When Do You Need a Sports Medicine Expert?
Sports medicine is a medical subspecialty that deals with musculoskeletal injuries common in athletes at all levels. Sports medicine experts also have knowledge and experience to help athletes perform better on the field and to lower their risk of overuse injuries common in many sports.
As a Regenerative Medicine specialist, Tammy J. Penhollow, DO, plays a vital role in assisting in an athlete’s recovery from muscle, tendon, ligament, and joint injuries. At Precision Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Penhollow offers regenerative solutions to heal injuries and prevent the need for more invasive treatments, including surgery.
When to see a sports medicine expert
Any time you experience an injury while playing sports, you should schedule a diagnostic evaluation with a physician with sports medicine experience.
Even minor sports injuries can cause pain or other complications that take you out of the game. Untreated injuries can also worsen and lead to long-term issues that affect your ability to play your favorite sport.
You should also meet with a sports medicine expert if you:
- Want to improve your athletic performance
- Want to lower your risk for sports-related injuries
- Need tips for body conditioning
- Are looking to start a new sport or training program
Dr. Penhollow recommends booking a Regenerative Medicine consultation if you have pain that’s not getting better with medications or other therapies. She can evaluate the underlying cause of your pain and determine if regenerative medicine therapies using platelet-rich plasma (PRP) or bone marrow derived stem cells is right for you.
How regenerative medicine works
Regenerative medicine uses your body’s own abilities to heal itself from the inside out. We offer both PRP and bone marrow based stem cell injections that support a faster, more efficient natural healing process for your sports-related injuries.
PRP and your own bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) cells are already found in your body and are important for the regeneration of new tissue. We can extract PRP from a sample of your blood and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from your bone marrow or fatty tissues and minimally manipulate them in a centrifuge and immediately re-inject them using ultrasound or fluoroscopy (x-ray) guidance at the site of injury to address pain and inflammation from:
- Degenerative conditions such as osteoarthritis
- Joint pain
- Muscle sprains
- Ligament strains
- Rotator cuff injuries
High concentrations of PRP and bone marrow concentrate cells injected into injured areas of your body help promote reduction in pain and to facilitate a reduction in inflammation. The mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have the special ability to regenerate into any type of cell to help reduce the inflammation and pain from damage to muscles, nerves, ligaments, discs, and bone.
The benefits of regenerative medicine for athletes
Regenerative medicine can offer benefits for athletes in all types of sports. While these treatments may not bring immediate results, they can bring results that can get the athlete back to play and back to that high level of performance that the competition demands.
Over time, as the injury heals it is possible to experience a significant decrease in your pain and an increase in your mobility. Because regenerative medicine targets the underlying cause of your pain, one of our goals is to reduce your ongoing reliance on medications and avoid the need for surgery.
Dr. Penhollow also specializes in EMSCULPT® body rehabilitation to address acute and chronic muscle pain that’s keeping you from a physically active life. This noninvasive treatment uses HIFEM® (high-intensity focused electromagnetic) energy to induce powerful muscle contractions.
EMSCULPT can tone and tighten your body for aesthetic purposes and helps athletes achieve a tighter core and stronger muscles to enhance their game performance. It is also used as a “prehabilitation” in preparation for a surgery such as a joint replacement (knee, hip, shoulder) to increase the strength of the muscles stabilizing the joint in hopes that post operative recovery can occur at a more rapid pace.
To find out how regenerative medicine can help you overcome painful sports injuries, call Precision Regenerative Medicine in Scottsdale, Arizona, today to schedule an appointment or book a consultation online.
