Prolotherapy is becoming more and more popular each day. It first originated in the 1930’s and still continues to be used successfully to this day. What exactly is prolotherapy? Prolotherapy is a method of regenerative injection treatment designed to stimulate healing. To put in simple terms, a substance is injected into your body through the injured point on your body. The point of this is to reinitiate the inflammatory process. To do this, new fibers are deposited into the skin to fix an injury. Once strengthened by the injections, the weak areas will no longer send pain signals throughout the body, repairing the injured tissue.
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History of prolotherapy
In the 1930’s Dr. Earl Gedney, an osteopathic surgeon, first discovered prolotherapy. Back then, regenerative medicine wasn’t a proper medical term, but that is what prolotherapy is. It works by raising growth factor levels to regenerate tissue. There have been a number of studies that confirm prolotherapy is effective as Gedney claimed. It helps resolve musculoskeletal pain through many different areas of the body including lower back, neck and ankle pain.
A closer look at prolotherapy
Prolotherapy is based off of the thought that chronic musculoskeletal pain caused by fibrous, connective tissue not being repaired to its fullest potential. This causes the ligament or tendon to be much weaker than it should be. When the ligament or tendon is not as strong as it should be, it leads to pain and limitations. Prolotherapy releases a low grade inflammation into the weak ligament or tendon tricking the body into starting a new healing process. The newest form of prolotherapy, stem cell prolotherapy, has been used in difficult cases of muscle healing or where accelerated musculoskeletal healing is desired. This is a treatment option available for those injured in car accidents to help them repair ligament damages or repair a meniscus tear.