Stem cell therapy for sport injuries
Sport injury is defined as an injury that occurs when a person is engaged in some sports or athletic activities. These injuries are caused by inappropriate technique, traumatic event, crush, not warming up and overtraining. Generally, sport injuries are divided into soft tissue injuries, bone injuries, joint injuries and head injuries.
Sprains and strains belong to most common injuries. Strain usually happens when the muscle fibers stretch too far that they end up tearing. Sprains occur when the band of connective tissue that attaches bones to each other tears.
Shin splints are very common in runners and occur when there is severe pain experienced along the tibia bone.
Shoulder injury is commonly experienced in people who play tennis, baseball, volleyball, weightlifters and swimmers. This injury involves sprain, strain and dislocation. Common symptoms include weakness, stiffness and slipping of the shoulder.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a type of neurodegenerative disorder caused by repetitive blows to the head or constant head trauma over a period of time. This condition is found in athletes and people involved in close contact sports like boxing, football, wrestling, ice hockey, soccer etc. Some common symptoms include headaches, depression with suicidal behavior, dementia, paranoia and aggression. Alzheimer´s disease or Parkinson´s disease frequently develops in people suffering from CTE. As the disease progresses the patient experiences problems with thinking, haze, memory loss and may be dangerous to themselves or to their relatives.
Treatment of a sports injury depends on the type or category of injury. For example soft tissue injuries can be easily treated with autologous plasma injections (PRP injections) and rehabilitation. Serious bone injuries can be dealt by performing surgeries or by immobilization of the broken parts of bones together. Medical treatments help only to deal with the symptoms but in most cases the body needs a complete recovery by stem cell treatment that provides full recovery and shorter healing time.
Stem cells are highly effective in treating sport injuries because they can develop into the required muscle cells, joint cartilage cells, tendon or ligament cells or bone cells. Stem cells have also a potential of self-renewal that guarantee long- term healing effects in damaged or injured tissue. Process involves isolation of stem cells from the patient’s body and their injection into the damaged areas. Ideal source of high quality and quantity of stem cells as well as other regenerative cells represents body fat. Stem cells are able to decrease swelling, inflammation, reduce pain and overall they regenerate the damaged tissue including blood vessels. The main benefits of the cell therapy include rapid healing, minimizing swelling and pain, improved muscle strength, no rejection issues and complete recovery.
In CTE after repeated head trauma, intravenous administration of stem cells can dramatically improve health without the depression caused by commonly prescribed drugs. Prevention of further brain damage and neurodegeneration caused by CTE can be achieved with stem cells without side effects.