World-class athletes like Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Rafael Nadal and even Charlotte’s own Steph Curry have made regenerative medicine part of the everyday vernacular.
Curry once received a PRP, or platelet-rich plasma injection, in which platelets from his own blood were used to treat his sprained knee during the 2016 NBA playoffs. He was back on the court for the Golden State Warriors nine days later.
Former Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis heard about the treatment from former Panthers lineman Frank Garcia. He was looking for relief from knee pain after undergoing three operations during his football career. Through Garcia, he found Dr. James Altizer and the NeoGenix clinic, which has locations in Ballantyne and Lake Norman.
“I cannot tell you enough how much of a difference it made in my life,” Davis told Charlotte TV station WCNC, describing how it allowed him to play basketball with his teenage sons. “These treatments have been life-changing.”
NeoGenix, an independent clinic, treats not only athletes but patients from all walks of life. It specializes in patients with arthritis and injuries ranging from meniscus tears, rotator cuff tears, degeneration of the low back, sciatica, thumb, ankle and Achilles injuries, plantar fasciitis and more.
Director of Operations Nikitas Miles, who helped Altizer open NeoGenix in January 2020, said Altizer has done more than 5,000 procedures.
“He’s the most experienced guy in the Southeast from a pure volume standpoint,” Miles says.
The range of treatments includes both PRP injections and stem cell therapy, which patients can receive from their own platelets or, for more severe cases, stem cells collected from fat cells in either the abdomen or buttocks.
Miles says regenerative therapy is for patients looking for more holistic solutions than a cortisone shot.
“Our therapies are literally the only treatments out there that are capable of slowing down and even reversing, in some cases, the effects of arthritis and tears,” Miles says.
The procedures are not covered by insurance and range in price, starting at $1,000. Only local anesthetic is used, and patients can walk out of the clinic in about an hour.
Each patient is screened during a free consultation with Dr. Altizer, an internist.
“We call ourselves the most trusted stem cell clinic in the Carolinas, because we do things the right way,” Miles says. “If your arthritis is too bad, if your rotator cuff tear is too bad, we will not treat you. If our doctors don't think we can help you, they'll be the absolute first ones to tell you. That's why we have such a good reputation around town.”
NeoGenix reports seeing improvement in eight of 10 patients who qualify.
“All the treatments we’ve had to treat arthritis up until now are just covering up the pain,” Dr. Altizer told WCNC. “Cortisone shots, gel shots—those don’t heal anything; they’re just delaying the inevitable. Stem cells can actually heal tissue damage in joints caused by trauma, wear and tear, time and gravity… It’s a game changer when it comes to arthritis.”