Chronic pain due to injury or degenerative disease can have a drastic effect on your quality of life. If you struggle with one of these conditions, you may have been told the only treatment available to you (if any) is surgery.
Continue reading to learn about a growing field of medicine known as growth factor therapy and to see if it may be the right treatment for you.
Growth Factor Therapy at a Glance
Why Is Growth Factor Therapy Different?
The speed and effectiveness of the body’s ability to heal is largely determined by the effectiveness of intercellular communication, which is mostly regulated by growth factors and proteins known as cytokines. Cytokines are proteins that specialize in cell signaling to activate the body’s response to certain injuries while growth factors stimulate growth, healing, and differentiation.
For wounds that fail to heal properly with the use of conventional medicine, growth factor therapy offers welcome relief. As a form of regenerative medicine, growth factor therapy stimulates the growth and proliferation of cells to therefore stimulate the body’s natural ability to heal itself. This offers less invasive treatments for injuries which previously required surgery to provide relief.
Growth factors are sometimes applied as a cream or lotion to treat skin injuries or skin graphs, but the most effective results to internal injuries are injected. The treatment takes only a day or two to recover from the injection, and the results of this treatment can be noticed quickly.
What Conditions Can Growth Factor Therapy Improve?
Different types of growth factors specialize in different treatment options. For example, epidermal growth factor (EGF) specializes in the growth of fibroblasts that produce collagen. This makes it effective in treating cutaneous injuries on the skin as well as certain metastatic cancers. Transforming growth factors (TGF) help to promote blood flow to the injured area while vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) encourages the growth of new blood vessels.
While growth factor therapy is still a relatively new field of study and new possibilities for this treatment arise every day, there are many conditions where growth factor therapy has already proven to be highly effective.
Some of the most common conditions which can be treated by growth factor therapy include:
- Arthritis
- Achilles Tendonitis
- Degenerative Joint Disease
- Tendonitis
- Cartilage Defects
Learn More About Growth Factor Therapy in Charlotte, NC
If you or a loved one suffers from one of the injuries listed above due to chronic pain or a degenerative disease, schedule a complimentary consultation at Dynamic Health. We provide Growth Factor Therapy in Charlotte, North Carolina, and would love to discuss your condition with you.
Give us a call today to schedule your first appointment.