Staying Healthy and Injury-Free

After one of our athletes is healed of his/her injury with Prolotherapy at our clinic, we often tell the patients “I hope we never have to see you again!” Obviously, what we are saying is that we hope that you won’t be back with another injury! People come to Caring Medical to be cured of their conditions. Cured means that the injury does not return. As long as the individual athlete maintains the ability to heal (anabolism), then barring any significant traumas, the athlete should not need to be treated again in the same area.

Most athletes with chronic injuries have various weaknesses in their body chemistries. The digestive or immune systems are sometimes involved, but we often find that the problem commonly involves the hormonal system. More specifically, women are too estrogen-dominant. Both sexes, however, show weakness in their adrenal and/or thyroid systems.

Imbalanced Estrogen-to-Progesterone Levels

For the estrogen-dominant woman, one of the herbal products that we use is chasteberry. We also prescribe flaxseed oil capsules, vitamin B6, and stinging nettles, as well as recommend that the women increase the soy in their diets. Natural hormone replacement therapy may be required if needed. A woman should be menstruating regularly and without pain or PMS symptoms. This is how she knows that she’s “normal”. Women with high estrogen levels are more prone to injury and come calling for one of our doctors to inject them with Prolotherapy. Nobody wants to get that if they don’t have to!

Low Thyroid

Athletes with complaints of being cold, constipated, and cranky (fatigued) are nearly always found to have subclinical hypothyroidism. This is a condition where the thyroid hormone levels are low-normal via blood test, but yet, the patient has symptoms of low thyroid hormone. Usually their basal body temperatures are low. The athlete who consistently wakes up in the morning with a body temperature less than 97.6 degrees Fahrenheit needs to see a natural medicine physician familiar with this condition. Starting on natural thyroid supplementation often really turns the person around. Since the thyroid gland affects the rate of metabolism, when the condition is corrected, not only does energy improve, but often digestion and overall healing improves as well. Sometimes, all that is needed is some nutritional supplementation with the components of thyroid hormone, including iodine and tyrosine.

Low Adrenal Function

A similar condition is hypoadrenalism. The patient usually complains of fatigue, constipation, and being cold, but additional symptoms include allergies, eczema, dizziness, and low blood pressure. Cortisol levels are usually low on testing. The adrenal gland is the stress gland of the body. Many athletes are under a tremendous amount of stress. Sports should be relaxing, but just go to any neighborhood Little League game and you will see that this is not the case! We don’t know if the parents are more stressed than the kids!

Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal gland in response to any kind of stress, including sporting events, allergies, school work, bad relationships, jobs, and every other kind of stress. Cortisol, pregnenolone, DHEA, and the rest of the adrenal gland hormones are vital to overall health because they are the triggers that tell our body to fight. Guess what happens when the adrenal gland stops producing these hormones? The person starts drinking coffee! Now we see why there are so many coffee shops around! America is so stressed out!

At Caring Medical we use various supplements with herbals such as ashwaghanda, licorice root, ginseng, pantothenate, and adrenal glandulars to help curb the adrenal gland burnout. Balancing body chemistry, hormones, and making sure you are eating according to your Metabolic Type will all help give your body the optimum ability that it needs for you to function optimally. This is what most athletes desire. If you need help with this – give us a call! Don’t wait until you get another injury!