My good buddy Marky Mark recently told me about a somewhat new treatment for people suffering from sports and other injuries called platelet-rich plasma therapy. PRP supposedly helps tendon, muscle, and ligament injuries by regenerating platelets and other blood components at the site of injury, thus repairing damaged tissue. According the NYU Orthopaedic website, "The procedure involves taking a small amount of blood from your arm. The blood is then placed in a special processing unit that separates the platelets and growth factors from the other blood components. The platelets and growth factors are then collected in a sterile syringe and injected into the targeted tissue."
How awesome would that be for people like me who tore their ACL's and would rather not have to undergo surgery? Tiger Woods even underwent the treatment to help recover from his knee surgery. Unfortunately, the procedure is still not standardized nor proven to be 100% effective. In an article published by ABC News, it was found that PRP didn't fare much better than placebo. I guess the jury is still out if the procedure works or not, but I'm an optimist and would give it a go if the need ever arose, assuming I can swing the cost, which could run around $500-$1,500 per shot.
For further reading, check out this recent article by the New York Times.
How awesome would that be for people like me who tore their ACL's and would rather not have to undergo surgery? Tiger Woods even underwent the treatment to help recover from his knee surgery. Unfortunately, the procedure is still not standardized nor proven to be 100% effective. In an article published by ABC News, it was found that PRP didn't fare much better than placebo. I guess the jury is still out if the procedure works or not, but I'm an optimist and would give it a go if the need ever arose, assuming I can swing the cost, which could run around $500-$1,500 per shot.
For further reading, check out this recent article by the New York Times.
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