Regenerative Medicine: Current Therapies and Future Directions

The medical community is always looking for new ways to help people. Regenerative medicine is one of the latest ways healthcare professionals combat disease and help people recover from trauma. These are a few of the current therapies and possible future directions for this type of medicine. Read more about them to learn if they’re something that might help your injuries or health conditions.

What Is Regenerative Medicine?

Regenerative medicine is an interdisciplinary medical branch that combines life science principles and engineering to restore structure and function to organs, tissues and cells by regenerating or replacing them. Sometimes this occurs on a cellular level and other times it creates entirely new organs.

Any medicines designed to heal wounds and function as orthopedics must receive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to become commercially available.

Examples of Common Therapies

It’s challenging to picture specific regenerative therapies if you’ve never heard of them before. These are a few examples that help patients and clients every day.

Stem Cell Treatments

Many people receive stem cell therapy if they need specialized healing within their nerves, heart or other blood cells. After direct implantation, stem cells stimulate musculoskeletal tissue repair by providing the specialized support that tissue needs.

IV Therapy

IV therapy is another way to benefit from regenerative medicine, but you don’t need to get injured or sick first. Every IV treatment delivers essential vitamins and minerals through the bloodstream along with additional hydration. It’s an instant way to tackle nutrient deficiencies and get immediate, personalized healing.

Prolotherapy

Anyone who struggles with constant back or joint pain might consider prolotherapy. It’s a regenerative medicine treatment where a doctor injects natural irritants into painful areas to trigger a healing response. Doctors consider it especially helpful for joint pain because the injection repairs damaged ligament cells and stabilizes them.

Platelet-Rich Plasma

Some people schedule platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatments that contain essential proteins that initiate and promote cell growth. The injections come from isolated and concentrated blood plasma, so it’s an all-natural procedure. It’s useful for tendon injuries, as well as hair loss and postsurgical repair. Even patients with osteoarthritis have found significant pain relief in PRP injections.

The Future of Regenerative Medicine

There are many hopes regarding the future of regenerative medicine. With the right progress, it might one day replace organ transplant surgeries with the right bioengineering. Many hope that future will happen sooner than later, as 8,000 people die every year waiting for surgery when regenerative medicine could one day heal the organs they have.

The near future holds other kinds of promise. Tissue-mimicking injections and sophisticated regenerative graphing are much more likely, thanks to ongoing preclinical and clinical setting studies. Healing could happen faster and more efficiently with enough funding and research.

Consult Your Doctor

Even though regenerative medicine offers current therapies that aid healing and reduce discomfort, it’s still something you should talk about with your doctor. If they agree that you would benefit from additional nutrients or stem cell injections, it could be a new kind of treatment that makes your life more enjoyable.