PRP Therapy: Using Your Own Blood to Heal

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy sounds almost too simple: we take a small amount of your blood, spin it to concentrate the platelets, and inject that concentrate where your body needs help healing. No foreign substances, no synthetic drugs — just your own natural healing power, aimed precisely where it's needed. Here's how it works and what it can do.

What is PRP?

Your blood is made of red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets. Platelets are best known for clotting — but they also carry a powerful payload of growth factors: signaling proteins that tell your body to repair tissue, reduce inflammation, and grow new cells.

Normally, those platelets are spread thinly throughout your blood. PRP therapy concentrates them — sometimes 5 to 10 times their normal density — and delivers them straight to an injured or damaged area. The concentrated growth factors essentially amplify your body's own repair signal exactly where it's needed.

How the treatment works

The process is straightforward:

1. A small amount of blood is drawn, much like a routine lab test.
2. It's placed in a centrifuge that separates and concentrates the platelets.
3. The platelet-rich plasma is injected into the treatment area under guidance.

Because it's made from your own blood, there's no risk of rejection or allergic reaction — it's your body's own biology, redirected.

What it's used for

PRP has genuine applications across two areas we treat:

• Musculoskeletal healing — tendon injuries (tennis elbow, Achilles tendinitis), ligament sprains, muscle strains, osteoarthritis, and supporting recovery after surgery. Here PRP aims to accelerate repair of tissue that's often slow to heal on its own.
• Skin and hair — PRP is used in aesthetics for skin rejuvenation, and as one of the best-studied non-surgical treatments for hair restoration.

What does the evidence say?

PRP is one of the more promising regenerative therapies, and research is catching up with the enthusiasm. It's important to know where the evidence is solid and where it's still developing.

Strongest evidence exists in a few areas — notably hair restoration, where a major 2025 review of 43 clinical trials confirmed PRP increases hair density and reduces shedding, and osteoarthritis of certain joints. In musculoskeletal and spine applications, the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians' 2025 guidelines support PRP and stem-cell injections for certain spinal targets (discs, epidural space) based on emerging evidence, while calling for more research to firm up standardized protocols.

The honest summary: PRP has real, growing evidence for specific conditions, but it's not a universal fix, and outcomes depend heavily on the condition, how it's prepared, and the protocol. That's why we start every patient with a consultation — to determine whether PRP is genuinely the right tool for your situation, and to set realistic expectations.

The regenerative future

PRP sits within a fast-moving field. Researchers are actively studying how to standardize preparation, combining PRP with other regenerative approaches, and using it as an adjunct to procedures like hair transplantation. As the science matures, PRP's role keeps getting clearer — and its applications keep growing.

Interested in whether PRP could help your recovery? [Book a consultation](/consultation) and let's find out.