EDITOR’S NOTE: Physicians, providers, and administrative staff who practice at Maui Health hospitals and clinics answer questions from the public in Healthwise Maui, which appears on Thursdays. Maui Health operates Maui Memorial Medical Center, Maui Memorial Medical Center Outpatient Clinic, Kula Hospital & Clinic and Lana’i Community Hospital and accepts all patients. To submit a question, go to the website at mauihealth.org/healthwise.

Q: How are platelet-rich plasma injections used to treat sports injuries?

Dr. Jonathan Eno, Orthopedic Sports Medicine Surgeon, Pacific Permanente Group: Platelet-Rich Plasma, or PRP, is a treatment that takes your own blood and concentrates its healing components to help your body recover. It’s been used by everyone from pro athletes to weekend warriors to treat a range of injuries – especially those involving tendons, ligaments, and joints.

Platelets are like your body’s natural repair crew. When you get injured, they rush to the scene, bring their toolbox of growth factors, and get to work fixing the damage and calming inflamed tissue. With PRP, a small amount of your blood is drawn, then spun in a machine to concentrate the platelets. That rich mix is then injected back into your body where it needs help healing.

You may receive just one PRP injection, or sometimes a series of injections, depending on your injury. PRP is often combined with other treatments such as physical therapy, rest, or surgery.

Some of the conditions that can be treated with PRP therapy include osteoarthritis (like in the knee or shoulder); tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow; rotator cuff injures; ACL tears or sprains; chronic back or neck pain; other muscle, joint, tendon, or cartilage injuries.

It’s important to know that while PRP can help your body heal, it’s not a quick fix. You’ll still need to follow your doctor’s treatment plan – whether that’s rest, rehab, or other treatments.

If you think PRP might be right for you, talk to your doctor.

Maui Health’s team of orthopedic specialists offers a wide range of treatments for sports injuries, including PRP injections. Call the Maui Memorial Medical Center Outpatient Clinic at 808-442-5951 for an appointment or visit mauihealth.org/ortho to learn more.

Q: Why is being immunized by a vaccine better than natural immunity?

Chrissy Miller, RN, Employee Health and Wellness Manager, Maui Health: Both vaccines and infection can give you immunity to certain diseases. However, relying on infection or “natural immunity” to protect you can be much riskier.

To develop immunity, your immune system must learn to recognize and attack diseased cells. This occurs naturally after you’ve been infected with and recovered from an illness like chickenpox or COVID-19. It can also be triggered by a vaccine, which introduces your body to an inactive form of the infection.

The problem with natural immunity is that the disease itself can be dangerous. Diseases like measles, COVID-19, and the flu can lead to hospitalization and even death and lead to complications like pneumonia or long COVID.

Certain infections can also increase your risk of other health problems later in life. People who have been infected with hepatitis B have a higher risk of liver cancer, for example, and having chickenpox at an early age can increase the risk of shingles when you are older.

Vaccines can give you immunity without these risks. They do this by using an inert form of the virus that your immune cells can recognize but won’t cause disease, delivering the smallest effective dose of the immunogen, and allowing you to control timing so you can be vaccinated when you are feeling healthy.

Importantly, some vaccines actually provide stronger protection than natural immunity. These include:

· The HPV vaccine

· Tetanus vaccine

· Hib vaccine

· Pneumococcal vaccine

It’s important to note that while vaccines are lower-risk than infection, they are not risk-free. A small number of people do experience a vaccine reaction or injury. These cases are very rare, however.

More often, people may experience temporary side effects like injection-site pain, fatigue, or fever after being vaccinated. While uncomfortable, these are not dangerous and should go away after a day or two.

The bottom line is that vaccines provide a safer and sometimes more effective form of immunity for most people. Talk with your doctor about your risk factors and about getting up to date on any vaccines you need.