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FOR DECADES, the standard treatment for knee pain due to arthritis has been surgical: arthroscopy, osteotomy, or even a knee replacement.

Now, however, it’ s possible to treat arthritic pain with noninvasive stem cell treatments. Surgical techniques greatly increase risks of side effects. Using a patient’ s own stem cells eliminates the risk that the patient’ s immune system will reject the treatment.

Joe Fobear, one my patients, decided to give stem cell treatment a try.“ I was in pain for three years and wanted to do something about it,” Joe says,“ but a friend told me to be careful what I had done. He’ d had surgery on one knee and stem cell treatments on the other.

[“] The knee with the regular surgery worked in terms

of he no longer had pain, but he said he hardly had any feeling in that knee, whereas the stem cell knee felt like it was brand new.”

Although Joe was scheduled to have knee surgery, he changed his mind and came to Allure instead.“ The treatment didn’ t take long, and it was heaven for me because there was no pain when the doctor injected the stem cells into my knee,” he said.

He felt immediate relief, and the slight pain that remained was completely gone within two months. Joe says that“ after that, I went a whole year with no pain at all. And I’ m 79 years old! These days, I have no pain sitting down and no pain sleeping. Maybe after three hours of walking or working out, I get a little pain once in a while, or if I twist it, I get a little pain. I’ m careful not to twist my knee. I’ d say it’ s about 80 % perfect.”

Stem cell treatments work by

supplying mesenchymal cells to the knee, enabling the body to rebuild knee joint cartilage, reduce inflammation, and encourage healing through improved circulation and cellular repair.

The mesenchymal stem cells( MSCs) used for the treatment are pluripotent, or“ multi-able,” meaning they have the ability to become different types of established cells. In this case, the cells become cartilage in the knee which is essential for easy, pain-free movement.

“ We have never seen anything like this before. Instead of putting a Band- Aid on arthritis pain with drugs and shots, we’ re actually able to regenerate the joint. So far, all of our patients have responded to stem cell treatments.”— Dr. Charles Mok