With increasing frequency, people are hearing the term “regenerative medicine”. This important term refers to “a branch of medicine concerned with developing therapies that regenerate or replace injured, diseased, or defective cells, tissues, or organs to restore or establish function and structure.”
Pain Revealed expert Esti Bakty N.M.D. is well acquainted with pain and regenerative medicine. Her youth was marred by chronic pain and injury due to car accidents. By the time she was 18, she was in a wheelchair and subsisted on high doses of painkillers.
When she reached the point at which she felt that mainstream medicine had failed her, she turned to a Naturopathic physician. Through treatments such as TENS, acupuncture, and prolotherapy, she was able to restore lost function and walk again.
Patients often say that they wish to see a doctor who has a real understanding of their condition, and pain patients at Dr. Bakty’s clinic in Vermont can say that very thing. She believes that she can connect with patients and understand them better due to her own experiences. Dr. Bakty began practicing as a Naturopathic physician specializing in pain management and used the top biologic and complementary treatments available at the time including platelet-rich plasma and prolotherapy injections.
She learned about stem cells at a medical conference, and she was ready to give this a try right away. Because she was already skilled and experienced at the injections, there was little to learn in terms of administering these treatments. She says of stem cells, “they are introduced to your body, and they are turning on your stem cells. They’re turning into whatever your body needs.” Her stem cell treatments focus on exosomes, the active proteins of stem cells. She says they offer a faster effect than previous stem cell treatments.
Knee and shoulder issues are common conditions she treats. Many of Dr. Bakty’s patients are trying to avoid joint replacements and she has seen great results with these cases. Patients walk and become more active where they were limited by pain before treatment. She describes her injection technique as quick and gentle. Topical pain medication can be used if necessary. For the most part, the treatment is over before patients realize it.
Looking to the future, Dr. Bakty sees more uses for exosomes, especially since patients receiving exosomes will show improvement in areas that are ongoing problems, but were not part of the treatment goal.
For example, she gave shoulder injections to a patient who was also diabetic, and as a result, the patient’s A1C and blood sugar improved. The injected cells are metabolized throughout the body and trigger the body’s ability to heal itself – true regenerative medicine in action! She states, “The body has an innate ability to heal itself. If you give it the tools to do so, it will do so.”
The stem cells she uses come from concentrated cord blood or amniotic tissue and can be harvested from bone marrow as well. When harvesting stem cells, many other healing substances are also collected. These include growth factors, growth hormones, cytokines, and proteins.
Reflecting back on her own journey, she remarks, “My pain brought me to this place. So, it brought me to a place where I can help people.”