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Prolo And Chronic Pain
Prolotherapy, using the body's own healing process to eliminate pain;

Did you know chronic musculoskeletal pain is the number one cause of chronic disability health issues in North America. Also, chronic back pain is the leading cause of disability in Americans under the age of 45. What is a secret is that this rampaging epidemic of pain can conceivably be eliminated in 80-90% of sufferers. Prolotherapy, a treatment that relies on the body's own healing process to eliminate pain, is not among the traditionally accepted modes of pain therapy. The conventional and prevailing mode of pain management relies on anti-inflammatory medication and cortisone injections, a course of therapies that has provided little in the way of comfort for chronic pain sufferers and whose long term use has been warned against by many medical organizations. In fact, many traditional pain specialists are discouraging the chronic use of drugs, as they may be detrimental to the patient by adding to depression, increasing pain, and producing other side effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding, ulcers, and kidney problems.

The current vogue among traditional pain therapists is to recommend a combination of aspirin or ibuprofen, bed rest, and small amounts of muscle relaxants over a short time. To that, some clinicians add massage, manipulative or physical therapy. These treatments provide some relief, but do not cure the underlying problem. In other words, this does not get to the cause.
When these thealth herapies prove ineffective and pain persists, a full neurological examination may be necessary to check for ruptured discs or other sources of pressure on the spinal cord or nerves. If damage is found, surgery may be recommended, although surgery is not a guarantee of pain alleviation. Even with such poor results, modern medicine continues to search for drugs, devices and surgical procedures to eliminate chronic pain.

Why Does Prolotherapy Work?
Developed in the 1940's by Dr. George Hackett, Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair painful areas. Its effectiveness is wide-ranging and includes pain associated with: the back, all joints throughout the body, arthritis, migraines, fibromyalgia, sciatica, herniated discs, and TMJ. Most back and other musculoskeletal pain is due to weakness of ligaments and tendons. Since ligaments and tendons are the connective tissue that hold our muscles to bone, and bone to bone, both must be taut and strong.

Back pain results when weak ligaments and tendons cause the spine to become "unstable." Vertebrae begin to slip, move and rotate from their proper position, causing pressure on the nerves. Limited results in pain alleviation may be achieved with cortisone and other anti-inflammatory agents but these do not address the cause of the pain. Temporary pain suppression is not a cure for the underlying problem: ligament and tendon weakness. Advocates of the technique say Prolotherapy is the long-term health solution to chronic pain because it strengthens the ligaments and tendons so they can move the vertebrae back into their proper places.

Prolotherapy involves the injection of an "irritant" solution into the area where the ligaments have either been weakened or damaged through injury. The injection is given at the point where the ligament connects to the bone. With this injection, the Prolotherapist causes the body to heal itself through the process of inflammation.

When an irritant is introduced, at the site of injury, the immune system is summoned to the area. The body begins a healing process exactly where the painful area is located. New fibrous tissue is laid, repairing and strengthening the ligaments so that they can pull the vertebrae back where they belong and alleviate pain.

Prolotherapy treatment sessions are generally given every four to six weeks to allow time for the growth of the new connective tissue. Patients usually require four to six treatment sessions for complete recovery, some experience more immediate results. 
 

Harold Wilkinson, M.D. professor and former chairman of the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, performed a 16 year Prolotherapy study culminating in 1995. In his report, Dr. Wilkinson states that it was noteworthy that "a sizeable portion of people with unresolved chronic pain had more than a years pain relief with only one Prolotherapy injection." While these results were obtained with a single injection, most Prolotherapy sessions involve multiple injections given in each session.
 

Standard medical and surgical procedures cannot match Prolotherapys 80-90% effectiveness in eliminating chronic pain, nor can standard medicine match the relative low cost of treatment. Prolotherapy treatments can range from $100-450, where a typical surgical procedure may cost several times that amount!

Why is Prolotherapy unknown?
The position taken by the American Association of Orthopaedic Medicine (AAOM), says that the teaching of Prolotherapy is suppressed in medical schools and residency training programs because there are organizations who have a vested interest in continuing traditional treatment methods (surgery and drug therapies).

Prolotherapy has been shown to be equally effective at eliminating the pain of such conditions as arthritis, migraines, tension headaches, sports injuries, fibromyalgia, loose joints, TMJ Syndrome, tendinitis, sciatica, herniated discs and degenerated joints.

Because the structures of the lower back are very complicated, and the specific symptoms of lower back pain are highly varied, lower back pain is one of the most difficult to diagnose and treat.

While some forms of back pain are transient—such as simple bruises caused by light trauma, which require at most an analgesic treatment to ease the pain until it heals naturally, persistent or chronic lower back pain usually develops over an extended period of time, due to interacting causative factors involving the vertebrae and their supporting tissues. Although these two types of "extended pain" are similar in many respects, researchers have distinguished them according to a few basic guidelines.
 

Generally, pain is described as "persistent" if it does not heal promptly, based on statistical standards; or, if it recurs regularly, in defiance of any treatments provided.
"Chronic" is the term usually reserved for pain lasting longer than three months, which, in both cause and effect, often involves psychological as well as physical factors, or combinations of the two.

Damage to ligaments is estimated to be responsible for up to 70% of all cases of lower back pain.

Ligaments are designed to handle a normal amount of stress that will stretch them to their natural limit, and will return to their normal length once the stress is removed. If additional (traumatic) stress is applied— stretching the ligament beyond its natural range of extension—the ligament will not return to its normal length, but will instead remain permanently overstretched, diminishing its power. Such a condition is called Ligament laxity.
Ligament laxity in the lower back, as elsewhere in the body, may be caused by a major traumatic injury, repeated minor injuries to the same area, or simple normal aging. Unlike muscle tissue, ligaments have a very limited circulatory system that means a poor supply of blood to replenish them. This is why ligaments do not heal well on their own, and why prolotherapy is needed in these types of injuries to stimulate circulation and to promote new cell growth.

The following links proivide further testimony to reveal the dramatic effects prolo offers for those with sports injuries;
1. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/2009-01-16-2018525195_x.htm
2. http://www.azcentral.com/sports/golf/articles/2009/04/22/20090422spt-golflehman.html?&wired