MUSCULOSKELETAL MEDICINE 101: Prolotherapy, Lifestyle & the Body’s Healing Process

“There has never been a great athlete who died not knowing what pain is.” – Bill Bradley

With all integrative medicine techniques, there will be pros and cons backed up by statistics and studies; some that are based on solid scientific methodology, some based on decades of experiential knowledge, and some based on both. Furthermore in all medical disciplines, there are conflicting arguments for or against any given technique, and one can find evidence to support almost every point of view. In addition, consider that there are not-so-hidden agendas for all concerned – insurance companies, lobbyists, health care professionals, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and politicians all have something at stake with new medical information. Fair enough. And now with the onset of ask.com, medicine.com, doctors.com, wikipedia.com, and the blogsophere, patients are becoming both highly educated and deeply disillusioned. Is it any wonder that when one doctor recommends a treatment method, a patient’s knee-jerk reaction is to ask for a second opinion?

I naturally have a scientific mind, have been mentored by some of the best doctors around, and have been working in the osteopathic/sports medicine arena since I started medical school in 1998. My commitment is to relay valuable information I have learned to my patients. I want every patient to leave my office with the feeling that they know what their issue is, what the treatment will be, how it works, and what to expect. If a patient wants to know the “why” of a treatment method, I am excited to share a more in-depth conversation. I believe that knowledge is power, and the more patients understand their individual situations, the more successful their treatment results are likely to be.

Let’s start with an overview of prolotherapy – what is it and how does it work for healing pain?

Prolotherapy is a treatment that stimulates the natural production of new connective tissue such as ligaments and tendons by inducing a mild inflammatory reaction in the weakened ligaments and tendons by producing collagen. Proliferation injection therapy, or prolotherapy, uses dextrose and an anesthetic to create a ‘controlled injury’ at the tender part of the body. The idea of this treatment is to stimulate the healing response of the body which is triggered by the injections. Recent discoveries of prolotherapy have shown that this technique is not only able to restore damaged ligaments and tendons, but is able to repair damaged cartilage as well.

Prolotherapy works by exactly the same process that the human body naturally uses to stimulate the body’s healing system, by a process called inflammation. This injection technique causes an inflammatory response which “turns on” the healing process, and the growth of new ligament and tendon tissue is then stimulated. The ligaments and tendons produced after prolotherapy look almost the same as normal tissues except that they are thicker, stronger, and contain fibers of varying thickness. The ligament and tendon tissue, which forms as a result of prolotherapy, is up to 40% thicker and stronger than normal tissue in some cases.

It is important to add here a brief overview of a more traditional treatment approach to musculoskeletal pain – cortisone shots. A cortisone shot contains an anti-inflammatory medicine called corticosteroid medicine. This method has been used to treat injuries such as tennis elbow, overused and weakened tendons and ligaments, and other strains that are not truly inflammatory problems by nature. Although cortisone shots give patients some temporary pain relief, they don’t fundamentally help long-term because the core issue is weakness, not inflammation. For pain induced by non-inflammatory issues, prolotherapy injection techniques help promote healing via strengthening a weak and injured area.

As I have mentioned in previous articles, a DO provides comprehensive health care services; we use traditional medical practices such as drugs and surgery as well as integrative, musculoskeletal medicine methods.

These musculoskeletal methods include:

Musculoskeletal Ultrasound (MSKUS): This type of ultrasound is used for evaluating muscles, tendons, and ligaments associated with various joints. The advantages of using ultrasound include a comparable, if not more accurate diagnosis of soft tissue injury than an MRI, decreased costs, and the ability to perform what we call “dynamic tests” in real-time, at the point-of-service. MSKUS is also used for guiding injection therapies.

Regenerative Injection Techniques (RIT): There are two types of RIT – platelet rich plasma (PRP) and prolotherapy. PRP involves taking the patient’s blood, spinning it down in a centrifuge to separate platelet cells from the rest of the blood, and then injecting the platelet cells that contain growth factors into the injured area to promote healing. Prolotherapy has been described above in detail. Also, keep in mind that working in tandem with one or both of these types of injection therapies, patients often continue to work with their physical therapists to get the most out of their treatments.

Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM): This is a treatment commonly used for patients who have strained their back either playing sports or at work, or have been involved in a “whiplash” injury from a motor vehicle accident. Also, many people who have sedentary jobs or sit for a long time at a desk develop “knots” in the shoulder blade region. By performing OMM, a procedure designed to mobilize the restricted motion of the joint, a DO helps relieve symptoms which then aid in tapping into the body’s self-healing capabilities. Osteopathic doctors believe the expanded use of OMM reduces reliance on drugs for many patients who suffer from chronic pain.

Lifestyle Changes: A doctor of osteopathy will also encourage patients to examine their lifestyles, diet, exercise regimens, and mental attitudes. They will look at the whole body, not just where it aches. DOs will also make sure that their treatment regimen fits into a patient’s daily life with their personal commitment to recovery. As I have mentioned before, recovery is a two-way street.

So, where do these integrative, state-of-the-art methods come from?

The father of osteopathy is Andrew Taylor Still, who first used the term in 1874. He was trained as a medical doctor and while most doctors of his time focused on treating sick people, Dr Still became fascinated with what supported health in the first place. He was concerned that many common medical treatments did more to harm patients than to help cure their ailments. Dr Still believed there was a way to help the body heal itself and was particularly interested in the role of the musculoskeletal system (the muscles, bones and nerves that make up 60% of our body mass) in promoting health. In fact, the word “osteopathy” comes from the Greek word for “bone.”

Integrative medical approaches such as prolotherapy are making the medical profession at large stand up and take notice. Asking a patient “where does it hurt?” is just one of many ways a doctor contributes to the healing process. Also key are factors such as: how and how much people sleep, what a patient’s sex life is like, what people eat everyday, how much exercise they get, and what kind of jobs they have… all are indicators for doctors to help support a patient’s recovery. In osteopathic medicine, taking into consideration the whole person works to cure ailments and pain. Of course, further medical research will no doubt add to the positive results that my patients are experiencing now. This is cutting edge medicine at its best.

For more information, please visit: http://www.pursuitsports.us