YOUR Under The Dryer team shares the exclusive Q&A on our Platelet-rich Plasma therapy session with Dr Simone Van-Horne as she introduces saliva testing and answers additional questions regarding PrP therapy.

UTD: What, if any, are the side effects of PrP therapy?

SVH: Bruising and infection are the major side effects since we are breaking the skin barrier. Infection is minimised as it is done under sterile conditions. Arnica montanum can be taken to minimise the bruising. If one takes aspirin and/or blood thinners, these should be stopped a week prior to the procedure.

UTD: With the recent scourge of CHIKV and complaints of lingering pains, are there any treatments to remedy those side effects?

SVH: That is a fantastic question! It has not been used to treat arthritis except in osteoarthritis where the pathology is wear and tear, the effects of aging on the body. The lingering CHIKV effects, however, are because of an auto-immune reaction and as such would not help the joint tissues since we are using the body to heal itself.

UTD: Are there any lifestyle changes associated with starting the therapy?

SVH: One must commit to maintaining what the therapy is reversing. Wear sun block, wear broad hats in the sun if one gets damaged easily, hydrate with adequate water intake, get sufficient sleep, and get a skin and multi-vitamin regimen to promote good skin health.

UTD: Why should one consider PrP therapy?

SVH: Most people who decide to undertake PrP therapy do so to reverse the aging process ‘naturally’. Burns and hair loss for obvious reasons cause us to not feel like we are at our best. The other aesthetic issues — wrinkles, age spots, acne marks — are other reasons, but there are numerous ways to deal with them. PrP is an adjunct or an alternative to those other therapies. Our medical spa uses this only in the area of aesthetics.

UTD: Quite a number of athletes have undergone PrP therapy. What treatments can PrP therapy afford the regular man who’s not heavily involved in sports?

SVH: All of us have wear and tear on our joints. In this regard, whether our job is walking up and down stairs, walking up and down a hospital ward, walking to the bus stop, running after our kids, we will all experience wear and tear. These people will all benefit from rapid healing by incorporating PrP in their therapy.

UTD: Are there any risk factors associated with starting PrP therapy?

SVH: The major risk would be to not have an active infection in the face.

Those with type I Herpes may activate it during the process.

Those with bleeding disorders may bruise in an extraordinary way.

UTD: In September 2011, Dr Frank B Kelly — in an address to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons — cautioned that the medical community needs more evidence to determine whether PrP therapy is truly effective. What, if anything, has changed since?

SVH: Nothing has really changed. The major issue with how medical studies proceed tends to be whether the product can be marketed. One cannot sell the ability to heal oneself! Herein lies the lack of enthusiasm: the ability to heal oneself cannot be sold by a pharmaceutical company. The fact that so many athletes are multimillion-dollar entities which include this as a part of their wound-healing process should speak to how seriously those individuals and their teams’ physicians take healing.

The science is clear, but the studies are not forthcoming, I believe, for the same reasons that many vitamins and natural therapy are not included in many studies.