Affinity Sports Medicine

December 27, 2019

2006

Keeping You Healthy by Keeping You Active

Restoring your body to its best!

Photos by Matthew Anderson | Sponsored Content

Part of embracing an active lifestyle means that most likely at some point, you will experience a setback. That is inevitable. However, being defeated in that setback is optional. One of the options available to patients today is the advanced medical care found at Affinity Sports Medicine in Kansas City.

“Our focus is to prevent and treat orthopedic conditions with minimally-invasive therapies so that the patient can get back to living a full, active life in the shortest amount of time possible,” said practice owner Dr. Aaron Rowland, D.O., whose mission is simple: keeping people active and healthy. How does he accomplish this? By preventing and treating numerous orthopedic conditions and sports-related illnesses to keep patients functioning at their highest level.

“Whether you are young or old or anywhere in between, if you are active, we regard you as an athlete,” he indicated. “We not only want to help the young athlete to maintain health in the sporting years, but we also help working adults and those in their retirement years – the nontraditional athletic population. Whether your activity is marathons or mountain climbing, golf, gardening, or playing with the grandkids, we want to restore the body to its highest level of function.”

A graduate of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, Dr. Rowland earned a B.A. in Social Work. From there he acquired his medical degree from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. Then he completed a residency in Family Medicine at the University of Kansas in Wichita, followed by a fellowship in Sports Medicine at St. Vincent Health System in Erie, Pennsylvania. When Dr. Rowland trained in family medicine, he learned how disease processes such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and even depression were prevented or improved through an active lifestyle and healthy diet. However, many patients were unable to pursue an active lifestyle due to chronic pain.

“A light went off at that time,” recalled Dr. Rowland. “I wanted to focus on a way to keep these problems away or at least mitigate the effects of various illnesses. Studies have shown that an active, healthy lifestyle is the best preventative medicine.”

SPORTS MEDICINE

Roughly 80% of sports-related injuries do not require surgery. As a sports medicine physician, Dr. Rowland prescribes and administers the most effective, non-invasive treatments available. He collaborates with other medical professionals, including physical therapy, surgeons and chiropractors to provide the best care of his patients.

“With the student athlete it’s also very important to work closely with the parents, the athletic trainers and the school officials to provide the best environment for healing and a safe return to play.”

Dr. Rowland pointed to certain studies that have shown kids who participate in sports grow up to be active adults.

“It’s that active lifestyle that keeps us healthy and flourishing in our adult lives,” he emphasized. “Keeping kids healthy and treating their injuries will hopefully keep them active and healthy as adults.”

REGENERATIVE MEDICINE

For those suffering from musculoskeletal pain and other degenerative orthopedic conditions, Dr. Rowland offers certain orthopedic regenerative medical procedures that help restore healthy joints and tissue while also relieving pain from acute and chronic injuries. Such procedures are non-invasive and require minimal down time. Dr. Rowland stays on the leading edge of the latest practices and research in this regard in order to provide the most effective and most advanced options for his patients. The goal is to heal the injury; not just mask the pain. Regenerative medicine can be effective for many orthopedic conditions, such as acute and chronic sports injuries; joint instability with the knee, wrist, ankle, shoulder, hip and other joints; types of arthritis; tendon injuries both acute and chronic; sprains and strains; and chronic back pain.

Stem Cell Treatment – Using your body to help heal your own body

With aging, we are most likely to experience musculoskeletal pain or injury as a result of natural activities of daily living or the aging process. Stem cell treatment is a viable option to heal injured tissue and restore healthy tissue to alleviate pain.

“Through this autologous process, we extract a small amount of bone marrow in a relatively painless procedure from the posterior hip and then re-inject that back into an area of chronic injury,” explained Dr. Rowland. “This is an effective, minimally invasive option that stimulates the body to heal itself and return you to your active life as soon as possible.”

Affinity Sports Medicine is one of the few practices in the Northland that offers this type of stem cell therapy, which reduces the need for surgery or long-term medical care or time off from work for repetitive injury. According to Dr. Rowland, patients can expect minimal downtime with “relative rest” a few days after the procedure. In other words, if a knee is treated, don’t expect to engage in rigorous hiking the next day, but you can move about the house. Patients can usually return to regular activity within a week or so. However, Dr. Rowland explained some individuals have done enough damage to their body that returning to what it once was it not always possible.

“I like to tell patients we like for them to feel good for the age they are,” said Dr. Rowland. “Stem cell procedures are a great option when a patient wants to avoid surgery and remain engaged in an active life.”

Prolotherapy

By injecting a solution of lidocaine and dextrose into a damaged joint, ligament or tendon, the body is stimulated to create new collagen and commence the healing and repair process.

“This is essentially a method of tricking the body into thinking there is an acute injury so that your immune system responds with intention to repair and heal,” indicated Dr. Rowland. “This approach is ideal for chronic pain, injury and arthritis, as it targets joints, ligaments and tendons that have been weakened and stretched due to injury or aging.”

Platelet rich plasma (PRP)

“We concentrate platelets from your own blood and inject those into the area of injury where the platelets then release growth factors so the body can heal,” said Dr. Rowland. “We’re effectively concentrating your body’s healing mechanisms and re-introducing them to the body at the site of injury so the body is stimulated to heal itself. This is an excellent option to heal both acute and chronic injuries and alleviate pain.”

CONCUSSION CARE

An integral part of the sports medicine clinic is managing concussions for the student athlete.

“We treat the athlete more as a student than an athlete,” explained Dr. Rowland. “We want to treat them so they can be healthy for a long life and career ahead of them. Through a comprehensive evaluation including computerized neurocognitive testing, we diagnose concussion and develop an individualized plan for recovery. This can be a complicated task with our ambitious athletes and families. Part of our job is to manage expectations with patients and families and advise them how to play safely so they can return to sports, work and family life in the future.”

Of course, concussions can also happen in one’s daily life at work or in other activities. Many people associate concussions with a student athlete, but concussions are not only an injury of the student athlete.

PERSONALIZED CARE WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST

The staff at Affinity Sports Medicine can usually see patients within 24-48 hours of their initial call.

“When people are injured, they don’t want to wait a few weeks to see a doctor, nor do they want to go to an ER for a non-emergent injury,” said Dr. Rowland, who makes every effort to get patients into his office as quickly as possible and will even modify his hours of operation in order to do so. Further, he spends extensive time with each patient to fully understand what is going on so he can determine the best way to help them.

As an independent practice, Dr. Rowland works integrally with others in the medical community.

“Medicine is best provided by a team, all working together for the best care of our patients,” he noted.