Jiffy Lube for Body Parts
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Back to Sports After Ankle Injections & Physical Therapy
Aging and injuries increase friction in joints. Lubricating them is currently in fashion, but this is only the tip of the iceberg in changing the chemistry of joints. Here is a brief look:
The natural lubricants of all joints are hyaluronic acid (HA) and lubricin. These compounds are combinations of sugars and proteins that, by increasing lubricity, decrease wear. Simply put, being slippery reduces aging.
As we age, the chemistry of our tissues evolves, with certain components associated with stiffness, brittleness, and the increasing rigidity of collagen fibers overwhelming those that make tissues elastic, soft, and hydrated.
The cosmetic world has long embraced the addition of lubricants to soften the skin of millions of faces and hands. The orthopaedic world injects hyaluronic acid into joints to improve their motion, reduce pain, and decrease wear and tear.
The questions arising now are, “How often should we inject joints?” “Can the injections be made to last longer?” and “Are there other beneficial components that can be added?”
The answers are evolving. In our practice, we use joint lubrication injections most commonly to delay or avoid joint replacement surgery in arthritic joints and to disperse the growth factors and cells we get from blood platelets (PRP) and other sources.
These growth factors and other peptide factors may be the key to answering the questions above. As we and others have shown in various studies, when we add these stimulants to regular lubricating injections, we stimulate the cells lining the joint to produce more lubrication over a longer period of time than when we inject lubrication alone.
Another benefit of injecting these factors includes the recruitment of the body’s natural reserve of stem cells. If we are going to get to a true fountain of youth, the answer may lie within us, arising from our ability to constantly recycle this stem cell reservoir.
Our research and clinical studies focus on exactly which factors will induce a long-lasting boost to the native stem cells and protect the joints. For now, our patients get anywhere from 3 to 18 months of relief from a single combined injection of the various components. Our goal is to find the lube that will give them years.
