PROLOTHERAPY IN BRIEF
Prolotherapy is a minimally invasive, tremendously safe therapy that stimulates the body’s healing mechanisms using natural ingredients. Pain comes from tears in the ligaments commonly referred to as sprains, where tears in the tendons are called strains. Ligaments connect the bones together, providing stability to the joints. Tendons connect the muscles to the bones and move the joints. When ligaments and tendons are injured they hurt. Typical treatments available to the patient including cortisone shots, ice, or an anti-inflammatory, just cover up the pain, so the patient feels better temporarily. These types of treatments are helpful only if the problem is due to inflammation without any real tissue damage. That’s because cortisone and NSAIDS actually slow down your body’s healing response. When you feel better because of pain relievers, you may not sense further damage and over use the injured area making matters worse. Prolotherapy can heal the source of the pain, rather than cover it up, because it helps to stimulate the body’s repair mechanism causing ligaments, tendons and joint capsules to heal. Ligaments and tendons, cartilage and vertebral discs have a deficit in their ability to heal because they have a poor blood supply. Because they have a poor blood supply, and because they are rich in nerve endings, they are white in color. Muscles, on the other hand, appear red in color because of their plentiful blood supply. This is why muscle injuries heal quickly and are almost never the source of chronic pain or athletic injuries. For those with chronic pain, Prolotherapy can be the answer to getting relief from that long term suffering. Acute injuries may also benefit from Soft Tissue Prolo techniques. After the Prolotherapy treatment is given, an increase in the blood supply to the area occurs which brings in nutrients, immune cells and stimulates an overall healing response to the area? Prolotherapy not only strengthens weak joints, some studies have shown it can continue to increase the strength in a joint above normal. Once the joint is stable because the ligaments are able to give it the correct structural support, the cause of the pain is gone.
Growth factors are becoming an important part of the future of Prolotherapy. Polypeptide growth factors act directly upon fibroblasts (which make collagen). Epidermal growth factor, insulin-like growth factors, fibroblast growth factors, and platelet-derived growth factors are now available for research and testing purposes. I’m now using a lot of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections directly into joints to help regenerate cartilage. Many of these growth factors are available in homeopathic form to be taken orally during the Prolotherapy treatment course. Taking joint support supplements that contain glucosamine sulfate, MSM, chondroitin and similar nutrients will further help the process.
Summary
The basic mechanism of Prolotherapy is simple. A substance is injected, which leads to local inflammation. The localized injection triggers a wound-healing cascade, resulting in the deposition of new collagen. New collagen shrinks as it matures. The shrinking collagen tightens the ligament or tendon that was injected and makes it stronger. When injecting inside the joint, it has a cumulative effect like having a road construction crew filling in the potholes, thereby rebuilding cartilage. Prolotherapy has the potential of being 100 percent effective at eliminating sports injuries and chronic pain. The most important aspect is injecting enough of the right kind of solution into the injured and weakened area to trigger a healing response. If this is accomplished, the likelihood of success is excellent. The key thing to keep in mind is that Prolotherapy actually starts a response that heals, and thus fixes the problem, rather than just masking it with painkillers.
Robert Ellsworth, NMD