem Cell Therapy Process
We’ll begin with a comprehensive exam to help us understand your injury, condition, and recovery goals. If needed, we may also run some diagnostic tests. Dr. Sievers can let you know if stem cell therapy is the right choice for you.
In most cases, we utilize allogenic stem cells, meaning they come from a donor. This type of stem cell treatment is less expensive, less painful, and faster. Donor stem cells can be used for a variety of conditions including orthopedic injuries, cancer and immune-related diseases.
In certain cases, we may use autologous stem cells, which are taken from your own body. The harvesting process occurs in our clinic and takes about an hour. We’ll gather a sample of adipose tissue and process it to separate the stem cells so we can inject them back into your injury site.
After we’ve injected the stem cells, Dr. Sievers will provide specific aftercare instructions, including how long you should rest, when you can begin physical therapy, and what medications you can use. Some people experience slight discomfort or tenderness at the injection site. Inflammation is also common in the first few weeks, as it’s a normal part of the process.
Is Stem Cell Therapy Right For You?
Do you think you might benefit from stem cell therapy? Schedule an appointment at Sievers Sports Medicine to learn more!
Grilled Eggplant with Feta
Ingredients:
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 large garlic clove, or 2 small cloves, pressed or minced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
- 2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 1/3 cup)
Directions:
-
Preheat the grill to high.
-
Trim the ends off of the eggplant and cut it crosswise into 12 1/2-inch thick slices. Season just the tops of the slices lightly with salt.
-
In a small bowl, whisk together the red wine vinegar, olive oil, dried oregano, garlic, and salt.
-
Lay the eggplant slices on the grill with the salted side up. Grill, uncovered, for 5 minutes, then flip.
-
Spoon or brush all of the garlic-herb mixture over the tops, sprinkle evenly with the feta, then cover the grill and continue grilling until the cheese is melted and the eggplant is tender, about 5 minutes more.
-
Transfer the grilled eggplant to a serving platter and serve hot or warm.
Our June Winner
Our excited June winner! We draw a winner each month who gets a super amazing custom Yeti bottle. Enter to win by sharing your experience at Sievers Sports Medicine in a Google review.
Our Patients Are Seeing Great Results
Staff Spotlight: Maira Luna
Maira is currently enrolled at Amarillo Medical Assistant School to get her certificate and has had a variety of interesting jobs in her career so far. (She often tells the story of how while working at Louis Vuitton in Alvarado, TX, she met the CEO chairman Bernard Arnault and his son and got to take a picture with them. She also got to see Donald Trump and his daughter when they went to the inauguration of the office in Alvarado, TX.) What Maira loves most about her current role at Sievers Sports Medicine is seeing behind the scenes of the office on the insurance and business side, as opposed to just the medical side where she first started.
Maira is very family oriented and is interested in pursuing a degree after she finishes medical assistant school. After working in a medical setting, the study of anatomy and physiology has been growing on her!
Flexible Financing with CareCredit
The CareCredit health, wellness, and personal care credit card gives you a convenient, flexible way to pay for care for the whole family—including pets! With everyday promotional financing for purchases of $200 or more, you can pay over time with convenient monthly payments.
Self-Pay Options
- Payment Plans: Understanding that healthcare costs can be significant, we offer payment plans to spread the cost of treatment over time. These plans are flexible and can be tailored to suit your financial situation.
- Competitive Self-Pay Rates: We offer competitive self-pay rates for patients without insurance or those receiving treatments not covered by insurance. Please get in touch with our office for more information on our fees for various services.
Other Payment Methods
- Credit and Debit Cards: We accept all major credit and debit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
- Checks and Cash: Personal checks and cash payments are also accepted.
- Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA): Payments can be made using funds from your HSA or FSA accounts.
