Consider These Many Interventions for Arthritis

If you’re struggling with joint pain that’s preventing you from enjoying the activities you once loved, you’re not alone. The CDC reports that one in four adults in the United States has doctor-diagnosed arthritis. Perhaps more telling is the fact that the Arthritis Foundation found that more than 92 million people in the US have either doctor-diagnosed arthritis or arthritis-like symptoms, namely joint pain and inflammation.

What all of these people have in common is a desire to find relief from their joint pain. Fortunately, there are solutions.

The team here at Summit Pain Alliance specializes in helping people regain pain-free movement in their joints through a wide range of treatment protocols, which we often combine for best results.

Here’s a look at a few of the more effective options for arthritis that can greatly improve your joint health and your quality of life.

Joint injections

If you have specific joints that are giving you trouble, joint injections can go a long way toward providing relief. These injections contain a local anesthetic and a steroid, which work together to reduce both your pain and the inflammation within your joint.

Regenerative medicine

While joint injections can provide near-immediate relief from the discomfort of arthritis, we also want to find longer-term solutions. That is where regenerative medicine comes in. We offer both stem cell injections and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, which work to rebuild the soft tissues in your joints on a cellular level.

Stem cells work by transforming themselves into the cells needed to repair and rebuild your tissues. PRP therapy is a technique in which we inject a concentrate of your own platelets into your damaged tissues to create a healing environment full of growth factors and proteins.

Viscosupplementation

With arthritis, the lubrication in your joints can break down and, through viscosupplementation, we replenish this lubricant. Called hyaluronic acid, we inject the naturally occurring substance into your painful joints to restore smooth and pain-free function. The technique is particularly useful for painful knees.

Physical therapy

We know that moving your painful joints may seem counterintuitive (not to mention uncomfortable), but exercising and stretching your arthritic joints is one of the best ways to counter arthritis, especially osteoarthritis. Through physical therapy, we supply you with targeted exercises that strengthen your joint and take the pressure off of the damaged soft tissues.

This therapy is recommended no matter what other treatment you choose. For example, we can restore pain-free movement in your joints through joint injections, allowing you the opportunity to engage in physical therapy with no discomfort.

In addition to these effective therapies, we also recommend acupuncture, massage, and other adjunct treatments that can improve your circulation and the flow of resources in your body to help improve function in your joints.

To explore which arthritis treatment options are right for you, please make an appointment at one of our locations in Petaluma or Santa Rosa, California.