Knee Osteoarthritis and STEM Cell Therapy

What is Knee Osteoarthritis?

Arthritis is the inflammation of one or more joints. It causes stiffness and pain, both of which can result in mobility issues.

Osteoarthritis is also known as degenerative joint disease. It is the “wear and tear arthritis.” This is because it breaks down the cartilage of joints. Which can result in numerous issues, as cartilage is the sponge like “shock absorber” of the body. Without it, joints loser their elasticity and become more susceptible to damage. Over time, the damage to the cartilage can impact the surrounding tissue, bone, and synovial fluid.

Generally speaking, osteoarthritis does not occur unless a joint has a previous injury, underlying disorder or experiences excessive stress. As such, while it can occur in any joint in the body, osteoarthritis occurs most frequently in the weight-bearing joints. This includes the spine, knees, and hips. Additionally, it can impact the big toe, neck, fingers and thumb.

Knee osteoarthritis is the most common cause of muscular skeletal pain in the knee joint and can often lead to disability.

What are the SYMPTOMS of knee osteoarthritis?

1. Joint pain during activity
   • Knee pain from osteoarthritis may be worse later in the day.
2. Night pain
3. Morning stiffness
4. Inflammation
5. Limited motion

As the cartilage of the knee deteriorates, it can lead to deformity. The outward curve of the knees is commonly referred to as being bow legged. This can also lead to a worsening limp.

Who is at RISK of developing knee osteoarthritis?

Around 350 million people worldwide suffer from arthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It impacts approximately 27 million Americans.

Age is a huge factor in the development of osteoarthritis. As we age, our ability to heal and regenerate damaged tissue decreases. Most people over the age of 60 have osteoarthritis. If you live long enough, you will almost certainly develop osteoarthritis!

A history of injuries or knee surgeries increases your likelihood of developing knee osteoarthritis. This means that athletic individuals are at risk of developing osteoarthritis. Athletes are at risk of developing osteoarthritis, especially if they play soccer, tennis or long-distance running. If steps aren’t taken to avoid injury, that could lead to bigger, long-term issues. Despite this risk, osteoarthritis is often associated with obesity. Excessive weight puts extra stress on the joints, which causes more wear and tear over time.

There is a hereditary component to osteoarthritis. If a close relative has osteoarthritis, it means you yourself are at a higher than average risk. Women are more likely to develop osteoarthritis than men. Additionally, people with metabolic disorders, excess growth hormone, and/or rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to develop osteoarthritis.

What TREATMENTS are available for knee osteoarthritis?

There are both surgical and non-surgical options for treating your knee osteoarthritis. Before selecting which option you want to explore, you need to meet with your doctor to assess the severity of your osteoarthritis. Depending on how severe your case is, certain treatments may not be an option.

If your case is still relatively minor, then your best non-surgical option is exercise and weight loss. By losing weight, you relieve pressure on your joints. This helps to prevent wear and tear. Additionally, by exercising, you strengthen the muscles surrounding your knee, which also function as shock absorbers. Letting those muscles atrophy from disuse only worsens your pain so, while the stiffness and discomfort caused by knee osteoarthritis may make you want to rest, you need to remain active.

Anti-inflammatory medication can help decrease symptoms as, at its core, arthritis is inflammation of the joints. There are over-the-counter options like aspirin and ibuprofen, as well as prescription strength options like Indocin, daypro, Relafen, Celebrex, lodine, and Mobic. Dosages should be discussed with your doctor since overdoing it with anti-inflammatory medications can stomach irritation, ulceration, and renal damage.

Cortisone injections, which function as direct acting anti-inflammatory medication, can be useful in combatting arthritis flares.

Surgical options for treating knee osteoarthritis include arthroscopy, osteotomy, and joint replacement surgery. Unless you are over 50 years old, joint replacement is likely not an option, as it is reserved for the most severe cases of osteoarthritis. It may need to be repeated later as the artificial joint can wear out too.

San Antonio/New Braunfels is ranked as the 8th fattest city in America. That, unfortunately, means we are at high risk of developing osteoarthritis. If you need knee osteoarthritis treatment in San Antonio, look into getting regenerative medical treatment from the Stem Cell Orthopedic Institute of Texas. Their doctors can use FDA approved stem cell injections to help repair the damage to your knees. Regenerative medicine is a safe away to make the most out of your body’s natural healing processes and avoid major surgery.

How to Build and Recover Muscle

About Muscle Recovery and Repair

No matter your age, if you push yourself too hard while exercising, you are likely to feel the consequences! Recovery can be simple if you are young or don’t push yourself too far outside your limits. However, time will wear down your joints and recovery time. Time in the gym and time in life.

Being an avid, active athlete is hard on your body! The wear and tear caused by hitting the gym regularly only gets worse with age. While the aches and pains don’t recover quite as quickly as they used to, it’s still vitally important to remain active as you get older. Loss of bone and muscle can lead to problems like osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. These can impact mobility and balance which, in turn, impact the risk of falling. By exercising regularly, older adults can stay healthy and independent longer.

Factors in Muscle Recovery

Depending on your health and goals, your concerns about muscle recovery will vary. Before you select which recovery options to pursue, you need to understand what factors impact your needs and their effectiveness.

The amount of recovery you need from exercise depends on a variety of factors including your fitness level, the volume & intensity of exercise, and familiarity of the exercise. The same variables apply to running where fitness level is particularly important. For example, some elite marathoners run 100 plus miles per week and need almost no rest between runs. On the other hand, a weekend warrior may attempt to run 20 miles in a week, or change up the stimulus with hill running, which could create intense soreness and require longer recovery times.

Three common factors which inhibit recovery are lack of sleep, lack of proper nutrition and over-training. Lack of sleep is usually found in individuals who are chronically sleep deprived, their muscle soreness will likely be more painful and may take more time for them to heal. When it comes to lack of proper nutrition, if the individual is not adequately hydrated, is deficient in potassium, or is not consuming enough protein, the pain from muscle soreness can be intense!

Many active individuals are guilty of overtraining their bodies at least once or twice in their lifetime. If you continue working out intensely without sufficient rest, muscle soreness can turn out worse than you anticipated. The best way to avoid very sore muscles and improve recovery is to use a progressive exercise program where workouts become more challenging at a measured pace over time.

Traditional Muscle Recovery Options

Ironically, while activity breaks down muscle, it also increases its recovery rate. In a recent study, after eight weeks of exercise, old mice regained more muscle mass and experienced faster muscle repair than mice of the same age who had not exercised. A body in motion does appear to stay in motion!

There are no clinically-proven ways to definitively speed up recovery of sore muscles. There are, however, a handful of treatments which may help alleviate the feeling of soreness like rest/active recovery, hydration, pre and post-workout nutrition, topical creams and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). If you hit the gym regularly, some of these options may sound familiar!

The rest/active recovery stage consists of getting plenty of sleep and resting your body. In simple cases without serious injury or preexisting conditions, this may be the most effective treatment. In addition, active recovery, which is light exercise during the recovery phase is able to stimulate blood flow to the muscles to help reduce muscle pain. Active recovery can include swimming or a light jog.

Hydration is key since it can help flush out toxins you consume out of your body. Dehydration can make muscle soreness even more painful. There is no universal amount of water that everyone should drink. Somewhere around 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water per day is a good starting point.

When it comes to pre and post-workout nutrition, consuming a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein either before, or after a workout, or both, may help reduce the severity of muscle soreness.

Topical creams like Ben Gay and IcyHot provide the perception of pain relief, but do not have much of an impact on the underlying muscle.

Lastly, drugs like Advil and Aleve, known as NSAIDS, can help relieve the discomfort of muscle soreness. It’s not advisable to use NSAIDS on a consistent basis, but rather appropriate for acute bout of soreness.

Older Adults Who Exercise May Develop Muscle Repair

Getting older isn’t all fun and games! However, that doesn’t mean older adults should slow down. Regular exercise plays a critical role in helping muscles repair themselves as quickly as possible after injury. Remaining strong can help prevent your health from deteriorating to the point that your ability to do daily tasks is impeded. Additionally, exercise that involves pre-conditioning may improve the muscle repair response in older.

This does not mean that seniors should push through pain no matter what! Pain is your body’s way of speaking to you and the older you are, the more important it becomes to listen to those warnings. However, you shouldn’t be afraid to push yourself to develop healthier work out habits.

Exercise-conditioning can help improve the delayed skeletal muscle regeneration observed in advanced age. Medical researchers have found that the physiological and metabolic benefits of exercise radiate to skeletal muscle satellite cells, the adult stem cells responsible for repair after injury. Even as the contractile elements of muscle tissue wane with age, the capacity of the satellite cells to respond to exercise cues is maintained. That means, no matter your age, your body has the cells within it that it needs to repair.

Regenerative Medicine

The same stem cells your body uses to repair itself fuel a new field of study called regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine focuses on repairing and regenerating damaged tissues.

Whether you are a young gym rat or a senior with arthritis, your joints can be worn down with time or in a sudden accident. To counteract this damage, stem cell therapy uses adult stem cells, the unspecialized cells within our bodies that create new cells for our tissues and organs. These cells can be removed from your body and injected in other damaged areas to encourage healing.

If you have a hard time recovering from your workout, consider using regenerative medicine to kick-start your body’s natural healing process. The Stem Cell Orthopedic Institute of Texas is available for consultations at (210) 293-3136.

This Article Originally Appeared on stemcellorthopedicinstituteoftexas.com

What are Stem Cells?

Our bodies are composed of billions of different, specialized cells. Each one has its own role to fill in our organs, tendons, joints, muscles, etc. Stem cells are unspecialized. They will divide to produce more stem cells but do not take on a specialized task. Under certain conditions, however, stem cells can be induced into becoming a tissue-specific, specialized cell.

Somatic stem cells, or adult stem cells, are unspecialized cells that are found throughout the body, inside tissue and organs. These cells exist to produce more cells. They aid your body by regenerating damaged tissue and replenishing dying cells.

What is Stem Cell Therapy?

Stem cell therapy is a non-surgical option for repairing internal damage by replenishing or replacing old tissue. A patient has a sample of their adult stem cells extracted, cleansed in a laboratory, and then injected back into the impacted area of their body. The injection process usually takes less than one hour.

As the stem cells come from your body, there is no risk of rejection. They have always belonged in your body so your immune system does not take issue with them, despite their new placement.

How do stem cells help with my arthritis pain?

When tissues are worn down over time or suddenly traumatized, your natural configuration of stem cells isn’t enough to match the breakdown of injured tissue. The regeneration process is slower than the degenerative process. An ineffectual recovery may result in weaker internal structures, decreased function or chronic pain.

Injecting stem cells into the impacted area advances your body’s natural healing process by greatly increasing the regenerative abilities that specific location. Depending on your condition, improvement appears between 2 to 4 weeks.

What conditions can Stem Cell Therapy treat?

Stem cell therapy can aid with:

1. Osteoarthritis
2. Hip Pain
3. Knee Pain
4. Degenerative Disc Disease
5. Rotator Cuff Tear/Tendinosis

Is there a long recovery time?

Unlike surgical options, stem cell therapy has minimal recovery time. It is an outpatient procedure and most patients walk out of the clinic without assistance. Low impact activities are encouraged immediately after the treatment. In 4 to 6 weeks, full impact activities are allowed.

Still not sure about stem cell therapy? Listen to our Patient Stories and see how treatment improved the lives of our patients.

This Article Originally Appeared on stemcellorthopedicinstituteoftexas.com