Regenexx Des Moines
Blogstatin drugs are poison to stem cells
The wonder drug of the 20th century that’s poised to be the thalidomide of the 21st is statin cholesterol-lowering drugs. A study reported July 29, 2015, by the American Journal of Physiology—Cell Physiology shows why statin drugs are bad news for stem cells. Statin...
getting to the bottom of aging
Everyone ages. There are choices we can make to slow the process, but what causes aging in the first place? To answer that question we need to be able to examine and characterize what’s going on at the cellular level. A novel study was able to do just that by taking a...
common pain medication can interfere with healing
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used to treat osteoarthritis and sports injuries. There is a large variety of NSAIDs available, either over the counter or by prescription. Aspirin, Advil, Aleve, Celebrex, Motrin, and Indocin are just a few of...
men are at greater risk for heart attack after joint replacement
In the wake of all the studies demonstrating the incidence of serious risks and complications associated with hip- or knee-replacement surgery, a current study finds that men experience a much greater risk of heart attack following surgery for total hip or knee...
what hip arthritis?
Lynne is a force to be reckoned with, or perhaps she more accurately should be described as a redirected force. Her love is aikido, the Japanese martial art of redirecting an attacker’s forces back on him or her, using the opponent’s own energy to allow the smallest...
why baseball players are striking out using PRP to treat elbow injuries
An interesting article posted on the Sports Illustrated website June 27, 2013, suggested that one of the mainstays thought to help players avoid Tommy John surgery may be striking out. The gist of the article was that pitchers and other players have turned to...
exercise changes platelet growth factors
Love it or hate it, exercise makes a significant impact on health. Exercising and maintaining proper weight have a lot to do with the chemical environment within our joints, but can exercise positively change the makeup of the platelet-rich plasma (PRP) used to treat...
can stem cells help a patient with failed knee surgery?
Many patients who undergo knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear the surgical graft. Can a precise stem-cell injection under advanced-imaging guidance help such postoperative tears? This is the story of a college soccer player who found...
weight affects the outcome of knee-replacement surgery
Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of fat based on an individual’s height and weight. Based on simple physics, patients with a higher body mass index (BMI) put more physical stress on their knees. Depuy Orthopaedics, a manufacturer of knee-replacement prostheses, paid...
knee arthroscopy risks are too great
Arthroscopic knee surgery is an odd hybrid of old-school “cut it out” thinking paired with new technology. It caught on like wildfire in the 1980s because doctors and patients alike were attracted to the idea of eliminating the need for large incisions required for...
what causes neck pain?
If you have chronic neck pain, you’ve likely heard many different reasons about why your neck hurts—from tight muscles, to bulging discs, to neck bones that aren’t aligned. What’s causing the pain is only half the battle. The other half is figuring out why it hurts....
did that bad ankle sprain make your knee unstable?
If you have an ankle injury and later develop knee pain, are the two connected? Regrettably, many doctors are not trained to think about biomechanics. There are reasons why so many doctors are clueless about how the body’s musculoskeletal system works. They receive...
why do some cultures have no back pain?
Eighty-five percent of Americans experience back pain at some point, and a third of those will develop chronic back pain. Meanwhile, in some cultures back pain is virtually nonexistent. Is this a genetic issue, or are we doing something wrong? One back surgery down...
Regenexx shoulder stem-cell study published
There’s a lot of attention paid to stem-cell injections for osteoarthritis of the knee, but much less to stem-cell injections used to treat shoulder problems. Regenexx recently published the world’s largest registry experience with precisely guided stem-cell...
is using PRP in knee surgery a good idea?
A trend developing in orthopedic surgery involves the addition of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in knee arthroscopy. Research seems to suggest that surgical outcome might be improved by adding PRP at the time of surgery. PRP is a serum created by concentrating platelets...
do you really need that shoulder surgery?
Pain is the single biggest driver of elective modern orthopedic surgery. Despite this, research of the last decade or so has shown that surgery is really bad at treating pain. A recent study on shoulder surgery outcomes and rotator cuff tear biology illustrates this...