GenLife Regenerative Medicine | Dr. Charles F. Mahl

Prolotherapy, platelet-rich plasma, and stem cells for chronic pain and hormone therapy.

It usually takes about 2-4 weeks to get on the schedule, although sometimes we can get you in sooner.

If your MRI is more than one year old or if your condition has changed for the worse, we request you ask your treating physician or your primary care physician for an updated MRI order including a precertification, if required by your insurance plan. If we order an MRI for you, before you become an active patient in our practice, there is a probability that it will not be covered by your insurance and you may be responsible for your MRI bill.

Stem cell injections can treat degenerative arthritis of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand, as well as the hip, spine, knee, ankle, and foot. These injections are also used for most types of ligament sprains, tendon tears without significant retraction, certain types of meniscal and labral tears, and certain size chondral lesions (surface cartilage holes). They are also helpful to treat avascular necrosis of the end of the bones in joints, as well as certain bones in the foot and wrist. Stem cell injections are also used for certain types of non-union fractures. Lastly, they are also helpful in treating certain types and severity of spinal disc injuries and degenerated discs that cause pain and disability.

Stem Cells are reserved for severe tendon disease, ligament tears, cartilage lesions, and more advanced arthritis. In a more moderate case, it can also attain in one treatment what two to three PRP treatments can achieve. For someone with a limit to the amount of time they can commit to their healing schedule, it may be more cost effective to go right to a stem cell treatment plan. This is especially true for someone traveling a great distance for treatment. The other advantage is that the length of symptom relief a patient usually experiences from a stem cell treatment, particularly for a chronic incurable condition, such as degenerative arthritis, may be two to three times that of a series of PRP treatments.

PRP is probably equal to two to three Prolotherapy treatments, but it can cost two to three times more than a Prolotherapy treatment. We generally use it for unstable ligament tears, more advanced cartilage lesions, and more advanced arthritis. Most orthopedic conditions that we treat take two to three treatments, with a range of one to five treatments to heal or manage.

Prolotherapy is the safest, least expensive, and most effective place to start for milder disease. The younger the patient, the better it works. It still can help in more advanced disease, and in patients of advanced age, but the chance of significant improvement falls with the severity and age. It can take three to six Prolotherapy treatments to heal or manage most orthopedic conditions, with a range being one to ten treatments.

We like our patients to understand that these treatment options are on a continuum of care spectrum; starting with the mildest, easiest, and cheapest at the low end (Prolotherapy) to the most expensive, sophisticated, and strongest on the high end (Stem Cells) of the spectrum.

Platelet Rich Plasma comes from a person's blood and has healing factors.

Prolotherapy repairs connective tissue and repairs ligaments as well as promoting long-term pain relief.

There are many benefits including replacing damaged cells in one body part with healthy cells.

The average person usually requires 3-6 treatments given at 1-2 week intervals before this occurs.