Prolotherapy for Joint Pain Relief
Joint pain can be disabling. It can limit or prevent normal activities. Reduced range of joint motion, stiffness, repeated cracking or popping, a deep ache or muscle pain are all potential signs of joint dysfunction.
The two main causes of joint pain are either inflammation inside the joint or a structural imbalance around the joint. Common internal causes of joint inflammation include arthritis, acute or chronic infection, and poor diet. The solution is to reduce the source(s) of your internal inflammation, which can be done at any age. Arthritis in old age may be common, but it is neither normal nor healthy. Specific treatments are available; however, are the topic for another article.
Structural causes of joint pain are often more obvious, such as an acute strain or sprain injury from a trauma or repetitive use. After a major injury (e.g., ankle sprain, or dislocated shoulder) or repetitive small traumas (e.g., hammering, golfing, or running for 20 years), the tendons and ligaments become torn, becoming lose around joints. When the tendons and ligaments around a joint are lose the surrounding muscles must compensate by doing the tendons and ligaments job. Most muscles are not meant to hold a joint in place all day so over time these muscles weaken and break down. Now two things happen: 1) the muscles slowly breakdown from the new strain, and 2) inflammation and its partner pain occur in your affected joints. Ouch!
The solution is to repair and tighten the weakened, lose tendons and ligaments. But how do you do that? Exercise alone often puts further stress on these injured joints, worsening the tendon and ligament damage. Furthermore, healing of connective tissue in and around joints is often incomplete after an injury because:
these tissues have a poor blood supply, and
most people do not rest their injuries long enough.
Thankfully prolotherapy is a treatment technique that uses expertly placed injections of a proliferant (prolo-) solution into damaged tendons and ligaments. These proliferant injections cause local, targeted inflammation that triggers the body's natural ability to heal these weak tendons and ligaments. Properly done prolotherapy is so effective that it can regenerate a nearly complete tendon tear back to functional, pain-free health.
Prolotherapy typically takes 3-6 sessions every 4-6 weeks for best results. The number of treatments depends on the severity of the joint injury as well as how long it has existed for. After treatment full recovery may only occur with proper rest and rehabilitative exercises, such as those provided by a doctor, physiotherapist or registered massage therapist. When done appropriately prolotherapy has excellent results in reducing pain and weakness.
For an assessment of the cause of your joint pain, for ways to reduce joint inflammation, or to see if prolotherapy might be the right therapy for you consult your local Naturopathic Doctor.
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