Joint Injections: The Next Generation

Joints sometimes hurt. Like well oiled machines, occasionally the oil runs thin, the surfaces become corroded, small particles become trapped, and the components get out of line. Pain happens when the surrounding nerve fibers become irritated. Swelling happens as the vessels in the lining of the joint bring new cells, to both remove the irritants and provide healing factors to the damaged tissues. The cascade of injury and repair goes on every day in every joint of the body. [6] To relieve the symptoms of injured joints, traditionally, physicians have recommended ice, compression, elevation, (ICE) plus massage and anti-inflammatory drugs. However, this approach does not address the cause of the irritation, pain and swelling in the first place. [3] To repair the cause, many physicians are now turning to injections, which work to stimulate and speed up the body's natural healing process. To understand how these injections work, it's helpful to know how the body responds to injury. The tissue injury response cycle goes like this: When damaged, tissue bleeds due to the disruption of the blood vessels. The blood released causes swelling. Swelling causes the recruitment of more vessels and cells, which release breakdown enzymes and build up growth factors that have both clean up ability and repair ability. Repair occurs by the production of proteins, predominantly collagen, which is laid down either as scar tissue or as new tissue depending on the stimulation and environment. T...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news