Prolotherapy and chronic pain

It is not a secret that chronic musculoskeletal pain is the number one cause of chronic disability in North America. Nor is it a secret that 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 model of pain management relies on anti-inflammatory drugs 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 and ulcers.

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.

If these therapies prove ineffective and pain persists, a full neurological examination may be necessary, including an x-ray of the spinal cord called a myelogram, 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, the neck, all joints throughout the body, arthritis, migraines fibromyalgia, sciatica, herniated discs, and TMJ. Most neck, back and other musculoskeletal pain is due to weakness of ligaments and tendons. Since ligaments and tendons are the connective tissues 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 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 (something as simple as a sugar or read more

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