Advances in modern medicine have made it possible to directly combat the effects of ageing using regenerative methods of treatment. Out of all of the regenerative medical treatments available, none are more versatile than PRP injections. They can be used almost anywhere to restore function and improve your body’s condition at the cellular level. At YourSkinRN of Kitchener, Ontario, we use PRP injections to achieve amazing results.
Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP) has the power to revitalize damaged or aged cells while also creating new ones. Its applications are varied and all of them have been shown to be effective. We primarily use PRP to improve your skin and to enhance sexual health. Let’s look at how both of these applications can benefit you.
What Can PRP Injections Do for You?
Skin Rejuvenation
Although PRP was previously reserved for severe injuries or post-operative recovery, doctors have since discovered many other applications for PRP. In recent years, there has been an explosion of treatments focused on skincare and skin rejuvenation. Out of all of the possible uses of PRP, this one has the most established scientific evidence for its use.
PRP can be used to remove lines, level out your complexion, improve the overall health of your skin, and so much more. There are no harmful side effects and the process is quick and easy. How can one simple technique yield such incredible results?
Stimulate Collagen Growth
The health of your skin and your overall appearance depend on several factors. One of the most important is the amount of collagen in your skin cells. Collagen’s main purpose is to act as a support structure for various types of cells, including your skin.
Not all collagen is the same. In fact, there are 16 different kinds of collagen proteins in your body. However, as you age, your body produces less of these. Eventually, this causes your skin to lose its youthful firmness.
Fortunately, PRP has been proven to significantly improve the amount of collagen in your skin. Unlike collagen supplements, a PRP injection actually stimulates your body’s creation of collagen. As this study showed, collagen levels rose in every patient in the study by a significant margin after just one PRP treatment.
Better Skin Cell Hydration
Good hydration is key to a good appearance. But no matter how many glasses of water you drink a day, as you get older, your cells lose their ability to retain water. When cells are dehydrated, they start to sag and deform. Without the right water content, cells succumb to the weight of other cells above. Think of how a well-filled water balloon holds its shape versus one that’s only half full.
A systematic review of PRP treatments for skin rejuvenation noted that better cell hydration was evident across several clinical trials. Clearly, this is one reason why PRP injections are so effective at improving overall skin appearance.
Adding Elastin
Collagen tends to get most of the attention in marketing and product placement, but elastin is just as important for your appearance. This protein only makes up 2-4% of your skin, compared to 70-80% of your skin’s weight being made of collagen. However, it plays a crucial role as it provides elasticity, which prevents lines from forming where the skin is frequently stretched or compressed.
A loss of elastin is strongly correlated with lines forming at the edge of your eyes or at the corners of your mouth. The elastin fibres in these areas wear out faster with more repeated use. Exposure to sunlight and smoking also tend to accelerate the loss of elastin.
This study found that patients who received a single PRP injection had better skin thickness and elasticity, signs of increased elastin. They studied cells on the microscopic level to confirm this. Another study confirms this and provided several before and after photos of patients to truly demonstrate what an impact PRP had on the participants’ skin and appearance.
Remove Damaged Cells
Besides giving cells the proteins and water they need to thrive, PRP can also help to remove damaged cells from the body entirely. Some cells are unsalvageable and need to be replaced. However, when cells are damaged slowly over time due to ageing or other factors, your body doesn’t recognize them as wounded cells. Therefore, the body doesn’t activate its healing system to get rid of them and replace them.
PRP activates this process directly by releasing growth factors. These enzymes tell your healthy cells to multiply and also call for your body to review existing cells and remove them if they are not in top condition. It’s for this reason that PRP injections provide lasting results. Since your body is making new cells, you should see improvements for at least a year.
Improved Complexion and Color
Through a combination of the effects we’ve just discussed, PRP injections can achieve remarkable improvements in the overall colour and complexion of your skin. As we all know, there’s one spot in particular that suffers the most in this regard: under the eyes.
Infraorbital dark circles, bags under the eyes as we more commonly know them, prove quite difficult to treat. However, one study tested PRP for this exact situation and found that patients were very satisfied with the results. 90% considered their results to be excellent or good, even after 3 months had passed.
Clearly, PRP provides several positive benefits for skin cells that add up to an incredible improvement in your skin’s appearance. Our patients are often surprised by how their skin seems to glow after treatment. But that’s not the only thing that PRP can do for you.
Sexual Health
Another area where PRP has been shown to have impeccable results is in the field of sexual health. Just like our skin cells age and deteriorate, so too do the specialized cells in our reproductive organs. These cells play important roles in sexual function. Doctors have long struggled to find ways to restore sexual function to ageing patients, but PRP may just be the key to unlocking sexual longevity.
When it comes to male sexual health, the most effective treatments to date have been pharmaceutical solutions to erectile dysfunction (ED). However, these include harmful side effects and do not address the problem at its roots. For women, there has been little to no research on ways to improve female sexual health, but PRP has made significant breakthroughs for both men and women.
There are PRP treatments for both sexes which we offer at YourSkinRN. These are the P-Shot and O-shot, for men and women respectively. Both of these involve injecting PRP directly into sensitive areas to improve their performance. Let’s look at how they work and what effects they can have on your body.
P-Shot
The Priapus Shot, more commonly known as the P-shot, is a PRP treatment that aims to restore erectile function by addressing problems that develop in specific cells of the penis. In particular, the corpus cavernosum, which is the tissue that engorges with blood to achieve an erection, is treated with PRP. The cells of the corpus cavernosum degrade due to age much in the same way skin cells do.
When these cells lose their elasticity and ability to expand, erections are more difficult to obtain and maintain. PRP solves this problem by stimulating the regeneration of cells in these areas and also improving their communication with the nervous system. Nitric oxide is an important neurotransmitter that tells blood vessels to dilate and allow for more flow. This is critical for erectile function.
By using PRP, we can restore cells’ ability to detect nitric oxide and function properly. Men typically see results from the P-shot within a day or two and can resume normal sexual activity in 24 hours. Of course, the results will depend on how advanced your ED has become. The sooner you act, the more likely you are to see positive benefits from the P-shot.
O-Shot
Women’s sexual health has long been neglected by medicine. The focus has always been on contraception and reproductive control. However, the O-shot has shattered this trend and provides women with the first ever treatment to be focused primarily on sexual pleasure.
Like men, women’s sexual organs also lose some of their function with age. In particular, women may lose sensitivity and may become stimulated less easily due to a reduction in sensation along the nerves in the vaginal area. Another aspect that is affected is natural lubrication, with dryness becoming a more common problem as women age.
The O-shot solves these problems as injections are made to both the clitoris and the inside of the vaginal walls which are responsible for lubrication and additional sensation. The O-shot has been shown to improve the frequency and intensity of orgasm and overall sensitivity.
How Does a PRP Treatment Work?
Clearly, PRP treatments can have an incredible impact on your appearance and wellbeing. Most patients who opt for PRP treatment report that they are highly satisfied with the results of their treatment and hardly anyone experiences any side effects at all. So how does the treatment work?
The process is actually quite simple. It begins by drawing a sample of your blood to produce the PRP needed for the injection. Once we have a small volume of your blood, we process it in an FDA-approved centrifuge device. This will spin your blood rapidly and separate the components. Once this step is complete, we can extract the platelets from the sample and concentrate them into a volume of plasma.
Then, the platelet-rich plasma is put into a very fine syringe that can deliver the PRP precisely where it is needed. Most PRP treatments involve multiple injections. Since the needle is very thin, these injections leave little to no damage to your skin and are effectively painless. We also apply topical anesthetic to make the treatment more comfortable.
How Long Will Results Last?
PRP acts quickly and lasts longer than most other treatments. You can start to see results in as little as two days, with most patients seeing significant results within a week or two. The results actually improve over time as your body continues to transform the area with its natural healing systems.
Clinical trials using PRP have measured results as long as 2 years after the date of the first treatment, and many patients still are satisfied with their results after that time. A follow-up treatment after a year is recommended for most PRP injections.
Contact Us Today
If you are looking for the best in regenerative medicine, call YourSkinRN in Kitchener, Ontario today. Our staff can answer any question you might have about PRP treatment. When it comes to fighting signs of age, the key is to act fast. Don’t wait until your situation gets worse, start fighting back today with PRP at YourSkinRN.