Learn more about our integrative medicine services in Denver at Accelerate Health today.
With numerous researchers currently engaged in the field, we are just at the beginning of understanding the full abilities and implications of integrative medicine. At Accelerate Health Denver, we offer a variety of integrative medicine services aimed at unlocking your body’s natural ability to heal itself.
These include:
Diagnostic Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
MSK has many applications, from diagnosing injuries like muscle tears and chronic conditions to guiding caregivers through diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
Practitioners may use ultrasound to diagnose a wide range of injuries and chronic conditions, including muscle tears, tendonitis, bursitis, joint problems, rheumatoid arthritis, and masses like tumors or cysts. Sometimes, pain or injury is triggered by movement, which cannot be captured in a stative image. MSK performed in real time can provide information that cannot be detected by any other imaging method.
Diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound can be used to great effect to guide needle placement for injections. A complete sonographic examination of the injection site is conducted to determine critical structures such as nerves and vessels. This allows the practitioner to determine the appropriate needle trajectory to avoid areas of potential infection.
Prolotherapy Injections
Prolotherapy is a medical procedure that seeks to treat connective tissue injuries and relieve musculoskeletal pain. The term ‘prolotherapy’ is short for 'proliferative therapy,’ referring to the proliferative -or regenerative- process of the body.
Prolotherapy is based on the idea that chronic musculoskeletal pain is caused by ligament or tendon weakness brought on by insufficient repair after overuse or injury. Prolotherapy seeks to trick the body into initiating a new healing cycle, which would strengthen the weakened ligaments and tendons and thereby relieve pain.
To initiate this new healing cycle, a practitioner injects ‘irritants’ (dextrose or saline) into injured tissues, creating local, controlled inflammation. This leads to increased blood flow to the area and production of new connective tissue. Over time, repeated prolotherapy treatment allows a gradual buildup of new tissue. This strengthens the connective tissues and allows the pain to resolve on its own.
Make an appointment today at Accelerate Health Denver to meet with our Interventional Spine and Sports Medicine Specialist and see if prolotherapy is right for you.
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections
Platelets are the smallest of our blood cells, whose primary function is to prevent and stop bleeding. PRP injections are based on the same theory as prolotherapy, but instead of using a dextrose or saline solution, the patient is injected with a high-density concentration of their own platelets to increase their healing capability.
Prior to an injection being performed, the patient’s own blood is drawn and spun in a centrifuge to separate the plasma. This plasma, now concentrated with platelets, is packed with growth factors. It is injected into the injured area, stimulating and enhancing the body’s natural healing process.
There is supporting published evidence indicating that PRP injections can be used to treat or manage many conditions, including:
- Tendonitis
- Osteoarthritis
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Spine arthritic conditions
- Lumbar disc tear
- Achilles tendinopathy
Anyone living with these conditions might benefit from PRP injections.
Bone Marrow Concentrate Stem Cell Injections
Bone marrow is a robust source of stem cells in the body. These stem cells are responsible for maintaining and repairing musculoskeletal tissues, regulating inflammation and promoting blood flow. Much like PRP, concentrated amounts of bone marrow stem cells injected to an injured area can enhance the body’s natural repair and healing process.
Bone marrow is obtained in a short office-based procedure, during which a bone marrow sample is collected from the back of the pelvic bone. This sample is then transported into a centrifuge system and processed into a highly concentrated final stem cell product.
Much as in PRP or other prolotherapy treatments, the BMC stem cells are then injected into the injured or affected area, where they can amplify the healing process.
Bone marrow tissues have been used in treatments for over 20 years. In this time, high-quality clinical trials have used BMC therapy to treat:
- Osteoarthritis in knees and other joints
- Partial tendon and ligament tears
- Bone injuries
- Lumbar disc tears
- Avascular necrosis (death of bone tissue)
- Tendinopathy
Patients dealing with any of these injuries or conditions might consider BMC stem cell injections as a part of their overall treatment plan.
Make an appointment today at Accelerate Health Denver to meet with our Interventional Spine and Sports Medicine Specialist and see if BMC injection therapy is right for you.
Steroid Injections
When the topic of steroids comes up, you might start thinking about bodybuilders or sports scandals. While we hear more frequently about that type of anabolic steroid, used illegally to increase muscle mass, it is corticosteroids that are so useful in treating pain, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases.
Steroids are man made versions of hormones naturally created by your body. When corticosteroids are injected into a joint or muscle, they reduce inflammation in the nearby area, which helps to relieve pain and stiffness. If injected into the bloodstream, steroids can reduce inflammation throughout the body and reduce immune system activity.
Steroid injections are also referred to as cortisone injections, cortisone shots, steroid shots, or corticosteroid injections.
Steroid injections can be administered in several different ways, depending on the needs of the patient. Injections can be given:
- Into a joint (intra-articular)
- Into a muscle (intramuscular)
- Into the spine (epidural)
- Into the blood (intravenous)
When a steroid injection is administered, it can deliver a high dose of medication directly to a painful, inflamed area. The patient should be able to go home soon after treatment, but may need to rest the treated body part for a few days. Pain relief from a steroid injection typically begins to work after 24 hours, and can last for several weeks.
Steroid injections can help treat a variety of conditions, including:
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Multiple sclerosis
- Gout
- Sciatica
- Back pain
- Bursitis
- Tendonitis
Patients living with any of these conditions might find pain and inflammation relief through steroid injection therapy.
Steroid injections might be the treatment you are looking for to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. Make an appointment today at Accelerate Health Denver to meet with our Interventional Spine and Sports Medicine Specialist and see if steroid injection therapy is right for you.
Pain Management Back Injections
Back pain management often requires a combination of therapies to treat and prevent pain. Back injections usually consist of a numbing medicine and a steroid. As with other steroid injections, the purpose of pain management back injections is to:
Control pain by reducing inflammation in and around nerves
Improve mobility and function in the lower back and legs
Allow the patient make progress with physical therapy
Additional benefits to back injections are the potential to limit oral medication and postpone or eliminate the need for surgery.
Pain management back injections, sometimes called epidural steroid injections, are performed by injecting a local anesthetic and a steroid medication directly into the epidural space that surrounds the spinal cord and nerve roots. The practitioner will use live X-ray or ultrasound technology to guide the needle to the appropriate injection site, and dye is used to confirm proper positioning.
Back injections are used to treat patients with two major back pain problems: radiculopathy and spinal stenosis.
Radiculopathy is inflammation or damage to a nerve at the site where it exits the spine. Sharp pain shoots from the lower back down into one or both legs, or from the neck into an arm. Radiculopathy can be caused by a herniated disk.
Spinal stenosis is the narrowing of the spine, usually caused by a herniated disk, bone spur, or tumor pressing on the spine. This pressure compresses the nerves inside the spine, causing pain in the buttock or leg, and possibly the back.
Back injections might be the treatment you are looking for to reduce pain and get you back to your normal daily activities. Make an appointment today at Accelerate Health Denver to meet with our Interventional Spine and Sports Medicine Specialist and see if pain management back injections could be a part of your treatment plan.
Integrative Medicine at Accelerate Health Denver
At Accelerate Health Denver, we are eager to get you the relief you need. Simply make an appointment, and we can get you on the road to a life free from pain. Together we will:
Integrative Medical treatments could be the key to receiving your pain and inflammation, unlocking your body’s natural abilities to heal, and returning you to the active, healthy lifestyle that you love.
