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Trigger
Points, Myofascial
Pain, Prolotherapy
Despite
the overwhelming evidence of its
effectiveness,
Prolotherapy
has yet to achieve full acceptance
by the medical community.
Perhaps it is because, as Dr.
William Faber,
Director of the Milwaukee Pain Clinic and a
leading authority in the field of
Prolotherapy, points out, ".the substances
used in Prolotherapy are not patented and
therefore would not provide the huge profits
that pharmaceutical therapies receive."
Nevertheless, the big companies have nothing
patented in the field of
trigger point therapy
or
acupuncture, both of which are accepted
today.
Could it be that there is a resistance to
Prolotherapy
because it would substantially reduce the
number of surgeries?
If this is the case, it is a sad comment on
our dollar driven medical system. Without
all of the unnecessary surgeries, would
hospitals go out of business?
Prolotherapy
also requires specialized training,
sometimes with long needles, and only a few
hundred physicians have made the commitment
to master the procedure. But based on the
public demand, this is about to change.
The Natural Healing
Cascade
In order to fully appreciate how
Prolotherapy works, it is essential to
understand the natural healing process that
it mimics, known in the world of medicine as
"the natural healing cascade."
This process is complex, but has been
extensively studied by the medical community
and is readily understood.
When an injury occurs to a muscle, joint,
tendon or
ligament, or loss of fluid in the
body through aging or illness causes a
weakening of these tissues, it becomes
inflamed, or irritated.
This irritation provokes a defensive immune
response and sequestering of fibroblasts
into the damaged area. These cells produce
the miraculous healing compound
collagen.
Absorbed into and around the damaged tissue,
the collagen builds up and fortifies these
structures. It then shrinks and stabilizes.
After proliferative therapy, a ligament can
become 50% thicker and 200-400% stronger.
It is interesting to consider that
inflammation is the inciting factor that
actually stimulates the entire healing
process.
In his massive and scholarly tome, "Prolo
Your Sports Injury Away," Dr.
Ross Hauser
suggests a very intriguing theory about
inflammation and sports injuries.
Sports injuries are commonly "treated" with
an injection of steroids—which are
administered specifically for their
anti-
inflammatory effect. Hauser wonders if
recurring sports injuries aren't in fact
caused by this routine use of steroid
injections—which by their very nature would
interfere with the body's ability to produce
fibroblasts and therefore to produce the
collagen it sorely needs to repair and
strengthen its damaged tissue.
If this indeed proves to be true, then the
decision to choose
Prolotherapy
over corticosteroid injections could mean
the difference between a record-breaking
career and or a career-breaking decision.
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