Do you experience painful joints? Do you have Osteoarthritis? Or have you had an old or recent injury and want to speed recovery and prevent future damage?
Prolotherapy could be the answer for you. It is an injection therapy that stimulates regenerative healing and has been used for over 40 years.
WHY DO I HAVE PAIN IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Most joint pain is from a result of damage to the surrounding tissues including; ligaments, muscles, and tendons. Ligaments attach bone to bone, and therefore surround all joints. The issue is that they have poor blood supply to support healing and once injured, stretch out and become “lax”. Once this happens, muscles have to compensate and can spasm or cause referred pain or compress nerves. This can ultimately alter your entire axial skeletal alignment. As you can see, it becomes a domino affect.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The healing response is a complex inflammatory process. Injury leads to improper alignment of fibers and therefore decreases the future function of the structure. The solution used in prolotherapy is a specific percentage of dextrose combined with procaine or lidocaine. This therapy has been shown to stimulate cell proliferation and attract proper growth factors to allow tissues to return to pre-injury strength and length.
WHAT TO EXPECT
An assessment of the joint includes; range of motion, muscle testing, or specific orthopedic tests to determine the extent of damage or injury. Followed by the injections of the prolotherapy solution.
SUPPORTIVE TREATMENT
While the Prolotherapy will increase blood flow and therefore nutrient flow, supplementing with the proper nutrients to ensure the collagen and tissue foundation is sufficient is a must. There will be important supplements recommended to incorporate that will aid and speed up the healing process.
CONDITIONS TREATED WITH PROLOTHERAPY
- Osteoarthritis/DJD
- Tendonopathies
- Frozen shoulder/Adhesive capsulitis
- Muscle strains/sprains
- Bursitis
- Chondromalacia patella
- Knee injuries including: ACL, MCL, Meniscus tears/degeneration
- Rotator cuff injuries
- Any joint, ligament or muscle tendon that is causing pain
REFERENCES:
Rabago, David, et al. “Hypertonic dextrose injections (prolotherapy) for knee osteoarthritis: results of a single-arm uncontrolled study with 1-year follow-up.” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 18.4 (2012): 408-414.
Rabago, David, et al. “Dextrose prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial.” The Annals of Family Medicine 11.3 (2013): 229-237.
Reeves, Kenneth D., and Khatab Hassanein. “Randomized prospective double-blind placebo-controlled study of dextrose prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis with or without ACL laxity.” Alternative therapies in health and medicine 6.2 (2000): 68.
Lyftogt, John. “Subcutaneous prolotherapy treatment of refractory knee, shoulder, and lateral elbow pain.” Australasian Musculoskeletal Medicine12.2 (2007): 110.
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