Impact of NSAIDs on Injury Recovery

[herrubermensch]

As some of you know, I have a completely fucked up left shoulder, with three full-thickness rotator cuff tears that allegedly are inoperable. Only one rotator cuff, teres minor, intact. I also have moderate arthrosis in that shoulder, and they tell me that soon it will have to be replaced. They first said that two or three years ago, and it hasn’t happened yet. In the meantime, I explore other options for extending the shoulder’s life, one of which is stem cell treatment. I’m not sure I’ll actually go for that, as it’s expensive and not clear that it will be of any benefit, but one thing I learned from the stem cell people during my consult is: NSAID’s inhibit recovery, apparently by sending a signal to the brain NOT to send stem cells to the injured area. Normally, that is, as I understand it, what happens, viz., the brain detects an injury and sends stem cells to the affected area to help repair. NSAID’s prevent this, so much so that if you get stem cell treatement, they require that you have had no NSAID’s for 2-4 weeks before the treatment.

Curious whether those with more medical training agree with this conclusion. It has kept me away from NSAIDs for over a year now. Instead, for pain and inflamation, I will take low dose kratom or CBD.

 

[Poppy]

I’ve never heard that. I am admittedly very ignorant when it comes to stem cells.

 

[herrubermensch]

You and me both, brotha.

 

[JLee]

I didn’t know about Nsaids and stem cells but I will definitely check it out. Want to see what stems can do there is a youtube video of Matt Hughes a former MMA fighter who was hit by a train and messed up bad. He did stem cell therapy and is walking and talking again. Nowhere near 100% but stem cell therapy is interesting stuff.

 

[Bigmurph6]

NSAID’s prevent this, so much so that if you get stem cell treatement, they require that you have had no NSAID’s for 2-4 weeks before the treatment.

This is really interesting from what I know your body sends white blood cells and cortisone or cortisol im not positive. I have never heard about stem cells until now but I know nothing I couldn’t even say if what they said is true but I have heard only really good things about stem cells but this could just be propaganda. I would be cautious especially for the money.

 

[Kad1]

Always a good idea to limit nsiads for a number of reasons. I personally have to be in tremendous pain to use them. So I’d say out of a year at most I use 2x.
Now to your question, there are limited studies on this topic and even fewer that support the theory that short term normal dosing of nsaids negatively affect the healing of soft tissue. There are a few studies that show they can inhibit the healing of bone related injuries. For those reasons mainstream docs still prescribe them before and after surgery. That being said your stem cell doctor is responsible for you and your recovery during this process so follow their instructions to the T. I have heard lots of great things with regard to stem cell therapy up to and including regeneration of tendons and ligaments. I have never used them due to the cost but I have done PRP or Platlet-Rich plasma theraofor my shoulder injuries. Similar to stem cell in that they flood the area with platelets which have tremendous healing abilities. I had tremendous success with PRP. I was looking at a total shoulder replacement from a work related accident and 2 years later I’m still going strong with no surgery. You are not a candidate for PRP because you have no tendons left to heal, they need to be regrown.
Not sure this helped you any

 

[herrubermensch]

Immediately prior to and in connection with each stem cell injection, they give you a PRP injection. At least, that’s what the Regenexx people do.

The primary benefits stem cell injections and the related PRP injections would have for me is minimize and delay cartilage degredation. But they also don’t rule out some help with respect to my tendons.

Regardless, I just found it fascinating how adamant the Regenexx people are that NSAIDs do exactly the opposite of what you want when you have a soft tissue injury.

 

[Kad1]

Maybe they have seen that happen within their practice. What does that treatment cost? Ball park

 

[herrubermensch]

$8-10k per shoulder.

 

[Poppy]

Does insurance recognize this as a treatment?

 

[herrubermensch]

Nada

 

[Poppy]

Ouch

 

[herrubermensch]

Yeah, that’s why I have gone back and forth about it. It’s not clearly going to be a benefit in my case. It can’t hurt, but that’s a fair amount of money to spend on something that “can’t hurt.”

 

[Poppy]

Tough spot brother

 

[Kad1]

Yeah that’s a big ticket. I was lucky for my PRP workers Comp covered it

 

[Kad1]

No other options left though correct? Did you check into European companies? They do a lot over there and tend to be less expensive

 

[Rusty]

I dug around the internet looking into this and regenxx and MP health both stem cell clinics are the only two things I found that say nsaids are bad for stem cell. If you have a blood disorder the nsaids are said to encourage the bone marrow to get the stem cells moving. However studies about colon cancer say NSAIDs will make stem cells self destruct before they leave your body which they say is a good thing to prevent colon cancer. I don’t think there is enough good information out there readily available for us to see. The whole thing is very confusing.

 

[herrubermensch]

None other than flying down to see Dr. James Andrews himself for a consult. If he says nothing can be done, then I’ll accept that and just continue with my HGH and BPC 157 and THB500 and at some point, will probably do the stem cell treatment for lack of another step to take.

Have not checked out European companies yet, but will! Good idea. Regenexx itself has an offshore setup in the DR that allows it to use stem cells in a way currently prohibited in the US, so if when I do the stem cell treatment, I’ll probably turn it into a vacation and go to the DR for the best they have to offer. But I’ll see what the Euro options are.

 

[Kad1]

Let me poke around a bit , if my
Memory serves me right there was an MLB player who had ACL stem cell therapy in Germany with great result.

 

[Dirtnasty]

Kobe Peyton Manning and whole
List of athletes were going to
To
Germany for this