About Prolotherapy

Don't Just Live With It — Many Pain and Arthritis Problems and Old Sports Injuries Can Be Helped With Natural Treatment Called Prolotherapy

Many pain problems are caused by lack of joint stability, which happens with wear and tear or osteoarthritis or degenerative arthritis. The joint space is lost by degeneration of cartilage and with the loss of cartilage spaces gone, abnormal motion develops and strain on joint capsules the ligaments and irritation of the joint lining occurs causing pain and disability.

Even severe arthritis such as bone on bone knee arthritis in individuals who have been told they need a knee replacement by stabilizing the joints pain can be improved. The bone on bone does not have to cause pain, there are no pain nerves in the bone, pain comes from the ligaments and the joint capsules and lining. By stabilizing the joint those structures are no longer irritated and the pain resolves. Degenerative arthritis in the shoulders and other joints even with significant worn out cartilage can be helped with prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy is an injection technique using natural substance combined with numbing medicines injected to stimulate your own bodies healing. There is stimulation of growth factors for growing new connective tissue to strengthen and realine the joints. There is evidence in some studies that cartilage growth can also be re-grown. A recent study by Dr. Dean Reeves showed exellent improvement in knee arthritis pain and function with prolotherpy. It usually takes two to three injection sessions three to six weeks apart to determine if prolotherapy will be helpful, as it takes time to grow connective tissue and stimulate the body’s healing. It usually will take three to six injections sessions to obtain maximum benefit, stabilize the joint and get maximum pain relief.

The side effects are usually some increased stiffness and soreness lasting usually less than a few days, some injection discomfort as expected but it can be lessened with some topical technique or anesthetic creams. Most people tolerate the procedure very well.

I have been using prolotherapy for musculoskeletal, sports medicine and pain problems for over 13 years. This has been used in the United States for over 50 years. The father of prolotherapy who wrote the textbook on prolotherapy taught me when he was 85-years of age. He stopped spine surgery on patients because prolotherapy worked so well on the neck and low back that he did not need to do surgery any more.

There are only a handful of doctors who are trained in prolotherapy. This is in part because insurance usually does not cover it, and significant training is required. Insurance carriers usually call this treatment investigational even though it has been around for 50 years and there are many studies proving its effectiveness. The injected substances such as dextrose are natural and not patentable so no drug company is interested in getting insurance to cover prolotherapy. Since doctors cannot not get paid by insurance companies they often do not spend the time and money or the considerable effort and practice it takes to become profficient at prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy is the best treatment for many chronic painful conditions to strengthen the body’s supportive structure in the, knees, hips and shoulders, back, neck or other joints. You may not have to live with the pain. Even if you have been told there is nothing that can be done for your painful condition, it is worth seeing a doctor who is skilled in prolotherapy to see if you can “Prolo your pain away”.