Statistics from the American Chiropractic Association suggests that 80% of the world’s population will experience back pain at some point. Furthermore, back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. It contributes to 264 million lost workdays per year, and it is the third most common complaint heard in doctor’s offices.
So what’s the solution? Doctors tend to recommend anti-inflammatory drugs, cortisone shots, and physical therapy as first-line treatments. If those treatments fail, surgery is recommended. And even when first-line treatment does relieve the pain, the relief is only temporary. A good majority of patients end up needing surgery anyway.
Thankfully, a new way to treat back pain has recently emerged. It involves adult stem cells provided by the person being treated. With greater frequency, patients are choosing the stem cell treatment instead of surgery. This, despite the fact that health insurance companies do not cover it. People are willing to pay for the treatment out-of-pocket.
If you don’t understand why someone would undergo stem cell treatment instead of surgery, you’ve probably never experienced debilitating back pain. Be that as it may, here are three reasons growing numbers of patients are electing to get stem cell therapy:
1. Surgery Is Risky
There are no two ways about it. The invasive nature of surgery makes it risky. Whenever you cut open a human body and then sew it back together, you run the risk of infection. Introduce foreign substances to that body and you also have complications to worry about. There are plenty of patients who are just not comfortable with those risks. They would rather give stem cell treatment a try first.
2. The Extensive Recovery
There are two kinds of surgeries performed on people with back pain. The first is spinal fusion surgery. This procedure seeks to prevent movement at that point of the spine where disease or injury is causing pain. It results in stiffness, and patients must take good care of their backs for the rest of their lives to prevent further injury.
The other surgery is disc replacement surgery. This surgery is less common because its benefits are limited to certain kinds of degenerative disc disease. Patients who undergo the surgery must also participate in rehab. They must be very careful about their backs in the future.
Both types of surgeries require extensive recovery time. Patients are out of work. They cannot care for their families, enjoy physical activities, take their planned vacations, etc. It is a long road back to say the least.
3. There Are No Guarantees
Finally, back surgery is not a guarantee of full recovery. A doctor who is being honest with his/her patient will be up front about the fact that pain could still be a problem even after surgery. When you combine the risks of surgery with extensive rehab and no guarantees, some people just cannot see their way clear to going under the knife.
There are no guarantees with stem cell therapy, either. But at least stem cell injections are comparably low risk and involve almost no recovery time. Patients are increasingly seeing it as a better way to go.
Apex Biologix, a Utah company that furnishes doctors and clinics with regenerative medicine equipment, says that the popularity of stem cell therapy as a treatment for back pain is growing. They say that the positive results being observed in treating osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal injuries are giving people hope that stem cell treatment can help their back pain as well.
And now you know why patients would choose stem cell injections over surgery. Would you?