The use of lidocaine, other chemical substances to bring on inflamation. It is giving through injection. With imflamation lasting to 3-12 days. With the result of healing the injury between 1 and 12 sessions. Has anyone heard of this. What are the forums thoughts on this?
T-mag writes
Prolotherapy—Is It Worthwhile?
Prolotherapy (or reconstructive therapy) is defined in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary as “The rehabilitation of an incompetent structure as a ligament or tendon, by the induced proliferation of new cells.”
Prolotherapy is a form of medical treatment whereby a doctor injects a substance designed to create inflammation the doctor can stimulate the body to heal these areas by re-creating the chemical environment of a fresh injury. This will trigger the proliferation of fibrous tissue and give the injured tendon or ligament a second chance to heal and be “re-welded” to its attachment to the bone.
I went to a lecture by a local physician the other day about prolotherapy and it is also in a magazine called “Alternative Medicine,” November 1998.
Has anyone heard of this, and can it really work?
DudEyeB
Prolotherapy is most commonly used to tighten up lax ligaments that result from overuse and injury. In rare cases, prolotherapy can help, but the vast majority of these soft-tissue injuries can be treated much more effectively with a modality called Active Release Techniques (ART). Dr. Michael Leahy, one of the “Gang of Five” contributors, is the inventor of ART, and he fixes about 96% of the soft-tissue cases he sees in one to six sessions—pretty good stats. He’s worked on a few athletes you might have heard of, like Brett Saberhagen, Shannon Sharpe, Ato Boldon, Donovan Bailey, etc. Give him a call at 719-473-7000 if you want more information.
*** I think T-mag gave an unfair look at this alternative to cortisone. The ART section was interesting though***
PS Has anyone tried this prolotherapy?
Checkout www.prolotherapy.com and follow links as well. Thought provoking material. My wife works with someone who suffered from SI (sacroiliac joint) problems for many years and finally had prolotherapy performed. Vast improvement for this individual.
I honestly think this type of therapy would be very successfull. I plan on recieving from a physician in new york. Do you recomment any good therapists. I would even be willing to fly somewhere to recieve it. Right now im taking indomethacin for knee pain right now.
Yup. I had prolo done on one of my achilles tendon in '99. Thought I was done - now I can’t remember which one was injured.
I’m currently getting prolo for my hamstring. It’s a work in progress and will take time…but this alternative treatment does work. Definitly worth a try.
I’ve endured pronounced plantar fasciitis trouble over the last many(!) years. To my deep chagrin, it’s prevented me from doing any running whatsoever… (nevermind sprint training) for about 4 or more years now - or more. Has anyone here received positive benefit from using prolotherapy for plantar fasciitis? Much thanks!
I just came across this site on plantar fasciitis: http://www.caringmedical.com/symptoms/condition.asp?condition_id=999 and this page (same site) on using prolotherapy to potentially cure this condition (as well as other ailments): http://www.caringmedical.com/therapies/prolotherapy.asp - (If Charlie or anyone can give high recommendation for a treatment centre in Toronto where one can get this done, I’d be eternally in their debt!)
My experience with prolotherapy is that it can be extraordinarily effective, particularly in treating pathologies at the fibro-osseous junction (the point where ligaments and tendons attach to bone. However, it can sometimes create new injuries when it is used on areas of the body where you are not currently in pain e.g. many Prolotherapists believe (or will try to convince you to believe) that most injuries are brought about by an ‘unstable pelvis’. These Prolotherapists try to convince patients to undergo a course of usually 6 treatments to ‘stabilize’ the pelvis. I have known some people with no history of back pain who have fallen into this trap and undergone those 6 treatments only to end up with back pain! The same can be said for re-injecting injuries that have been healed by prolotherapy in the past. Some Prolotherapists will tell their patients that their injury will come back if they don’t have a certain number of injections spaced usually 3-6 weeks apart. Patients who fall for this often have their injury return - sometimes more painfully than the original injury! Therefore, if you have had prolotherapy and have experienced complete relief from you injury, DON’T HAVE ANY MORE INJECTIONS!
Submitted for your mulling and general consideration/discussion - Shockwave Therapy info - (especially of interest to folks who live in Toronto, or are willing to come here for treatment):
http://www.shockwavedoc.com/04_contact.html
http://www.shockwavedoc.com/article004.html
http://www.canadianliving.com/CanadianLiving/client/en/Health/DetailNews.asp?idNews=1529&idSM=318
Does anyone know if any doctors do prolotherapy around the Vancouver, Spokane, Kelowna, Penticton areas?
Inflamation as we know ends in the regeneration of new tissue!
So to correspond with this therapy philosophy wouldn’t it be better to when injured instead of the usual “RICE” the idea would appear to be leave it?
Thoughts!
That’s less than one week postinjury, RICE must still be used.
However, go down the road a couple of months and if your injury is still really really bad then prolotherapy might speed it up or help if your own body can’t.
There is another thread on the uselessness of RICE under “RICE vs Traction” by the guy who made the bands for the WSBC. Sounds like a gimmick to me.
Although stretching is part of the recovery process.
Just a thought wouldn’t strength training lead to tigher ligaments and tendons. I know this theory is a little out there but don’t you think its worth a shot? :rolleyes:
Its how this tissue gets laid is the dilemma. It gets laid in all directions not like the up and down muscle fibers running of a pateller tendon for example. So the if I receive an injury to my pateller tendon then the tissue gets laid north and south, east and west, and etc. So limiting the amount of tissue being laid is better; also, you can recover faster bc you don’t have to stretch many more months if you have more tissue laid down (i.e. your pateller tendon gets tighter and so you have stretch more often to reset it at its preinjury length). In my case I had to deep friction the tissue that was laid down to an overuse injury. After deep frictioning sideways I realigned the tissue up/down wise and with stretching I know longer have that nagging injury.