Regenerative Medicine: ‘The Body Repairing Itself’

COURTESY PHOTO

JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Jeff gets his exercise from walking and playing golf five days a week while in Florida. A partially torn meniscus limited his time on the links until undergoing drug-free regenerative medicine treatments from QC Kinetix.

For an avid golfer such as Jeff Heckman, there are few things worse than a rainy day that forces you to while away the hours watching instructional videos on the Golf Channel.

Jeff experienced a lot of those days while living in Washington state.

“During the rainy season, it just kind of drizzles for six weeks straight,” Jeff laments. “We actually get more rain here in Florida than in Washington, but here, it rains for an hour or so and that’s it, so you can play golf just about every day.”

And that is what Jeff has been doing since he and his wife became snowbirds two years ago. The 56-year-old owner of a pipe insulation and manufacturing company spends the fall and winter months in Florida and plays golf five days a week.

“I was only playing about once a week during the winters in Washington, so I’m playing more in Florida, but I’m not necessarily playing better,” Jeff adds. “My handicap has gone up a point from where it was earlier this year. I should be playing better.”

Perhaps, but the fact that Jeff is even playing golf is an achievement. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that aggravating knee pain was making it difficult for him to walk a few feet, much less the length of an 18-hole golf course.

“That’s my exercise – walking the golf course,” Jeff explains. “But a couple of years ago, kind of out of nowhere, my left knee started to swell up really badly, either after playing a round of golf or doing just about anything physical.

“At first, I tried resting it for a day or two, but every time I went back out to play golf, that knee would swell up on me again. Finally, I went to a doctor who recommended I get an MRI. The MRI showed I had a partially torn meniscus.”

The meniscus is cartilage that serves as a cushion between the tibia (shinbone) and femur (thighbone). A partial tear of one of the two menisci in each knee doesn’t prevent a person from walking or bending a knee, but as Jeff can attest, it makes it far more difficult.

“I suffered with more of a steady ache than a sharp pain, and that ache was actually worse at night,” he laments. “Most nights, my knee would just sort of throb, so it made it uncomfortable to sleep a lot of times.

“Eventually, I couldn’t walk the golf course anymore, so I started riding a cart while playing. I did that for a whole summer, but I continued to really struggle with pain, so I finally went to a doctor, and of course, he recommended surgery.”

Eager to erase the cause of his discomfort, Jeff agreed to the surgery and even set a date. But then, just a few days before the procedure was scheduled, he heard a radio advertisement for QC Kinetix.

“I was a bit skeptical of it all, but I gave QC Kinetix a call, made an appointment and went to see the people there,” Jeff says. “At first, I thought it was going to be one of those high-pressure, sales-pitch things, like with a used-car dealer.

“But it was nothing like that. Once they examined me and told me I was a candidate for their treatment, they gave me the price and said, If you want, go home and think about it. That kind of put me at ease, so right then and there I said, OK, let’s do this.”

State-of-the-Art Treatment

A local practice with a national reputation, QC Kinetix offers drug-free regenerative medicine treatments for soft tissue pain, joint pain and musculoskeletal conditions. As an alternative to medications and surgeries, QC Kinetix’s therapies trigger the body’s ability to repair itself using healing properties found in the blood.

That blood is gathered from the patient during a typical blood draw. It is then placed in a centrifuge, where the healing properties are separated and extracted. The healing properties help spark a tissue regeneration in the targeted areas causing pain.

“Regenerative medicine is a great alternative for many people who thought surgery was their only option,” says Daniel Sucherman, MD, the medical director of QC Kinetix locations in Bradenton, St. Petersburg, Brandon and Lakeland.

After years as a key member of an orthopedic surgical team, Dr. Sucherman recognized the need for a better way to help people in pain. A strong believer in regenerative medicine and the positive impact it can have, he chose to meet that need through QC Kinetix.

“I’m an anesthesiologist, primarily for orthopedic surgery, and I know that people who go to an orthopedic surgeon for pain are commonly told they need surgery,” Dr. Sucherman explains. “And believe me, surgery has its place. But it is very strenuous on the body. It involves a lot of cutting, drilling, sawing and hammering, and the recovery process is very arduous.

“In many cases, there is an alternative. That’s why I became involved with QC Kinetix. I want to offer people an alternative to surgery, pain medications and steroids for their joint pain. That is exactly what QC Kinetix and its regenerative medicine treatments do.”

Although regenerative medicine is considered on the leading-edge of medical science, it’s not a new concept. The most basic principles have been practiced for years. At QC Kinetix, the process has been updated to provide better results.

For example, QC Kinetix uses state-of-the-art equipment that allows for the retrieval of the most beneficial healing factors from blood. In addition, the process can obtain components from young blood cells with extensive self-renewal properties.

QC Kinetix works with patients across multiple visits, providing drug-free treatments that are customized for each case.

Symptom improvement is monitored for several months with the patient experiencing no downtime. Most patients complete their treatments within six months and experience ongoing benefits.

“Another feature that sets QC Kinetix apart is that we do all of this work in-house,” Dr. Sucherman points out. “Your blood and tissue never leave our office.

“And we do all this while you’re in the office. When we’re done, you simply go about your normal activities.”

Regenerative medicine treatments can be used to treat pain from arthritis and from muscle or tendon tears almost anywhere in the body, including the knees and shoulders, ankles and wrists, hips, low back, and neck.

“The ability to treat so many areas of the body is one of the biggest benefits of our program,” says Haley Weaver, PA-C, a certified physician associate with QC Kinetix. “And we do that by mimicking the body’s natural healing mechanism.
-Haley Weaver, PA-C

“We’re not just putting a band-aid on something or temporarily suppressing inflammation. We’re sparking a natural healing process. To do that you need more than one blood product, so from each blood draw, we extract different components.

“Every time you get treated by us, more than one of those components is delivered to the area we’re treating because our goal is to keep supplying that tissue with the ability to heal itself naturally over time.”

Each treatment acts as a building block for the next, Haley adds.

JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Jeff Heckman

“Modern Miracle”

Jeff first visited QC Kinetix in November 2022. His initial treatment was designed to reduce the inflammation in his knee, and it worked so well that he wondered out loud if he needed to go through the other phases of his treatment plan.

“My knee felt so good after that first treatment that I didn’t think I needed to do anything else after that,” he confirms. “But the nurse at QC Kinetix said, Everybody reacts that way. But all we did was take away the swelling. We haven’t fixed the problem yet.”

Fixing Jeff’s partially torn meniscus required four more treatments over several weeks. Jeff stuck to that plan and says it is the reason he is now playing golf pain-free five days a week.

“And I’m walking the course again,” he boasts. “I would say my knee is about 98 percent better than it was. There’s a little flexibility in that knee that I don’t have all the way back yet, but overall, it’s much better.” “The aching and throbbing are gone, and I’m sleeping better thanks to that. I’m also just moving around better. I have a boat back in Washington, and it’s no longer a chore for me to get down into the engine room or anything like that.

“QC Kinetix solved my problem without surgery, and I could not be happier. Before I went to QC Kinetix, I had no idea about regenerative medicine or what it did, but I am a very happy customer.”

COURTESY PHOTO VANESSA CERALLO
Vanessa is a flamenco dancer who feared she might have to give up dancing because of severe knee pain. Then she found QC Kinetix. Now she’s dancing on knees that she says feel 20 years younger.

Get Surreal

The unique ability to transfer onto canvas what he saw in his dreams was the quality that made Salvador Dali one of the world’s most celebrated artists. Vanessa Cerallo is among those who have a special appreciation for the surrealist’s work.

“I’ve been a fan of Dali since I was a little girl growing up in Venezuela,” Vanessa relates. “I was probably 9 or 10 years old when I first discovered his work while looking through a book at home. Ever since then, I have always admired his art, his surrealism.”

Vanessa, 44, is an artist herself, a flamenco dancer who has performed professionally in the Tampa Bay area for the past 14 years. Her most memorable performance melded her art with Dali’s.

“I once danced at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg,” Vanessa offers. “That was very special for me because I am such a huge fan of his. I’ve always thought it kind of weird that when I moved to the United States it was to the area where his museum is.”

A dual citizen of the US and Venezuela, Vanessa moved to the Bay area to attend college and study English. She soon discovered her ardor for dancing, but a few years ago, knee pain nearly forced her to abandon her passion.

“Flamenco is a high-impact type of dance that requires a lot of footwork, and because of that there is a great deal of impact on the joints,” Vanessa explains. “For me, that impact resulted in a diagnosis of arthritis in both of my knees.

“At first it was mostly my left knee where I felt the pain. Depending on my activity level during the day, the pain would sometimes get up to as much as eight on a scale of one to 10 in my left knee and six or seven in my right knee.

“And I’m a person who tolerates pain very well. I fight through it, and I had to fight through it with this because I teach dance as well as perform. So, I just did the best I could to get through each day, but it was a regular thing for me, and it was very noticeable.

“There were days when you could actually see the inflammation, and then, after a performance, my left knee would sometimes lock up to such a point where I literally could not bend it. That’s when I started to think, This might be the end for me as a performer.”

Chicken Out

Vanessa’s fears prompted a visit to a doctor. That’s where she learned of the arthritis and degeneration of the tissue in her knees. To alleviate the pain, the doctor gave her an injection of what Vanessa described as “chicken fat.”

Actually, it was hyaluronic acid, which is naturally found in the tissues of humans and some animals (including the fleshy, red plumage atop a rooster’s head called the comb).

Typically synthesized in a lab for medical use, the injectable mimics the natural jelly that lubricates and cushions joints and keeps them working properly.

In Vanessa’s case, the hyaluronic acid alleviated her pain and kept her knees working properly for about two years. When her pain returned, Vanessa thought briefly about receiving another injection of “chicken fat” but decided instead to search for an alternative.

She found one at QC Kinetix.

“I like to be very natural, and the more I read about QC Kinetix and how its treatments are designed to help the body heal naturally, the more I liked it,” she says. “It all sounded amazing to me, so I decided to give it a try.”

After visiting with the staff at the QC Kinetix location in St. Petersburg and undergoing a thorough evaluation, Vanessa received her first treatment in late January 2022. Over the course of the next few months, she was treated five more times.

“Each treatment is a little different, meaning they’re designed to do different things for you,” Vanessa says. “And I knew that the results would not be immediate. I knew that I had to give it time for my body to start healing itself, and in time it did.”

Throughout her course of treatment, Vanessa continued to teach dance and perform when the opportunity presented itself. For a month or two, she did so while still fighting through the pain that prompted her visit to QC Kinetix in the first place.

“Within four months of starting the treatment, I started to see a huge improvement,” she enthuses. “And now, it’s just amazing what these treatments have done for me. My knees feel 20 years younger, and the mobility I have is something I haven’t had in many, many years.

“I finished the treatments during the summer, and now there is no pain in my right knee at all – zero. My left knee was the one that was more damaged, and it’s not completely healed yet, but the pain is minimal, like a one or two on a scale of one to 10.

“But that’s only when I have one of those crazy days where I lift weights and teach and dance. I’m on my feet for six or eight hours on those days, so when I put my knees through the ringer, I feel a little discomfort in my left knee. But I wouldn’t classify it as pain.”

COURTESY PHOTO
Vanessa Cerallo

Body, Heal Thyself

When she initially sought help from QC Kinetix, Vanessa feared her knee pain might force her to give up dancing. Now, she feels she will be able to dance for years, and for that she is extremely grateful.

“I told the people at QC Kinetix, You changed my life because you have given me years to continue doing what I love to do, and I didn’t think that was possible,” she relates. “I was at a point where I thought, This is not going to get any better. But I am better, so much better.

“And it’s wonderful that I’m going to get some more years of doing what I love, and it’s because of that that I would absolutely recommend QC Kinetix to anyone, 100 percent.

“Everybody who has asked me about it, I have told them, Please do this because I think it’s the best treatment out there. If you get surgery, the recovery is slow and sometimes you never recover 100 percent from surgery. I know because I’ve seen it with people I know.

“And the ‘chicken fat’ eventually wears off. It alleviates the symptoms for a while, but it’s not going to cure anything. But this treatment is the first I’ve seen that is noninvasive, and it’s the body curing the body. And best of all, it works.”

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