Handball Players Look to Prolotherapy to Heal a Vast Array of Sports Injuries

Handball players account for the single sport of athletes I see in my practice. I have always been intrigued by the sport because my grandfather would tell us handball was the only sport he and his 'poor' friends could afford to play. All you needed was the back wall of a school and a ball. Over the years by helping several groups of handball players, Caring Medical is well known by most of the handball groups in the Chicagoland area as the clinic to receive care to keep playing the sport.

Why are handball players so prone to injury? The answer lies in the facts that handball players are zealous! They love playing handball and may play it two or three times per week without a break for years. Handball players take the brunt of the force of the game on their own bodies. They do not have a racket or a stick that takes a lot of the force, every time they touch the ball the force of the thrown or the catch is from their own body.

Also, handball players often play with poor technique. Continued year after year, eventually a joint wears out. The sport is extremely hard on the elbows and shoulders. Because of the stopping and starting, and played on a hard surface increases stressors on the knees. Both knees and hips can easily become over-used.

Once mastered over years, people want to keep playing handball. So you have much older guys playing handball against the new-blood 'young' guys. Well, the young guys with flexible bodies can reach for the shot. The 'old' guys not. A good set up for an injury to the 'old' guys.

Also, handball demands that the ball be returned at tremendous speeds, which increases forces on the upper extremity.

Most injuries in handball involve ligaments and tendons which are not surgical candidates. Thus the injuries remain, since there isn't, in my opinion any long-term curative treatment except Prolotherapy.

Handball typically causes injuries to the rotator cuff around the shoulder and muscle attachments around the elbow or the ligamentous support of those two joints, all of these injuries respond very well to Prolotherapy. If a handball player’s knees or hips develop degeneration (arthritis) then Prolotherapy, in my opinion, offers a much better long-term solution for these conditions than anti-inflammatories or joint replacement. Prolotherapy, by stimulating the repair of the injured structures, develops strength, allowing the handball player to return to the sport they love. Once you find a sport or activity you have a passion for, and discover that you shouldn’t play due to pain, weakness, or injury, consider getting Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy has become the treatment of choice for handball players in the Chicagoland area.