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Prolotherapy is a simple,
natural technique that stimulates the body to repair the
painful area when the natural healing process needs a little
assistance. That's all the body needs, the rest it can
take care of on it's own. In most cases, commonly prescribed
anti-inflammatory medications and more drastic measures
like surgery and joint replacement may not help, and often
hinder or even prevent the healing process.
The basic mechanism
of Prolotherapy is simple. A substance is injected into
the affected ligaments or tendons, which leads to local
inflammation. The localized inflammation triggers a wound
healing cascade, resulting in the deposition of new collagen,
the material that ligaments and tendons are made of. New
collagen shrinks as it matures. The shrinking collagen
tightens the ligament that was injected and makes it stronger.
Prolotherapy has the potential of being 100 percent effective
at eliminating and chronic pain due to ligament and tendon
weakness, but depends upon the technique of the individual
Prolotherapist. The most important aspect is injecting
enough of the solution into the injured and weakened area.
If this is done, the likelihood of success is excellent.
Prolotherapy involves the treatment of two specific kinds
of tissue: tendons and ligaments. A tendon attaches a muscle
to the bone and involves movement of the joint. A ligament
connects two bones and is involved in the stability of
the joint. A strain is defined as a stretched or injured
tendon; a sprain, a stretched or injured ligament. Once
these structures are injured, the immune system is stimulated
to repair the injured area. Because ligaments and tendons
generally have a poor blood supply, incomplete healing
is common after injury. This incomplete healing results
in these normally taut, strong bands of fibrous or connective
tissue becoming relaxed and weak. The relaxed and inefficient
ligament or tendon then becomes the source of chronic pain
and weakness.
The greatest stresses to the ligaments and
tendons are where they attach to the bone, the fibro-osseous
junction. The most sensitive structures that produce pain
are the periosteum (covering of the bone) and the ligaments.
It is important to note that in the scale of pain sensitivity
(which part of the body hurts more when injured), the periosteum
ranks first, followed by ligaments, tendons, fascia (the
connective tissue that surrounds muscle), and finally muscle.
Cartilage contains no sensory nerve endings. If you are
told that your cartilage is the cause of your pain, you
have been misinformed; the cartilage cannot hurt because
they contain no pain sensing nerves. If there is cartilage
damage, the ligaments are typically the structures that
hurt. Ligaments are weakest where they attach to bone.
The periosteum is the most sensitive area to pain and the
ligaments second. It is now easy to understand why this
area hurts so much. This is where the Prolotherapy injections
occur, and thus eliminate the chronic pain of many conditions
including arthritis, mechanical low back pain, degenerative
disc disease, cartilage injury, and sports injuries.
Prolotherapy
works by exactly the same process that the human body naturally
uses to stimulate the body's healing system, a process
called inflammation. The technique involves the injection
of a proliferant (a mild irritant solution) that causes
an inflammatory response which "turns
on" the healing process. The growth of new ligament
and tendon tissue is then stimulated. The ligaments and
tendons produced after Prolotherapy appear much the same
as normal tissues, except that they are thicker, stronger,
and contain fibers of varying thickness, testifying to
the new and ongoing creation of tissue. The ligament and
tendon tissue which forms as a result of Prolotherapy is
thicker and stronger than normal tissue, up to 40% stronger
in some cases!
Since pain is caused by injured or weakened connective
tissue, i.e. ligaments or tendons, Prolotherapy can cure
or substantially alleviate most painful conditions because
it strengthens the injured areas.
These are some of the painful conditions that have
been treated successfully by Prolotherapy:
| • Arthritis |
• Migraines |
• Sciatica |
• Back Pain |
| • Myofascial Pain Syndrome |
• Scoliosis |
• Bone Spurs |
• Neck Pain |
| • Slipping Rib |
• Bunions |
• Osteoporosis |
• Spondylolisthesis |
| • Carpel Tunnel Syndrome |
• Plantar Fasciitis |
• Sports Injuries |
• Fibromyalgia |
| • Post Surgery Pain |
• Subluxation |
• Herniated Discs |
• Pregnancy Back Pain |
| • Tendonitis |
• Ligament Sprains |
• RSD Pain |
• Tennis Elbow |
| • Loose Joints |
• Rotator Cuff Pain |
• TMJ Syndrome |
• Meniscal Tear |
| • Sacroiliac Laxity |
...See the complete list |
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