Achilles Stem Cell Therapy
The Achilles Tendon is the largest tendon in the body. This means when it starts to fail and deteriorate on you, your entire body suffers. While injuries occur to athletes, you dont need to be a super star to suffer pain from an injured Achilles. However, the longer you leave your injured tendon untreated, the longer it goes untreated, the more damage you might suffer. Instead of staying off your feet, opting for replacement surgery or deciding to just pick up a cane to reduce the pressure on your foot, stem cell treatments can significantly reduce the pain suffered while helping the Achilles tendon repair itself.
Common Symptoms of an Injured Achilles
An injured Achilles is not clear cut and often it is not something you can diagnose yourself. Instead, as there are different bones, muscles and joints along the ridge of your foot, attempting to identify it yourself is not a viable option. However, understanding the symptoms is important. Pain and stiffness is always present in a damaged or injured Achilles. This is especially true the day after exercising. If the joint hurts it is due to your tendon breaking down. You might start to suffer bone spurs because of it, which are especially painful. You are also likely to experience swelling in your foot and, if the injury occurs suddenly, you might feel a pop in your foot. This is a sign your Achilles tendon ruptured.
Achilles Tendonitis
Achilles tendonitis is what you suffer when dealing with pain from the tendon. It occurs right along the heel of your foot and may make it impossible to move. Tendonitis is broken down into two different categories. This includes noninsertional and insertional. With noninsertional, fibers in the middle of the tendon have started to break down as small tears start to form, causing the tendon to swell and thicken. On the other hand, insertional occurs when the lower part of the heel starts to break down. Both are especially painful, yet both can be treated with stem cell treatments.
Use of Stem Cells on the Tendon
The body produces stem cells naturally, so the treatment takes advantage of your own stem cells. These cells are typically removed from your hip bone through a minimally invasive incision. The bone marrow contains ready to use stem cells and this is the easiest access point with the mildest reactions. Now, it is important to know that if the tendon is fully ruptured or fully torn off, surgery may be required simply because stem cells do take some time to grow the new tissue and you simply need to have the tendon reattached immediately. However, a stem cell injection allows the body to begin to essentially print and produce new tendon cells. These stem cells take on the genetic formation of the cells around it, so when placed around tendon cells, the blank stem cells eventually develop into tendon cells. This is why it is the best treatment option available for your injury (not to mention the most natural as you are using your own bodys).