SPORTS PROLOTHERAPY
Ross Hauser, M.D.

Prolotherapy is a treatment that stimulates that body to heal the painful area. This is the best definition of Prolotherapy. Read it again, changed just slightly. Prolotherapy is a treatment that stimulates the body to repair the painful areas.

Prolotherapy stimulates the repair of injured, damaged structures. It involves the injection of natural substances (along with anesthetics so the injections don't hurt that much) at the exact site of an injury to stimulate the immune system to repair the area. The exact term for the natural healing process that occurs after an injury is inflammation. Thus, Prolotherapy causes an inflammatory reaction at the exact site of injuries to such structures as ligaments, tendons, mensici, muscles, growth plates, joint capsules, and cartilage to stimulate these structures to heal.

Specifically, Prolotherapy causes fibroblastic proliferation (where the term Prolotherapy comes from). Fibroblasts are the cells that actually grow the ligaments and tendons. By proliferating the fibroblasts, new, strong, collagen tissue is formed which is what is needed to repair ligament/tendon sprains and other sports injuries.

I THOUGHT PAIN MEANT THAT I AM TOO INFLAMED?
To heal an injury the body mounts an inflammatory reaction. It is this inflammatory reaction that repairs the damage caused by the sports injury or trauma. If an athlete's injury remains painful for a prolonged period of time it means that the area is still weakened and damaged. Pain to an athlete should signify a structure is weakened and elicit the response of obtaining Prolotherapy, not anti-inflammatories which cause a further weakening of the structures.

IF ANTI-INFLAMMATORIES AND CORTISONE WEAKEN TISSUE THEN WHY DOES THE PAIN GO AWAY?
Great question. It is like in your home when the fire alarm goes off because there is a fire in the home. You could to stop the alarm just take out the batteries. You would then feel better because the alarm wouldn't be blaring out the message that something very dangerous was brewing. Of course, this would have no effect on the fire that is burning your house down, nor would it do anything to the children that are sleeping in the upstairs bedroom. A more prudent approach would be to grab the kids and get out of the house. If time would allow another option would be to discover what is burning and put the fire out.

Anti-inflammatories and cortisone shots stop the bodies cry for help. Pain should signify to the athlete that something is wrong. A vital structure needed for optimum athletic performance is weakened, stretched, and damaged. The pain is from the body trying to repair it. By knocking out the inflammation, the pain subsides, but so does any chance for healing. Realize that just because a structure doesn't hurt does not mean complete healing. This is why so many athletes re-injure the same structure year after year. They have taken anti-inflammatories or received cortisone shots to knock out the pain, only to have it recur because the structures strength never returned. In my opinion, a better approach is to strengthen the structure after the injury with Prolotherapy. Complete healing after each injury needs to be the goal of every athlete.