A Hockey Player With Hip Pain
A Hockey Player With Hip Pain Treated with Stem Cell Therapy. Hockey involves many different muscle groups and joints to play well with great skill. When a joint in the leg is affected, the ability to skate well and react quickly may become impaired. This is very true of the hip joint. Successful professional hockey players have played well into their later 40’s.
When hip problems occur, mobility can become affected. In turns of arthroscopic surgical techniques, hip labral surgery is relatively new. Data is now emerging that hip labral surgery (just as in knee arthroscopic surgery) is associated with an earlier onset of hip osteoarthritis. Arthritis of the hip typically slows a skating or running athlete down. This is a deleterious consequence of hip arthritis for athletes. Speed in hockey is a valuable asset.
Therefore alternative treatment measures such as stem cell therapy become desirable for hockey players with hip pain, especially that from early onset arthritis. If hip arthritis is diagnosed early, stem cells may have a more significant positive outcome. This is especially true if joint degeneration is still relatively minor. In these cases the anti-inflammatory nature of stem cells, and stem cells inherent ability to regulate pathways that promote joint breakdown become very valuable. Harnessing the bodies own ability to direct cell repair and inhibit joint breakdown are critical in early arthritis to prevent the progressive nature of osteoarthritis. Thus hockey players, soccer players, basketball players, and even rugby players all have a vested interest in controlling the nature of early arthritis of the hip. There is an old saying that seem appropriate. An ounce of
prevention is worth.
A stem cell is a precursor cell to other cells in the body. This means the stem cell can differentiate or turn into another type of cells. Some stem cells such as Embryonic stem cells can differentiate into any tissue type, while adult stem cells are committed to only certain cell types. Mesenchymal stem cells can become cartilage, bone, muscle, tendon, or fat. Hematopoietic stem cells can become blood forming cells.
Stem cells not only differentiate into other cell types, they also regulate cell processes such as immunomodulation. This can control inflammation by cell signaling. It turns out regulation of cell signals is a very important function. In degenerative states such as rthritis, the cell signals favor catabolism or cartilage breakdown over cartilage buildup. This is under a very complex communication network of cell signals. Redirecting undesirable cell signals to favor a cartilage repair state is yet another mechanism by which stem cells exert an effect. So much so that these mesenchymal cells have also been described as medicinal cells, due to their multitude of effects directed towards repair.
