Trending Therapy: Platelet Rich Growth Factors
by: Mel Schottenstein, NMD, MBE, FICT
This innovative therapy uses proteins from your own blood with the goal to regenerate cells, relieve joint pain, stimulate collagen production, help heal wounds and much more.
And the best part?
The treatments are completely natural- using a patient’s own blood, so PRGF therapy can be administered alone or used in along with other therapies and/or procedures.
What are Platelet Rich Growth Factors?
Platelets, an important reservoir of growth factors in the body, play an important role in many processes such as coagulation, immune response, the growth of new blood vessels and the healing of damaged tissues. In PRGF Therapy, your provider uses your blood to obtain significant concentrations of platelets and high concentrations of growth factors – that can be used immediately for clinical purposes.
Platelet-rich Growth Factor therapy derives highly concentrated growth factors made of blood with a high number of platelets in a small volume of plasma. Growth factors derived from centrifuged blood were first used in patients with chronic skin ulcers. Today,PRGF therapy is used for a wide variety of applications including:
- Soft tissue diseases and injuries
- Burn and scar tissue repair
- Hard-to-heal wounds
- Joint Pain Relief
- Skin Tissue Regrowth
- Hair Regrowth and Male Pattern Baldness
- Skin rejuvenation
What Does the Procedure Look Like?
First, the practitioner draws blood from the patient’s arm and then separates the PRGF from the rest of the blood’s components.
After injecting lidocaine to numb the treatment area, the PRGF fluid is carefully injected into multiple places under the skin. The platelets break down and release their growth factors, which trigger the natural processes of cell proliferation and tissue renewal.
The procedure itself takes about 30 minutes, and most people can resume their normal activities immediately afterward. Depending on the purpose of your therapy, the results of PRGF treatment are most noticeable after at least six months.
