Do you know what's really frustrating? Injuries and pain!
Do you know what's even worse? Injuries and pain... and then not getting better!
If this sounds like you, don't worry. I have good news for you.
There's a way that people are feeling better, faster and stronger... and it actually holds this time!
It can help you if you feel like any of the following categories:
You've tried different types of therapies but none of them help or hold permanently
Your orthopedic surgeon says you need surgery... and that sounds scary
You've already had orthopedic surgery... and it still hurts!
You don't like the idea of popping pharmaceutical painkillers and cortisone shots for the rest of your life
If any of these sounds like you, good news! There might just be the perfect solution for you.
What's the secret?
PROLOTHERAPY
Why should you know about it?
Because patients are healing and recovering faster from injuries. At the same time, you can avoid scary procedures like surgery, painkillers, and cortisone shots.
Sounds too good to be true, right? Let the numbers and statistics speak for themselves.
According to the Journal of Prolotherapy, Dr. George Hackett MD and general surgeon, conducted a study with over 1,800 suffering from chronic low back pain. After prolotherapy, up to 82% of the surveyed patients reported being cured of pain - even up to 12 years after the procedure.
In 2001, according to the Florida Academy of Pain Medicine, a study conducted examined over 530,000 patients - they noted that with prolotherapy a reduction of 100% of pain was reported in up to 82% of patients.
So, what can prolotherapy do for you?
You actually have a real science-backed solution to fix your pain and heal your injuries.
Bonus: It's a a safer option that beats out conventional orthopedic medicine.
So in the next few paragraphs, I'm going to show you everything behind-the-scenes of how it works.
WHAT IS PROLOTHERAPY?
Here is the boring, medical textbook definition:
"Prolotherapy is a nonsurgical regenerative injection technique that introduces small amounts of an irritant solution to the site of painful and degenerated tendon insertions, joints, ligaments, and in adjacent joint spaces during several treatment sessions to promote growth of normal cells and tissues."
- Journal of Prolotherapy
Here is the definition you actually care about:
Prolotherapy is a non-invasive injection technique that gives your body the superpower to heal and regenerate certain injured areas that would not normally heal on its own.
By turning on your body's natural healing capabilities, prolotherapy is a way to kickstart your body in to hyper-healing and super-regeneration mode, thus getting rid of pain.
What does prolotherapy treat?
So, what's the takeaway?
Prolotherapy can just about treat and eliminate just about any musculoskeletal pain located almost anywhere in the body.
Actually, that's not even the best part.
Prolotherapy is a scientifically-proven, natural procedure that outperforms conventional orthopedic treatments and prescriptions... many of which may do more harm than good for our bodies.
The best part is...
Prolotherapy is a solution that could work both safely and permanently for you.
Why?
Because prolotherapy works by naturally treating and fixing the root cause of your pain.
Compare this to the most commonly prescribed forms of "pain management" prescriptions, such as cortisone injections, epidurals, and in worst cases, surgery.
For example, according to the national Consumer Safety Organization, orthopedic surgery contains many risks, including:
Nerve damage or neuroparalysis
Blood clots
New pain after surgery
Bone fractures
Arthritis
Compare this to prolotherapy, where risk reduction is SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER than surgery. The benefits include:
Short recovery time
Significant decrease in chance of infection
Only natural substances are used
You're probably thinking, "Hold on. This sounds too good to be true." But facts are facts! Read on to get the juicy details.
WHAT DOES PROLOTHERAPY DO?
Okay, so if you want to know how you can use prolotherapy to feel better, let's take a look at exactly what prolotherapy does.
Here is the boring, medical textbook definition:
"Prolotherapy is based on the premise that chronic musculoskeletal pain is due to inadequate repair of fibrous connective tissue, resulting in ligament and tendon weakness or relaxation (laxity), also known as connective tissue insufficiency. When the connective tissue is weak, there is insufficient tensile strength or tightness. Load-bearing then stimulates pain mechanoreceptors."
- Journal of Prolotherapy
Here is the definition you actually care about:
Prolotherapy can get rid of physical pain by making your body's connective tissue (specifically ligaments and tendons) permanently stronger.
Here's the biggest takeaway you need to know:
Weak and Damaged Connective Tissue = Pain
So logically, if we can fix the weak and damaged connective tissue, we can fix the pain, right?
Well, first, how can you tell if you have weak and damaged ligaments and tendons?
Here's a quick way you can tell. Do you have any of these symptoms?
Chronic pain
Muscle spasms
Decreased joint motion
Pain aggravated by movement
Swelling
Temporary help from physical therapy, massage, or manipulation
Numbness or burning sensations
Cracking sound when the joint is moved
Weakness
For a full list of symptoms, click here (listed on page 18).
Okay, so how is prolotherapy going to fix this?
To understand this, we first need to go back to Anatomy 101.
Take a look at this picture.
The network of red tissue represent our muscles. Muscles are the soft-tissue organs that we can voluntarily contract and allow us to move our body parts.
By contrast, the network of white tissue represents our ligaments and tendons. Tendons and ligaments are like the elastic, super glue of the body: tendons attach muscles to bones, and ligaments attach bone to bones. Without tendons and ligaments, we wouldn't be able to move without everything falling apart!
Why is it important to make this distinction between muscles vs. ligaments and tendons?
Here's why:
The red shows that muscles have excellent blood supply. Excellent blood supply allows muscles to heal very quickly, grow stronger and recover after injuries. (This is why you can "build" muscle with exercise!)
Oh the other hand, the white shows that ligaments and tendons have poor blood supply. Unlike muscles, tendons and ligaments and cartilage are relatively inelastic and do not have a mainline blood supply to bring fluids and nutrients (such as oxygen) to aid in recovery. So from this, we can draw the conclusion:
Poor Blood Supply = Slow and Poor Healing
So through overuse, injury or wear-and-tear caused by compensation patterns, these ligaments and tendons can become weak and damaged overtime. However, since they don't heal fully on their own due to the lack of blood supply, that's when you start feeling pain!
So how important are our ligaments and tendons? Well, let's see them in action!
Every single ligament and tendon has its own special unique purpose and function. (As you can see from the picture above, your body is covered with ligament and tendon connections.)
In this particular case, imagine what happens if those ligaments and tendons protecting your thumb joint becomes weak and damaged.
Yep. It's not pretty. And, you guessed it. It probably contributes to a lot of those symptoms of ligament laxity and connective tissue weakness we discussed earlier.
Over time, when the fibers of the ligaments and tendon are left damaged and untreated, it doesn't look very pretty. Not only do the pain receptors from the actual ligaments start kicking in, but your body starts compensating for the structural weakness.
Now, when the ligaments are unable to do their job properly to stabilize your body, other structures surrounding the joint (cartilage, nerves, muscles, bone) start developing irregular patterns to pick up the slack.
When each component of the body is not doing the exact job it was designed to do, that's when you start feeling pain.
If you leave the connective tissue weak and damaged, this is when your pain becomes chronic pain.
As long as your ligaments and tendons remain damaged and have not gotten better with other conservative treatments, they will continue to cause pain.
So this is exactly where Prolotherapy comes in! In the next section, you'll find out exactly how Prolotherapy repairs those weak and damaged ligaments and tendons.
WHY DOES PROLOTHERAPY WORK?
Here is the boring, textbook definition:
"Prolotherapy works by causing a temporary, low grade inflammation at the injection site, activating fibroblasts to the area, which, in turn, synthesize precursors to mature collagen and thus reinforce connective tissue. The inflammatory stimulus of Prolotherapy raises the level of growth factors to resume or initiate a new connective tissue repair sequence which had prematurely aborted or never started."
- Journal of Prolotherapy
Here is the definition you actually care about:
Prolotherapy safely "tricks" your body in to healing targeted areas by making your body think it's injured.
I know what you're thinking.
"WHAT? I'm already in pain. Why on earth would I injure myself again?"
So here's where I unveil the true secret behind prolotherapy. Here is most important clue in understanding how prolotherapy works:
INFLAMMATION
Okay, before we go on, I'm going to address what you're probably thinking.
"But I thought inflammation was bad? Isn't that why "anti-inflammatory" medications and "anti-inflammatory" diets?"
Not so fast! Here are the quick facts you need to know about inflammation and why it's actually your body's best survival mechanism:
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is nature's ultimate weapon to shield and protect you from harm.
If you think about it, the world can be a beautiful, but scary place. Think about it - our ecosystem is full of viruses, infections, bacteria.
But thanks to inflammation, if our immune system is strong and healthy, we can continue to survive even after coming down with the flu or a bad case of food poisoning.
You may not be aware of it, but you have already experienced a few mini-episodes of when the giant self-healing mechanisms in action.
If you have ever...
Had a high fever after you've caught an infection or virus
Healed after a bleeding injury
Recovered from food poisoning
Had muscles recover after exercise
...then you have experience the miraculous benefits of inflammation.
So naturally, inflammation is a powerful weapon your body uses to stay healthy and strong. Your body turns on inflammation when the immune system needs to fight and destroy something that could potentially be harmful to your body.
But according to an article by Science-Based Medicine, your well-functioning immune system doesn't just shield you against from infections and pathogens. More importantly in your case, inflammation can fight and heal tissue damage. This is exactly where prolotherapy comes in.
So what does inflammation have to do with prolotherapy?
Inflammation is a "healthy" response to an injury because it is essentially a "signal" to the body that your body needs to heal and repair itself.
Remember how we were saying that tendons, ligaments and connective tissue without much blood supply such as joints and tendons do not heal as well? This is where modern medicine and needles come in handy.
"With a precise injection of a mild irritant solution directly on the site of the torn or stretched ligament or tendon, Prolotherapy creates a mild, controlled injury that stimulates the body's natural healing mechanisms to lay down new tissue on the weakened area."
- American Osteopathic Association
Okay. This could be confusing so let's break that down.
Of course, for the purposes of this article, this is a very simplified version of your body's amazing biochemical capabilities.
However, no need to get fancy. The message is simple:
By harnessing the natural power of inflammation, prolotherapy acts in the exact same way that your body naturally uses to heal itself.
Normally, your body recruits inflammation to target areas which need immediate relief, such as when you cut your finger. But with ligaments and tendons, that signal is slow because as we discussed, tendons and ligaments have poor blood supply.
So when you stimulate the injured area with prolotherapy, your body is sending a message to your brain with the following: "Hey! Major injury here! Send the disaster relief team down here immediately!"
The disaster relief team brings the A-team (aka "Inflammation") and the body responds to the inflammation signal by increasing nutrient rich blood flow and sending healing immune cells along with it to the area.
As a result of the inflammation, those chronically damaged, weak and lax ligaments and tendons can finally start to heal.
Then finally, the pain receptors on your ligaments can stop firing, and finally, your body can heal!
What should I expect with prolotherapy?
The BIGGEST result that people can expect from prolotherapy is PAIN RELIEF.
So essentially, think of prolotherapy as your body's own shortcut to healing and recovery. It takes advantage of the biggest self-healing power that humans have so that we can recover naturally from pain and injuries.
You'll have to speak with your doctor about specific details, but here's a quick look:
# of Treatments Required: It varies by the healing rate and injury history of each patient! It could be anywhere from 1-2 to upwards of 6-8
Time in Between Treatments: 4-6 weeks is normally recommended
Downtime: Minimal (however, doctors will have different protocols for different body parts)
Traditionally, all that is used in the proliferant solution is dextrose (basically sugar) at varying concentrations to evoke the desired inflammatory reaction in your body.
Conclusion
So here's the bottom line:
Now that you know about prolotherapy, you actually have the choice to choose a safer, better way to get rid of pain and get back to your life quicker.
Prolotherapy taps in to the amazing healing and regenerating abilities your body has. It can be the best solution to help you feel better... without having to rely on invasive and potentially harmful procedures, such as orthopedic surgery and cortisone injections.
If you want to learn more, here are some helpful resources I'd like to share with you!
1) https://www.caringmedical.com/video-library/
2) http://www.prolotherapy.com/Articles.php
3) http://journalofprolotherapy.com
Thank you so much for reading. I hope you walked away from this article feeling better knowing that you have an option to finally feel better.
Here's a question for you:
What types of treatments have you tried for pain and injuries?
Here are some things you can do right now:
Leave a comment below
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