Could Stem Cells Help Relieve Your Back Pain?

Could Stem Cells Help Relieve Your Back Pain?

A silent epidemic is brewing in the United States. Current estimates suggest that almost 10% of the American population is suffering from chronic daily back pain. 1 in 10 Americans is suffering silently through the day – often unable to their jobs and just get on with their lives. In fact, recent statistics suggest that back pain is the second most common cause of disability in the United States and the single biggest contributor to sick days per year. For many, this pain is inadequately controlled. Family doctors struggle to keep patients happy with the limited tops they have at their disposal.

For many, opioids have been the only thing they have found relief in. But with the current opioid epidemic and significantly more pressure on doctors to avoid prescribing them, there’s a need for newer, different therapies. These alternative therapies do exist, but are often not supplied by a family doctor and will typically need a specialist to get hold of. One of these therapies is stem cell injections – which have been suggested may be able to reduce pain and get patients back to their daily lives.

 

Why do people get lower back pain?

 

It’s often not properly understood why a person develops chronic lower back pain. Chronic lower back pain is defined as pain that persists for 3 months (12 weeks) or longer after an initial injury or unknown inciting event. There are a whole host of reasons why somebody might develop lower back pain – but often these aren’t found in patients with chronic low back pain. These causes include

 

  • Simple muscle sprains and strains. These are usually a cause of acute pain but can be present for more than 3 months in a small number of cases
  • Disc degeneration this is one of the most common causes of back pain and occurs when the spongy material between the bones in your back begin to break down.
  • Radiculopathy occurs when the nerves shooting out of the spine and down to your limbs are compressed by the bones. This sets them off – sending haywire pain signals to the brain even though there are no painful stimuli in the environment.

 

Can stem cells help relieve back pain?

 

Stem cells are effectively immature cells that haven’t yet turned into a specialized cell. All cells when mature are specialized to a given function, be that skin cells or brain cells. Stem cell therapy is theorized to work by firstly allowing stem cells to turn into cells needed to regenerate cartilage in the back, but also to release growth factors that allow neighboring cells to grow and to divide in order to regrow and regenerate.

 

If you or somebody you know is suffering from back pain, get in contact with a specialist regenerative medicine clinic which can offer these new and exciting therapies that may not usually be available under your family doctor.

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