Spotlight:Seeing is believing! Safe & effective treatments for dark circles and eye wrinkles – CambridgeToday

ArtMed's Medical Director, Dr. Peirson discusses scientifically researched and safe cosmetic eye treatments and why you should consider PRP instead of dermal fillers.

Do you feel like your eyes are prematurely aging you? Dark under-eye circles? Hollow and looking tired all the time? Wrinkles and crepiness?

These are among the most common complaints and inquiries received at a medical aesthetics clinic. Dark circles and hollows are frustrating because they tend to suggest an individual is tired, sad, recovering from illness or a night out on the town.

There are a number of ways to address under eye concerns, but no single cream or treatment is a cure all. Nonetheless, some treatments are more effective, safer and long lasting than others.

Historically, the go-to treatment for under eye circles and hollows has been dermal fillers. Hyaluronic acid dermal fillers (a type of sugar gel) can be injected under the eye to fill hollows and lift the skin improving the appearance of dark circles.

However, there are issues with dermal fillers. Fillers can lead to:

In recent years, research has shown that PRP injections are a safer and more natural option for treating the delicate eye area. PRP or platelet rich plasma, is blood plasma that has been specially prepared to maximize the platelet content. Platelets, are clotting factors that bind together at the site of an injury to stop bleeding. Most importantly, platelets initiate the healing process by releasing growth factors and promoting new blood vessel formation. This results in new tissue generation, including collagen, elastin and fibrin (CEF) production.

Collagen is a protein fibre produced by skin cells that increases skin thickness and density. Elastin provides stretchability to skin and fibrin is the support structure or scaffold around which collagen and fibrin grow.

PRP has been used for decades to treat wounds, surgical sites, burns, sports injuries and more. In recent years PRP has been used in aesthetics to speed wound healing after laser procedures and as an injectable to promote CEF production to revitalize aging and thinning skin of the eye area, neck and chest, elbows, knees and more. PRP can even be used to create eye drops for chronic dry eye.

PRP treatments involve blood being drawn from the patient, and then spun and separated to obtain PRP which is then immediately injected into the treatment area. For the eye area, a series of 3 treatments is typically recommended about 4-6 weeks apart. Bruising is common as is swelling in the firs 24-48 hours.

PRP stimulates the thin skin of the under eye to start producing CEF which leads to firmer, thicker more elastic skin and a reduction in wrinkles. PRP stimulates new blood vessel growth thereby improving blood flow and luminosity to the area and may reduce puffiness for some. Dark circles are improved because thicker skin decreases the visibility of dark blood vessels below.

In other words, out with the old, in with the new! PRP revitalizes the thin skin of the eye area. Unlike fillers which are purely symptomatic treatment (and not without complications), PRP renews and maintains the delicate skin of the eye area naturally and safely.

In addition to PRP consider the following:

Since 80% of visible aging is caused by the sun, a daily application of mineral sunblock appropriate for the eye is essential. Stick sunscreens have thicker formulas so they stay put avoiding migration into the eye. Some makeup concealers contain mineral sunblock thereby providing a two-for-one benefit. UVA/UVB blocking sunglasses are an under-appreciated tool in preventing aging around the eye.

Finally, its important to restate that PRP treatments are entirely natural. Because it is your own blood derived PRP theres virtually no risk of adverse side effects or issues down the road. Results can be maintained with 1 or 2 treatments a year.

To learn more,visitartmed.caor emailinfo@artmed.ca.

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Spotlight:Seeing is believing! Safe & effective treatments for dark circles and eye wrinkles - CambridgeToday

We Are Taking it to the Next Level Valencia Medical Center is Now Offering Regenerative & Aesthetic Medicine Training To Physicians & Medical…

Valencia Medical Center is one of the pioneer centers in Regenerative Medicine and PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) Therapy for the following: Joint pain injuries of knee, shoulder & elbow Osteoarthritis and inflammation Our highly concentrated PRP injections guided by ULTRASOUND IMAGING with needle recognition capability, has given our patients an opportunity to enjoy life pain-free We are also offering advanced PRP Hair restoration, PRP Penile shot and Acoustic Wave Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction (ED) High success rate and patients satisfaction along with weekly Live at Five with our doctor on our social media accounts, has won us patients loyalty. Due to high demand and our expertise in the advancement in the field of regenerative medicine, Valencia Medical Center & Ageless Life Institute is providing Regenerative & Aesthetic Medicine training for the medical community & physicians on March 18-19, 2022. Please see our announcement in this issue. For more information, please contact us at 661-222-9117

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We Are Taking it to the Next Level Valencia Medical Center is Now Offering Regenerative & Aesthetic Medicine Training To Physicians & Medical...

Survey finds nearly 1 in 5 Americans experience pain with exercise and continue to work out rather than resting to heal – EurekAlert

Addressing injuries early make them easier to treat with effective non-surgical options

video:Millions of people are dealing with a lingering injury or nagging pain, maybe from a bad knee or a sore elbow. In fact, a new national survey for Orlando Health finds nearly one in five Americans often experience pain when working out and the same number of people work through the pain rather than resting to heal. view more

Credit: Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute

Orlando, Fla Its not uncommon to have a lingering injury or nagging pain. In fact, a new national survey by Orlando Health finds nearly one in five Americans (18%) often experience pain while working out and the same number of people (18%) work through the pain rather than resting to heal.

Sports medicine physicians and orthopedic surgeons at the Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute say identifying the source of pain is the first step toward feeling better, and new advancements offer a range of options before surgery is part of the discussion. However, delaying treatment often leads to further damage and a higher likelihood that surgery will be needed to repair it.

There's the saying, No pain, no gain. But there's different types of pain that you feel during workouts, and sharp, stabbing pain that's very uncomfortable is not typically normal, said George Eldayrie, MD, a sports medicine physician at Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute. The pain may be coming from an underlying problem and if you continue to push through it you can make that problem worse.

Non-surgical options may include physical therapy to stretch and strengthen specific muscles and tendons. It may also involve injections that reduce inflammation and promote healing, such as corticosteroids and platelet-rich plasma, which are delivered precisely to the right area using ultrasound technology.

Rehabilitation is a powerful tool, but its important to see a professional who can really key in on the right diagnosis so a therapist can develop a treatment plan focused to the right area, saiid Dr. Eldayrie. Platelet-rich plasma has also been shown to be very effective for chronic tendinopathies, things like tennis elbow or golfers elbow. But it typically works better the earlier it is administered, before the injury progresses.

Jen Jordon, 39, lived with increasing pain in her left knee for years before finally making an appointment with Dr. Eldayrie to address it.

I would go into a lunge and just feel a sharp pain and then it would just continuously hurt throughout the day, said Jordon. It just kept getting a little bit worse and affecting me a little bit more during workouts and while I was on my feet at work, so I decided it was time to go get it checked out.

Exercise is a daily part of Jordons life and something she relies on to maintain her physical and mental health. She put off treatment for fear she would be sidelined for a long period of time, or worse, would be told she needed surgery.

Surgery is definitely a fear of mine. One of the reasons I work out is to stay healthy and prevent the need for surgery as I get older, Jordon said. Part of me didn't really want to know what was going on because I didn't want to have to take time off or have a procedure that was going to take weeks or months of recovery.

Dr. Eldayrie examined Jens knee using x-rays and ultrasound to show her in real time where her tendons were strained and where degradation was occurring.

He was able to just point to the affected area and show me exactly what the issue was on his tablet. It was really informational and empowering to see the problem and learn how to take action to fix it, Jordan said.

Jen was also relieved to learn that she does not need surgery at this time, and will likely be able to solve her knee pain by adding exercises to better support the affected area. This will not only heal her knee, but also her fear of dealing with injuries.

I am so glad that I went and had Dr. Eldayrie look at it, and I think it will help me prevent anything worse from happening in the future, said Jordon. After suffering for so many years and learning that simple stretching could have prevented the pain for all this time, I will definitely go in as soon as something starts hurting next time.

While there are a lot of non-surgical options, surgery is often the best course of action for injuries that require repair or reconstruction and will not heal on their own. However, that is not as scary as many patients believe. Advancements in robotic and laparoscopic procedures have made many surgeries less invasive and recovery shorter and easier than ever.

B-ROLL, SOUND BITES, WEB ELEMENTS & HI-RES STILL PHOTOS - Including HD video available for free/unrestricted use by the news media: https://bit.ly/3itF1nY Courtesy: Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute *Password: ortho (by entering the password, you agree to honor the embargo)

For assistance in downloading, or if you have any questions, contact: ben@mediasourcetv.com or call: 614.932.9950.

Survey Method: This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Orlando Health from February 22 - 24, 2022 among 2,077 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact ben@mediasourcetv.com.

ABOUT ORLANDO HEALTH Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a not-for-profit healthcare organization with $7.6 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States.Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for its pediatric and adult Level One Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level Two Adult Trauma Center in the St. Petersburg region. It is the home of the nations largest neonatal intensive care unit under one roof, the only system in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows. The 3,200-bed system includes 16 wholly-owned hospitals and emergency departments; rehabilitation services, cancer and heart institutes, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, physician offices for adults and pediatrics, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with FastMed Urgent Care. Nearly 4,500 physicians, representing more than 90 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 23,000 team members. In FY21, Orlando Health served nearly 160,000 inpatients and nearly 3.6 million outpatients. During that same time period, Orlando Health provided approximately $648 million in total value to the communities it serves in the form of charity care, community benefit programs and services, community building activities and more. Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.

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Survey finds nearly 1 in 5 Americans experience pain with exercise and continue to work out rather than resting to heal - EurekAlert

Dont live with chronic pain – The New Indian Express

By Express News Service

KOCHI:Chronic pain is any pain that lasts more than three months. It may persist for years sometimes, affecting a persons ability to work or sleep well. This could lead to social isolation and often precipitate financial distress. Chronic pain can badly impact the quality of life of a person.

But chronic pain requires a separate speciality. Acute pain (especially those following trauma) has specific underlying causes that can be easily identified and treated. Chronic pain, on the other hand, irrespective of the underlying cause, induces many changes in our nervous system. Over time, the pain becomes even more complex and difficult to treat and causes psychological issues like anxiety and depression. Eventually, it metamorphoses into a disease.

The emergence of pain medicine as a speciality was born out of the need to have a holistic approach dedicated to the diagnosis and management of such pain. Chronic pain can have a variety of underlying causes. Identification of the structure that produces pain is the first step, followed by amelioration and prevention of recurrence.

Following are some relevant questions on pain medicine

How can you benefit from consulting a pain management specialist? Management of chronic pain, irrespective of the cause, can benefit from a multi-disciplinary method. The most common pain-related chronic condition are those that affect the musculoskeletal system back, neck, knee or shoulder. Other conditions are facial (trigeminal neuralgia), chronic abdominal or pelvic, and cancer pains. A visit to a specialist could give you more insights into all these.

What are the services offered by a pain specialist? Pain is subjective, and very often healthcare workers or the patients caregivers tend to blame the patients stress or anxiety for it when everything else (blood investigations, MRI) look normal. Pain generators can produce disabling pain, but may not be visible in any of the investigations.

A pain specialist begins by believing the patient when they say they are in pain. This is very important. The next step is to identify the pain generator. A detailed clinical evaluation is key to identifying the root cause of pain. Blood investigations, X-ray or other imaging modalities may be employed. A specialist will also look for signs of underlying pathology, like tumours, fractures or infections. Such patients are referred to doctors who can take better care of the condition.

Afterwards, an individualised treatment plan depending on the age of the patient, cause and severity of pain, and comorbidities is formulated.

What are the treatments offered by a pain clinic? We often start by optimising medicines and physiotherapy. Pain killers or analgesics may be employed for a short while but not as a long-term solution.

Chronic pain induces changes in our nervous system. Over time, nerves that transmit pain sensations become hypersensitive. Pain modulators or neuromodulators are used to desensitise these nerves. These drugs are safer for long-term use. We also advise patients to do stretching exercises and physiotherapy. If a patient does not benefit from medical management and physiotherapy, minimally invasive interventions (injections) are used. X-ray or Ultrasound-guided injections targeting the pain generator have an important role in establishing the correct diagnosis as well as in the management of pain.

Commonly performed injections include nerve blocks, injection of local anaesthetics with or without steroids, injection of platelet-rich plasma, joint injections, myofascial injections and radiofrequency ablation of nerves.

Are these injections expensive? Do they have side effects? All interventions are done with the help of image guidance either X-ray or Ultrasound. This improves the accuracy of the procedure and makes them very safe. Serious adverse effects are exceedingly rare. The cost of the procedure depends on the type of injection. Simple nerve blocks, myofascial or joint injections are not expensive. Newer treatment modalities like radiofrequency ablation involve the use of an RF device and are therefore slightly more expensive.

How long will the patient be pain-free after the interventions? This depends on the cause of pain and the type of injection. Certain injections, like a transforaminal epidural injection for back pain or sciatica, usually gives pain relief for up to an ear. Radiofrequency ablation of nerves can give pain relief lasting more than a year. However, certain other interventions like joint injections may be more short-lived. Their benefits may last only up to three months. However, interventions often provide immediate and excellent pain relief, which helps the patients do stretching or strengthening exercises more efficiently. This also contributes to the efficacy of the medical management and provide sustained pain relief without recurrence of severe disabling pain.

Will all chronic pain patients benefit from interventions? No, interventions are helpful when the pain generator can be identified and blocked. In certain chronic pain conditions, interventions may not be possible. In other cases, the patient may not be willing to get an injection. In that scenario, we proceed to modify the procedure.

What are the challenges in dealing with chronic pain patients? The suffering in chronic pain makes patients extremely anxious, distressed and frustrated. This results in poor treatment compliance. Pain prevents them from doing exercises and with time, muscles, bones and joints become de-conditioned causing more pain. One has to realise that the pain which has been present for months or years, causes sensitization of the nervous system and de-conditioning of the musculoskeletal system. A multi-modal management strategy targeting not just the pain generator, but all these components can provide significant pain relief.

The author is a consultant in the Department of Pain Medicine at KIMSHEALTH

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Dont live with chronic pain - The New Indian Express