Can Stem Cell Therapy Help with Lower Back Pain?
Lower back pain affects up to 31 million Americans every day. Whether it is acute or chronic, lower back pain can diminish your quality of life and make you lose interest in everything you used to enjoy. Lower back pain sufferers may find even simple tasks such as household cleaning to be unbearable. Until now, treatment options for lower back pain have been limited. Medical doctors will first recommend a healthy diet and exercise, focusing on core strengthening activities, and may even suggest appointments with a physical therapist to teach you the correct ways to complete motions and how to strengthen your back muscles. Pharmacologic treatments, including narcotic painkillers, are often prescribed in conjunction with other treatments. If these treatments are not effective or the back pain worsens, spinal fusion surgery is often the next recommendation. Results with spinal fusion surgery are mixed, and many patients suffer as much — or even more — after just one year. Alternative practitioners may suggest chiropractic services or acupuncture, among other treatments, for lower back pain. Some patients experience great relief with these alternative treatments, while others see no results.
Stem cell therapy for low back pain will disrupt everything we know about pain relief.
Stem cell therapy for lower back pain is still in an experimental phase, but the early results are quite promising. Stem cells can differentiate into multiple types of cells and tissues. When injected into an area experiencing pain, the stem cells can turn into neurons to replace the damaged nerves, muscle cells to rebuild atrophied muscles, collagen to strengthen the surrounding structures, and everything in between. Stem cells help repair the damage that causes lower back pain from the inside out, whether it’s from overexertion, nerve damage, or a genetic abnormality.
Where do the stem cells come from?
Research has shown that outcomes of stem cell therapy for lower back pain are best when the patient’s own stem cells are used. Stem cells in adults can be harvested from adipose (fat) tissue or bone marrow for this purpose. In an outpatient procedure, a medical professional will extract a fluid containing your own stem cells from excess fat or one of your bones, usually the hip bone. This fluid is then given back to you through an IV into the bloodstream and direct injection into the pain site.
Are there any risks?
Luckily, no complications have been reported from stem cell therapy when using the patient’s own stem cells. However, infection at the injection site is always a possibility and should be monitored closely.
If you suffer from lower back pain and traditional treatments have not brought you relief, consider alternative stem cell therapy before opting for invasive surgery. Find a regenerative medical professional near you by using the convenient search tool at www.regenerativemedicinenow.com. You can filter by specialty, check out practitioner reviews, and make contact all from one convenient place. Don’t let your chronic lower back pain keep you down any longer with innovative and cutting-edge regenerative therapies offered by qualified medical professionals.
