Aging, A Natural & unavoidable Phenomenon. With Aging, comes pain in the form of Arthritis or Joint Degeneration; Memory or movement Loss; breathing Problem or Lung Fibrosis & Conjugal Issues. Medicines till date can alleviate symptoms or modify disease process but Cannot Regenerate or rejuvenate tissues or organs. Diseased Tissues need Growth factors, proteins or peptides and targeted stemcells for rejuvenations of Joints. Here comes the magic of Regenerative or Interventional Rheumatology to make you live pain free & young again.
To get a better understanding of what is the essence of Regenerative or Interventional Rheumatology, we must first decipher what is Rheumatology and its arena of diseases.
Rheumatology is distinctively different from the Rheumatic Fever children or adolescents suffer after a sorethroat or upper respiratory infection which also causes joint ‘pain but it is “migratory” pain; not fixed or paired joints pain as like in most rheumatological conditions and rheumatic fever also makes an individual prone to develop heart valve problems and Kidney problems. Rheumatology deals with specifically the “autoimmune” conditions of an individual meaning our own immune system launches an antibody mediated attack against our own joints causing joint pain or arthritis, blood vessels causing blockages, Kidney causing protein and blood leakage in urine, lung causing hardening of gaseous balloons , brain causing mental illness , skin causing rashes and other internal organs all of which are genetically pre-determined but triggered by some external factors like any infection, heavy metal poisoning and intestinal bacterial imbalance. Some of major autoimmune arthritic diseases are as Follow:
1. Rheumatoid Arthritis: Predominantly small joints of Hand and Feet are painful in the morning.
2. Ankylosing Spondylitis: Predominantly upper or lower back(spine) pain more in the morning in a young to middle aged MALE.
3. Other Seronegative Arthritides: Painful joints due to allergic skin disease like “Psoriasis” or painful joints due to long standing diarrhea (Bowel issues) or painful joints after any viral/ sexual infections.
4. Lupus: An arthritic disease of predominantly females causing multiple symptoms including repeated early pregnancy loss, Skin rash at cheeks, mouth ulcers, hairfall and depression.
5. Systemic Sclerosis: Tightening of Facial, Hands and other skin with hardening of lungs causing breathing problems.
6. Dermato-myositis: Inflammation of Skin and muscles causing rash and muscle pain.
7. Sjogren Syndrome: All natural fluids of ours like tears, saliva, sweats are usually dried up.
What else in Rheumatology:
- Degenerative arthritis due to age/injury: Notably Osteoarthritis of Knee, Hips & Back causing painful friction of bones.
- Deposition of Waste materials in Joints: Waste products of blood get deposited in joints causing pain notable “GOUT”. Diet is a big issue regarding the problems. Too much Alcohol in urban diet, Red meats, Pulses, Seeds etcetera are responsible for this pain.
- Mechanical pain of Ligaments or Tendons: Inappropriate sports movement, weight lifting, obesity and sedentary sitting lifestyle cause these type of injuries resulting in backpain and all other joints pain originating in Ligaments and tendons.
- Nutritional deficiencies: Vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common causes nowadays of muscles and joint pain as well as general fatigue, insomnia and Diabetes.
- Chronic Pain syndromes: Fibromyalgia is caused by long standing incurable arthritic pain, sleep deprivation and anxiety.
Interventional rheumatologists have been working relentlessly to cure patients of Debilitating arthritis notably Knee & Hip Osteoarthritis, backpain due to Lumbar & cervical disc issues and including all other bone & joints problems like shoulder, ankle, elbow, wrist, PLID, sports injury and so on most of which have long been thought of as incurable or lingering. Cutting edge regenerative treatments like Prolotherapy, Bone Marrow Concentrate(BMC) implantation, Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF) implantation, GOLDIC therapy, Platelet Lysate Therapy, Proteomics/ Peptidomics Therapy have been successfully introduced in Bangladesh & soon there is going to be Exosomes therapy.
Lets dive into some brief detail of these cutting-edge therapies which have redefined medicine as a whole:
- Prolotherapy: Inflammed joints or injured Ligaments/tendons are stimulated to healing itself by 10-25% dextrose solution or Ozone depending on body’s self regenerative pathways.
- Platelet Based Treatments:
- PRP(Platelet Rich Plasma): Any person’s blood contains a yellow liquid called Plasma where there are specialized cells called “Platelets” which have huge stores of growth factors(Special reparative proteins) that are released once they are placed inside diseased tissues or joints
- Platelet Lysate: Platelets are broken down and internal their growth factors are directly released in a solution including mRNAs (genetic materials) which when placed inside joint cavity or diseased tissues cause body’s new proteins to be synthesized and thus regeneration occurs.
- Stem Cells: Mother cells bearing Special signaling molecule on their surface capable of converting into desired healthy cells and replacing diseased cells of an organ. In Joints, we use cells harvested from either patient’s own bone marrow and fat or from umbilical cord blood of newborn babies which are Mesenchymal Stem Cells(MSCs).
- Bone Marrow and Fat Based Treatments: Every human being is a source of autologous bone marrow concentrate rich in mononuclear stemcells and adipose(fat) derived stemcells which magical & sustainable relief from kneepain, shoulder pain, backpain and other neurological disorders including Spinal cord paralysis, brain disorders eg, strokes, Alzheimers, parkinson’s & so on.
- GOLDIC Therapy: Gold particle induced cytokine means patient’s blood is separated and treated with gold nanoparticles releasing rejuvenating molecules and growth factors from cells creating a healing juice.
- Peptides Therapy: Special amino acid sequences called peptides are produced mimicking body’s own functioning molecules which are pushed inside joint tissues for healing of pain and production of collagen, the building blocks of joints.
- Exosomes Therapy: Small protein filled extracellular vesicles that are naturally produced by stem cells, to deliver therapeutic molecules to specific cells in the body. In easy Terms, rejuvenating molecules produced by stem cells are separated and pushed directly into the target organs for faster healing.
All these are medicine free products used biologically to bring about regeneration of painful joints and other diseased structures.
Writer:
Rtn Dr. Monzur A Khoda
MBBS, MRCP(UK), EULAR ECRD(Switz)
BMDC NO A-71434
Interventional Rheumatologist & Stemcell Specialist
Concord Stem Cell Limited, Dhaka (Country’s One & Only Cellular Medicine Clinic)
Consultant, Popular Diagnostics, Shantinagar, Dhaka
www.drmonzurakhoda.com
