Regenerative Medicine At Advanced Orthopedic Specialists

The National Institute of Health (NIH) defines regenerative medicine as the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. This field holds the promise of regenerating damaged tissues and organs in the body by stimulating previously irreparable organs to heal themselves.

Osteopathic medicine tends to fit perfectly within the concept of regenerative medicine. Andrew Taylor Still founded the first college of osteopathic medicine in Kirksville, Missouri in 1892 when he declared that there must be a better philosophy of medical care. Dr. Still felt physicians needed to trust the body’s innate ability to heal itself and to avoid toxic and misdirected treatments aimed to treat the effects rather than the cause of the disease.

Thus, the tenants of regenerative medicine fit well within the philosophy of an osteopathic physician and surgeon. Our Comprehensive Arthritis and Recovery and Education program otherwise known as the C.A.R.E. program utilizes these basic principles to help your body heal itself. We use an ancient concept of homeostasis that is still used today to treat chronic diseases such as heart failure, calcium metabolism and arthritis. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Heraclitus (540–480 BC) first described this concept when he theorized that static, unchanging states of the human body was not natural, and that ability of the human body to undergo constant change and to respond to the change was “intrinsic to all things.” Hippocrates (460-375 BC), considered to be the father of medicine, further refined this concept and compared health to the harmonious balance of the elements, and illness and disease to the systematic disharmony of these elements. We have simplified this into modern terms of damage and repair.

We can simplify your arthritis into a mathematical formula. Every day, your joint makes cells and every day, your joint looses some cells. Over time, your joint has just lost more cells than what it can make and the net result is the loss of cartilage. This loss of cartilage is the definition of arthritis. When we lose cartilage, we have pain, swelling, and deformities ultimately causing a dysfunctional joint. If you want to think of this in a practical manner, consider the City of Detroit. For years, they spent more money than they took in. They barely survived for years limping along, but the truth was that they spent more than what they made. This eventually led to a declaration of bankruptcy and a long process was started to reduce the spending and increase the revenues. This is not usually enough. The bankruptcy court also corrects any underlying functional deficiencies to keep the city functional and out of bankruptcy. Most of the times, this means facing reality and making some dramatic, yet helpful changes. This eventually led to a balanced budget and the emergence out of bankruptcy.

When we look at your joint, we use the same concept to get your joint out of bankruptcy. We need to lose less cells and make more cells while correcting some underlying deficiencies. We look at both ends of the formula helping you identify why you are losing so many cells and we correct these deficiencies. We can also look at what you need to do to increase the production of cells. We look at weight control, shoe wear, joint alignment and muscle or ligament deficiencies and correct all that we can correct. On the other end of the formula, we encourage the correction of some nutritional deficiencies, and supplement these deficiencies. We can also increase gentle range of motion exercises that can stimulate repair and have a discussion about cell-based treatments.

Cell-based treatments include using your own body’s cells to help in this reparative process. Some examples of this include platelet rich plasma (PRP), bone marrow concentrate (BMC) and adipose derived stem cells (ADSC). Each one of these has specific indications and, most importantly, contra-indications. Not everyone responds the same way to these treatments, so it is very important that the physician treating you understands who and what conditions are best treated with these treatments. We have the most experience using these treatments in the area. Dr. Loniewski has been using PRP since 2005 and has performed this on thousands of surgical and non-surgical patients. Dr. Loniewski has conducted research on PRP and presented the results at scientific meetings. He was also one of the first physicians in the Midwest to utilize adipose derived stem cell (ADSC) for hip and knee arthritis since 2013 and he has since performed this on nearly 100 patients. This experience helps us understand the best methods and the best patient selections for these treatments. It also helped us identify patients who may not respond as favorably, which is sometimes more important.

We just don’t offer these treatments, we help correct the underlying deficiencies and customize what type of treatments may offer the best overall outcome with the greatest chance for success while reducing the risks of treatment. Thus, Dr. Loniewski has followed the basic tenants of Andrew Taylor Still and Hippocrates by restoring homeostasis while reducing harm to the patient.

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