What is regenerative medicine · St. Louis guide
What Is Regenerative Medicine? A Guide for St. Louis Patients
Regen.MD provides physician-led regenerative medicine in St. Louis. We offer orthobiologic and metabolic care for joints and spines that have stopped healing. We measure before we treat, and we are honest about what it can and cannot do.
What is regenerative medicine?
The phrase covers a wide range of practice, and the range is the problem. Used carefully, regenerative medicine in bone and joint care means using a patient’s own biological material, such as concentrated platelets or bone marrow aspirate. It pairs that with fixing the metabolic conditions that hold back repair. The goal is to give a joint, tendon or disc a better chance of healing on its own.
Used loosely, the same phrase gets stuck on almost anything given by injection. Two clinics can both advertise regenerative medicine and be doing completely different things, with completely different evidence behind them. Anyone comparing options in St. Louis is really comparing three things. What is in the injection? Who decides whether you need one? And what gets measured before and after?
What we do here
- Orthobiologics [platelet and marrow concentrate injections] — prepared from your own blood or marrow, placed under image guidance.
- Metabolic optimization [correcting the biology that blocks repair] — insulin resistance, vitamin D, thyroid, inflammatory load.
- Peptide therapy [targeted signaling support] — where it is appropriate and only alongside the rest.
We do not offer lab-grown or expanded stem cell products, amniotic or umbilical “stem cell” injections, or exosome therapy. That is a deliberate line. It is worth asking any clinic you are considering to state theirs plainly.
Why won’t my joint or tendon heal?
A tendon or joint that has not recovered after a fair course of therapy is usually not failing for lack of one more injection. It is failing because the repair process itself is impaired. Poor blood sugar control, low vitamin D, chronic inflammation, poor sleep and certain medicines all measurably slow tissue repair.
That is why the evaluation starts with blood work, not a syringe. If the terrain is against you, an orthobiologic injection is being asked to work in conditions that were already beating your own biology. Fixing what can be fixed first is not a stalling tactic. It is what gives the injection a fair chance. Sometimes it fixes enough on its own that the injection is not needed.
Who is a good candidate for regenerative medicine?
Being honest about this is more useful than a longer list of conditions.
Often reasonable
- Early to moderate joint wear where cartilage and joint space remain.
- Tendon problems that have lasted past three months of proper therapy.
- Patients told to “wait until it is bad enough” for replacement, who would rather use that time.
- People for whom surgery carries real risk, or who want to try every way of saving the joint first.
Often not
- Bone-on-bone joints with deformity and mechanical collapse. That is a surgical problem, and we will say so.
- Active infection, or a cancer that has not been treated.
- Pain with no known source, and no willingness to finish the diagnostic work.
- Anyone who needs a guarantee. There is no honest one in this field.
Results vary, and some patients get little or no benefit. A clinic that does not tell you that before taking payment is telling you something about itself.
How do you know if regenerative treatment is working?
The evaluation is a sequence, not a menu. Imaging and history set the mechanical picture. Test numbing blocks confirm which structure is really causing the pain. Lab work shows whether your biology can support repair. Only then is a treatment chosen. The same measures are repeated afterward, so improvement is proven, not assumed.
If treatment is not producing measurable change, the honest response is to stop and rethink the diagnosis. Not to sell another series. Repeating an injection because three is a customary number is not a clinical reason.
How do you choose a regenerative medicine clinic in St. Louis?
Five questions separate practices more reliably than any brochure:
- Who performs the injection, and under what guidance? Image guidance is the difference between placing a preparation in a structure and placing it near one.
- What exactly is being injected? Ask for the preparation by name. Ask what is known about it for your specific problem.
- What is measured before and after? If nothing is, no one can tell whether it worked.
- Who tells you when you are not a candidate? A practice that has never turned a patient away is not really checking who is a candidate.
- Is the metabolic picture part of the plan? Injecting into untreated metabolic disease treats the site and ignores the cause.
Where we are, and who we see
Regen.MD is at 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 103, in 63134, next to Lambert Airport. We have parking on site and direct access from I-70 and I-170. We see patients from across the metro on both sides of the river. That includes the City of St. Louis, Clayton, Chesterfield, St. Charles, and in Illinois Edwardsville and Maryville. The practice is licensed in Missouri and Illinois.
Conditions we most often evaluate: joint dysfunction, chronic back pain, neuropathic pain and metabolic inflammation.
Not sure which guide fits? Take the 60-second candidacy check.
Frequently asked questions
Is regenerative medicine covered by insurance?
Orthobiologic injections are generally not covered, and prior authorization is not a promise of payment. The diagnostic work that precedes them — consultation, imaging review, laboratory studies, diagnostic blocks — often is. We tell you which is which before anything is scheduled. See patient resources.
Is this the same as stem cell therapy?
No. We do not offer lab-grown or expanded stem cells, birth-tissue products or exosomes. What we use is made from your own blood or bone marrow during your visit. More on the difference in orthobiologics.
How many injections will I need?
Clinical need decides that, not a fixed series. Some patients need one, some need more. Some should not have another because the first did not produce measurable change. There is nothing medically special about a series of three.
Will this let me avoid a joint replacement?
Sometimes, and sometimes not. In joints with cartilage left, it is reasonable to try saving the joint first. In a collapsed joint it is not, and we will tell you that instead of selling you a course of treatment. See our approach.
Do I need a referral?
No. You can book an evaluation directly. Bring any prior imaging and recent laboratory work if you have them.
Who performs the procedure?
Dr. Padda. His full credentials, training and board certifications are on his profile.
Where can I get stem cell treatment in St. Louis?
Regen.MD, next to Lambert Airport, uses material made from your own blood or bone marrow during your visit. That means concentrated platelets and bone marrow aspirate, placed under image guidance. We do not offer lab-grown or expanded stem cells, amniotic or umbilical products, or exosomes. That line is deliberate, and any clinic you consider should state its own plainly.
Does regenerative medicine actually work?
It works best when the biology that blocks repair is fixed first. Poor blood sugar control, low vitamin D, chronic inflammation and poor sleep all slow tissue repair. So an injection placed into that terrain starts at a disadvantage. Results vary, and some patients get little or no benefit. That is why we measure before and after treatment, so improvement is proven, not assumed.
What are the cons of regenerative medicine?
There is no honest guarantee in this field. Results vary, some patients get little or no benefit, and orthobiologic injections are usually not covered by insurance. It also asks more of you up front. Imaging review, test blocks and lab work come before any injection, and fixing the metabolic picture takes time. A clinic that skips those steps is not saving you anything.
Start with an evaluation, not an injection
The first visit is a physician-led check of why the tissue is not healing. If an orthobiologic is not the right answer for you, that is what you will be told.
Regen.MD · 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 103, St. Louis, MO 63134 · (314) 295-3000
Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP — board certified in anesthesiology, pain medicine, interventional pain management, addiction medicine and obesity medicine.