Muscular-skeleton, Joint injuries and Arthritis affects over 100 million Americans, or one in every three people, a majority of these people develop chronic problems and disability. Degenerative Joint Disease (DJD) or commonly known as Arthritis (in Latin 'arth' means joint, 'itis' means inflammation) is not an isolated problem as is an epidemic as the aging population lives longer; it actually consists of more than 100 different conditions. These can be anything from relatively mild forms of tendonitis (as in 'tennis elbow') and bursitis to crippling systemic forms, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The Center for Regenerative Medicine in Miami Beach, Florida concentrates on helping arthritic and injured people to get back to a functional level of life and their activities using non-surgical techniques and Orthopedic medicine. The center's expertise is in spine, knees , shoulders  and other  cartilage damages. We have developed non-surgical and rehabilitation techniques focused on treatment and management of joint pain.

You see, traditionally we were only able to put out the fire, at times only for a temporary time. Now we have the technology to do much more.

Question: Do these treatments help only arthritis?

Answer: The treatments can help most Muscular skeleton problems such as lower back pain, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain, knee pain, hip pain, foot pain, sciatica, tendonitis, Tennis elbow, sprains strains whiplash and torn ligaments and cartilages.

However for the remainder of 2005 and the year of 2006 we are trying to concentrate mostly on spine (neck and lower back pain), shoulder and knees.

Question: How many treatments does a person need? Is there a down time?

Answer: Depending on the tissue damage, severity of the condition, the size of area that needs to be injected and most importantly patients healing capability. People usually need a series 1-6 treatments to improve. Each treatment is independent of all the others, meaning each treatment by itself has benefits, there is usually no down time and people can go back to work or their usual activities immediately.

In most cases we use Platelet Concentrated from the patient's own tissue and blood;  Click here to read about  PC.  
 

 
Question: What is your patient demographic?

Answer:  Since the project LaJRaN was started, we have done over 10000 procedures. Baby Boomers comprise 40% of my patients, 40% are 61yo and older and about 20% are 13-40 year old group.

Knees are by far the most common problematic area in my practice, followed by  Shoulder and Spine (back and  neck).

75% of patients are Americans, 20% are from South American countries, the rest come from different countries as far as Hong Kong and South Africa and Australia.

Younger Patients whom also are  the fastest growing population of patients seen at the center are mostly professionals including NFL, NBA, PGA, Baseball players, Tennis Players, Dancers, Politicians, doctors and lawyers and law enforcement.

Question:  What is the most important goal in this procedure?

Answer: Again depending on the each patient, some want to just be pain free, some are looking for range of motion, some need more strength, some want to go back to activities that brought them this far such as playing Golf, Tennis, Dance, Soccer, Football.

For some others it is important not to think twice about getting up only to get a glass of water or just being able to walk again.

In general people like to be functional again.

Question: What is your advice to people out there?

Answer:  Do not abuse your muscular skeleton system, it is very fragile , it doesn't take much, it is easily damageable, and it is not easy to fix it.

Lose the weight, 70% of Americans are overweight. Your weight bearing joints meaning your ankles, knees and hips are not made to carry any more than 20% more than your ideal body weight, this is why 60% of Americans over age 60 have arthritis in their knees, 60% is a big number. Cautiously take some supplement, some of the medication available actually can help.