Can PRP Save Boomers From The Pain of Sports Injuries?

In an article about not-quite-proven therapies for boomers’ sports injuries, here’s how the Boston Globe describes the vaguely vampirish treatment called PRP, which is short for plasma rich therapy: “PRP involves removing a small amount of a patient’s blood and spinning it in a centrifuge for about 15 minutes to separate the red blood cells from the platelets, a type of cell that contains chemicals called growth factors that can help the body heal itself. Then the platelet-rich portion of the patient’s blood is injected in or around a damaged tendon, muscle or cartilage to try to spur the growth of new tissue.” Creepy, but does it work? That’s the tricky part. Although, as the Globe reports, PRP has been used by professional athletes for two decades, it still falls into the “unproven” category of injury treatments, as well as the unpaid for by insurance category. A review of the studies, commissioned by the International Olympic Committee and published in November in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found basically that sometimes it does work, and sometimes it doesn’t. The short answer: More study is needed.

Read more in the Boston Globe.