by Stemedix | Sep 5, 2022 | Parkinson's Disease, Stem Cell Therapy
Treating the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson’s disease can be incredibly challenging. Since the condition’s progression varies widely, there is no standard treatment. Ideally, patients work with their healthcare provider to create a treatment plan tailored to their symptoms. Here we will discuss the current treatments for Parkinson’s Disease.
Most treatment plans include a multipronged approach, combining exercise, therapies, and medications to manage symptoms and slow the condition’s progression.
Exercises for Parkinson’s Disease
Exercise is critical to maintaining balance, mobility, and strength for those with Parkinson’s. When using physical activity to manage Parkinson’s symptoms, patients should combine aerobic, strength, balance, agility, and flexibility exercises.
Many activities incorporate these elements, such as yoga, biking, running, dance, and Pilates.
Therapies for Treating Parkinson’s Disease
Depending on the symptoms a patient experiences, several therapies can assist with mobility, speech, and function.
Physical Therapy
Many Parkinson’s patients are prescribed physical therapy to remain independent. These therapies can retrain the muscles and slow the progression of hypokinesia, or smaller movements that develop as the disease progresses.
Additionally, physical therapy can aid balance, flexibility, strength, and coordination.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy allows those with Parkinson’s to remain active and find new ways to complete tasks that become more difficult as the condition progresses. Patients also learn to use new equipment to stay independent and add ease to movement.
Speech Therapy
Many patients with Parkinson’s experience speech problems such as low speech volume, hoarse or breathy speaking, or lack of pitch. Speech therapy can help with speaking mechanics, using assistive devices, and swallowing concerns.
Medications for Parkinson’s Disease
Currently, the most common medication for managing the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease is a drug called levodopa. The brain converts levodopa to dopamine, helping replace the neurotransmitter’s loss.
Since levodopa can cause nausea, the medication is almost always administered with a companion drug, carbidopa, which manages stomach upset and nausea symptoms.
Unfortunately, levodopa’s absorption is inconsistent because it takes a long path from the small intestine through the blood to the brain. The inconsistency can lead to a rise and fall in the brain’s dopamine levels.
Additionally, the treatment becomes less effective over time, as the cells that convert levodopa to dopamine continue to decline. There are several other medications aimed at reducing Parkinson’s symptoms. However, they all have some limitations.
Surgical Options
Surgical treatments for Parkinson’s disease include deep brain stimulation (DBS) and Duopa.
Deep Brain Stimulation
DBS aims to reduce patients’ movement-related symptoms. In this procedure, a surgeon implants electrodes into the brain. These electrodes deliver electrical stimulation into targeted areas that control movement.
Many patients experience a reduction in symptoms after DBS surgery. However, the amount of reduction varies, and most patients remain on their medications, though in smaller doses.
Duopa
Duopa allows carbidopa-levodopa medication to be administered directly into the intestine via a gel. This methodology improves absorption and reduces the fluctuation of dopamine levels.
Patients require surgery to place a tube in the intestine. Then, a pump delivers Duopa directly to the intestine via the tube.
New Alternative Therapy
Researchers are seeing promising results in investigating regenerative medicine, also known as stem cell therapy, for managing Parkinson’s disease. Early studies offer hope that stem cells will provide a more comprehensive option to manage Parkinson’s symptoms. If you would like to learn more about the treatment options available at Stemedix for Parkinson’s Disease, contact a care coordinator today!
by admin | Aug 31, 2022 | Health Awareness
Your mental health is critical to all aspects of your life, from physical health to work and social interactions. High levels of stress, too much social media, loneliness, and lack of physical exercise can negatively affect your mental health.
However, just like there are ways to improve your physical health, you can also improve your mental health. Implementing small changes can offer a significant impact.
Prioritize Your Overall Health
When you lack enough sleep, have poor nutrition, or have a sedentary lifestyle, it affects your physical and mental health. Start improving your mental health by making an effort to care for yourself. For example, you can:
- Aim to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep nightly
- Ensure you’re eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily
- Find an activity you enjoy, and exercise for 20-30 minutes daily
These simple additions can drastically improve the way you feel physically and mentally.
Cultivate Connections
Quality face-to-face time can boost your mood, reduce stress, and energize you. Schedule time to catch up with those you love being around.
Volunteer
Helping others can help you. Finding purpose through volunteering and helping your community can lift you up by making you feel helpful, enriching your life, and caring for others. It’s a rewarding way to find new meaning in life.
Practice Meditation and Mindfulness
Research shows that taking a few minutes each day to meditate, practice deep breathing or relaxation exercises or clear your mind can reduce depression almost as effectively as anti-depressants.
Meditation can lower blood pressure, relax your central nervous system, and relieve anxiety and pain.
Seek Help from a Professional
Sometimes problems seem insurmountable. The help of a licensed professional can put your concerns into perspective and offer new approaches to problem-solving. In addition, seeking assistance from a counselor or therapist can give you the tools you need to restore your mental health.
For more health awareness blogs, please visit www.stemedix.com/blog.
by Stemedix | Aug 29, 2022 | Ozone Therapy
Finding an effective treatment that offers relief without side effects can feel like a miracle when you suffer from chronic pain or disease. When that treatment doesn’t require life-altering medications, it can be more complicated to discern how much is too much. Here we talk about Ozone Therapy.
Ozone therapy offers many patients who’ve become frustrated with the limits of conventional medication a new opportunity to find relief from pain and restore their body’s function. However, its wide range of benefits leaves many patients to wonder how often they can experience the rewards of the treatment.
How Does Ozone Therapy Work?
Ozone therapy begins with an unstable form of oxygen called ozone. While oxygen has two molecules, ozone has three, making it reactive and causing it to try to steal electrons to provide it with the stability it seeks.
Ozone therapy treatments is administered to a patient intravenously. The ozone enters the system and steals electrons from unhealthy processes or foreign invaders in the body. While you can’t tell ozone what to attack and what to leave in place, it can target elements in the body that can’t defend themselves, like viruses, bacteria, yeast, mold, toxins, and free radicals.
When ozone enters your bloodstream, it fosters the production of glutathione, an essential antioxidant that can prevent damage to cells caused by reactive oxygen.
How Often Can I Undergo This Therapy?
As with most treatments, repetition is vital. This type of therapy produces the best results when patients maintain a consistent schedule of treatments a week that is best determined by your medical provider.
Patients in physical distress who have seen the benefits of ozone therapy for relieving their symptoms and improving their overall health may seek treatment more frequently if safe to do so.
Treatments require a minimum of three hours for the body to process the ozone, allow it to create reactive oxygen species and lipid oxidation products, and remove waste.
How Can I Facilitate the Work of Ozone Therapy?
Those undergoing ozone therapy can foster the success of the treatment by doing the following:
- Staying well hydrated, promoting blood volume and waste elimination.
- Taking vitamin C supplements to alleviate oxidative stress
- Consuming spore-based probiotics to stabilize the gut microbiome
By combining these supporting practices with consistent treatments, patients can fully realize the potential benefits of ozone therapy for their immune, cardiovascular, and metabolic systems. To learn more about all the options we have available at Stemedix, contact us today!
by admin | Aug 24, 2022 | Rheumatoid Arthritis, Health Awareness
The chronic inflammatory disorder rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects the joint lining, causing painful swelling. Since there is not yet a permanent cure for the condition, the treatment goal is to put a patient’s RA into remission, where the symptoms are well controlled.
RA remission is more complicated than it seems, and there are many vital facts to know if you have RA.
1. Remission Doesn’t Mean “Without Symptoms”
The Arthritis Foundation defines remission as having limited symptoms of the condition. Since this definition can be subjective, researchers have developed criteria to use in clinical trials. These remission criteria include:
- Only one or fewer swollen joints
- Only one or fewer tender joints
- The patient assesses arthritis activity as a one or less on a 0–10 scale
- A blood test evaluating inflammation shows little to no inflammation
If any of these criteria aren’t met, a patient is not in remission.
2. Remission Can Last for Any Length of Time
Some patients with RA experience remission for a few weeks, and others for a year or longer. There is no guarantee that remission will last for a specific duration.
3. Early Treatment Increases Odds of Remission
While RA symptoms need to persist for six weeks for a doctor to diagnose the condition, the sooner the inflammation is controlled, the better your chances of achieving remission. Since inflammation from RA can cause long-term changes in the joints, patients need aggressive treatment to get the condition under control.
4. Following Your Treatment Plan Is Essential
Staying active, eating healthy, taking your medication as prescribed, and maintaining your scheduled doctor’s appointments to evaluate your health and adjust any dosages as needed is the best way to achieve remission.
5. Tapering Medication Requires Your Doctor
While some patients may be able to cut back on their medication while their RA is in remission, for others, that will cause a relapse. Medication adjustments require your doctor’s guidance to maintain control over your symptoms.
6. Relapses Are Unavoidable
Unfortunately, almost all patients who go into RA remission experience a relapse at some point. If you’ve experienced a flare-up after remission, schedule an appointment with your physician immediately so you can make any necessary adjustments to your treatment plan.
by Stemedix | Aug 22, 2022 | Athletic Injury, Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cell Therapy
When you first suffer from an injury, you focus on assessing damage and dealing with pain. As you start to recover, you may focus on when you can resume your everyday life. Fully recovering from an injury can take substantial time. That timeline lengthens if your tissues aren’t healing properly. A very common question we get is ” Are my tissues healing properly after my injury? “. Here we will discuss injury recovery and what you should expect.
What Should I Expect from Recovery?
Injury recovery has four main stages. These stages often overlap, so multiple parts of the recovery process occur at once.
Stage 1: Bleeding
Internal soft tissues bleed from an injury just like a cut to the skin causes bleeding. Since muscles receive a steady blood supply, muscle injuries tend to bleed more, causing larger, deeper bruising. Other tissues, like ligaments, don’t receive as much blood, so they tend to bleed and bruise less.
At the bleeding stage, a patient’s job is to rest and allow the bleeding to stop. Rest is particularly critical in the first hours after an injury.
Stage 2: Swelling
The area will begin to swell within one to two hours after an injury. Swelling and inflammation are part of the body’s healing response and serve to protect the injured area. While most swelling peaks within three days of an injury, it can persist for a few weeks as you recover.
Stage 3: Scar Tissue
The body starts developing scar tissue within one to two days of experiencing an injury, and this process continues for up to four to six months. Therefore, it’s essential to move and gradually incorporate pain-free, low-impact exercise at this time so your new scar tissue can build with strength and flexibility.
Stage 4: Remodeling or Maturation
The remodeling phase is the longest and final stage of wound recovery, beginning around three weeks after the injury and continuing for up to two years. At this time, collagen synthesis strengthens the surrounding tissue, and the fibers reorganize to reform the injured area.
An injury tends to result in tissues about 80% as strong as uninjured tissue.
How Long Should My Recovery Take?
The length of time an injury takes to heal depends on the injury’s severity, the patient’s age, the type of injury, and several other factors. The time frame for a specific injury to heal is broken out here:
- Broken Bones: Six weeks to three months
- Cartilage: Twelve weeks or longer
- Muscle Injury or Strains: A few weeks to six months
- Tendons: Four to six weeks
- Ligaments: Three weeks to eight months
Regenerative medicine, also known as stem cell therapy, can help facilitate the healing process for specific injuries. Other options, for example, therapies such as Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) and Peptides can also be used if you’re concerned about the length of time an injury takes to heal. If you are asking yourself ” Are my tissues healing properly after my injury” or you would like to learn more about the treatment options we have here at Stemedix, contact us today!
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