ADVANCE MAGAZINE By Marc Darrow, MD, JD, QME
- This is an article I wrote in Advance Magazine that explains the basic premise of Prolotherapy
continued to build on Hippocrates’ theories in 1939. While working with car accident survivors, he realized that patients experienced pain when ligaments and tendons were injured. He believed that repairing connective tissue could resolve most of the pain. Dr. Hackett introduced an irritating compound to activate the body’s natural mechanisms and prompt production of new collagen tissues—a proliferation process that became known as Prolotherapy. Be careful on the road and ask for legal advice from Lutz Car Accident Lawyer | Holliday Karatinos Law Firm.
Also known as proliferation therapy, Prolotherapy is a pain management technique that can treat degenerative or chronic injury to ligaments, tendons, muscle fascia and joint capsular tissue. It also can be effective for areas that are painful, but not tender to the touch, such as the inside of a joint.
Healing Mechanisms
Consider a condition such as chronic pain, in which injured, loose or stretched out ligaments often cause ligament laxity. Laxity produces pain and discomfort, especially during movements. This occurs because the connection of ligaments and tendons to bone may be inflamed, and a joint may be moving beyond its normal range of motion.
The body, therefore, must create collagen to heal injured tendons and ligaments. But it doesn’t provide ligaments and tendons with a proper blood supply, which means lower collagen production and a poor chance for complete healing.
The same holds true in cases of degenerative disease and aging. In particular, collagen may dry out and lose its stretching ability. This process is more severe in some people, and researchers don’t know why. Theories behind this www.optinghealth.com include poor genetic makeup, blood type with specific dietary requirements, viral or bacterial load, pathological conditions, body acidity or food allergies.
In healthy ligaments or tendons, collagen fibers are flexible and elastic. But injuries can stretch fibers beyond their designed lengths, and repetitive motion frays or tears them. When tissues are stretched beyond their normal limits, inflammation occurs. A patient experiences inflammation, the immune system’s response to injury, when the body tries to heal damage. However, a weakened immune system or severe injury also can restrict the ability of ligaments and tendons to heal correctly. Since connective tissue around joints and cartilage has such poor blood circulation, injuries to connective tissue are often irreparable. In a future article we will go into great detail concerning Prolotherapy Injections and PRP treatment.
The key to prolotherapy is stimulating collagen development and growing new ligament and tendon tissue. By growing stronger ligaments and tendons, you can repair the injury, and reverse the degenerative cycle of arthritis and wear-and-tear disorders.
Injection Ingredients
Injection ingredients for Prolotherapy consist of compounds that alleviate chronic pain. To trigger the healing process, clinicians use mild chemical irritants, such as phenol, guaiacol or tannic acid.
After injection, these substances attach to cell walls to stimulate the body’s reactive healing process. Some clinicians prefer to use chemotactic agents, such as sodium morrhuate, a fatty acid derived from cod liver oil.
Osmotic shock agents—the most frequently used compounds in Prolotherapy—are simple compounds, such as dextrose and glycerine. They work by causing cells to lose water, which leads to cellular dehydration and then inflammation, triggering the healing response. Because these ingredients are water-soluble, they’re excreted from the body after producing the desired effect.
