How does IRAP therapy work?
The process of IRAP Therapy is simple. A small amount of your own blood is drawn. Just about the same amount of blood you donate to the blood bank. A centrifuge is then used to separate the blood into 3 parts; plasma, platelet rich plasma, and red blood cells.
At this point, the red blood cells and platelets are concentrated and combined. The second part of the process involves the use of specialized centrifuge device that uses a small glass bead to further isolate the IRAP to a higher concentration. This is then injected directly into the joint space.
The results of IRAP Therapy have been studied on several occasions. A multicenter study injected patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). Six doses were considered. One patient received 0.05 mg and 13 patients received 150 mg of IL-1Ra. No acute reaction occurred, and the 150 mg dose was considered the maximum tolerated dose.
The IRAP therapy showed a significant improvement until month three in 13 patients who received 150 mg. Pain improved almost instantly! The study concluded that injections of IL-1Ra in patients with OA was well tolerated and did not induce any acute inflammatory reaction. The feasibility of such injections opens a “promising therapeutic perspective for patients with OA”.
Exactly what causes the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis is not known. The best way to stall the onslaught of the disease would be to block interleukin-1 in the affected joints. And that why IRAP therapy works! We are using the same chemical the body normally uses for the job. IRAP binds the same receptor molecules that allow interleukin-1 into cells.
