What causes spine pain?
Neck and back pain often arise from soft tissue injuries like pulled muscles or ligaments. These injuries typically occur during athletic activities, while lifting a heavy object, or a whiplash injury.
Overuse injuries are another common source of neck and back pain. When you repeatedly make the same movement, soft tissues develop small tears. If you don’t give your body time to heal, these tiny tears may progressively turn into more chronic injuries.
As you get older, degenerative changes in the joints and discs of may lead to neck and lower back pain. Common age-related problems include:
- Facet joint arthritis
- Thickened ligaments
- Herniated discs
- Spinal stenosis
- Degenerative disc disease
All of the conditions in this list can cause pinched nerves, a condition called radiculopathy. If you have a pinched spinal nerve, you may experience pain or tingling that radiates down your arms or legs.
How does regenerative medicine treat spine pain?
As a regenerative medicine specialist, Dr. Penhollow offers several treatments that effectively relieve your pain by reducing inflammation and actively healing the damaged tissues. Your treatment may include:
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections
Dr. Penhollow takes a sample of your blood and separates the platelets in a centrifuge to produce PRP. After she injects PRP at the injured tissues causing your neck or back pain, the platelets release growth factors. Growth factors then accelerate healing and regulate inflammation.
Stem cell therapy
Dr. Penhollow offers bone marrow derived stem cell therapy using autologous orthobiologics, which means she uses your own stem cells harvested from bone marrow in your hip.
This treatment, called bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) therapy, produces results because bone marrow contains adult stem cells called mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
After Dr. Penhollow separates and concentrates MSCs, she injects them next to the damaged tissues in your spine. MSCs can differentiate into the tissues of the musculoskeletal system such as spinal discs, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and other tissues.
Prolotherapy
During a prolotherapy treatment, Dr. Penhollow injects a solution containing a concentrated dextrose ("sugar water") and a local anesthetic. The dextrose solution activates the healing response, which in turn recruits circulating platelets and stem cells in the blood stream to the area targeted with the therapy.
How can I rehabilitate my spine to prevent pain?
Dr. Penhollow may recommend treatment with EmSculpt® to strengthen your core muscles and stabilize your spine. EmSculpt uses electromagnetic energy to stimulate the growth of new muscle tissue. Increasing muscle mass around the spine can help prevent future spine pain.
If you need relief from spine pain, call Precision Regenerative Medicine or book an appointment online today.
