HONDURAS PROLOTHERAPY 2013

Watch the video at the YouTube link below:

Dr. Will Mora recently traveled to Honduras with the Hackett-Hemwall Foundation (HHF). Every March the HHF sends a dedicated medical team to Honduras to provide high quality medical care to people who are otherwise unable to afford it.  Dr. Mora was part of a team of prolotherapists.

What is prolotherapy?

Prolotherapy is a non-surgical injection technique. It can help persistent joint pain, ligament injuries, and even partially torn tendons. Stretched or loosened ligaments and tendons are frequently the underlying cause of pain. These problems are treatable with a simple and safe technique called prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy repairs damaged ligaments and tendons without surgery. The technique was pioneered by Dr. George Hackett in the 1950s. Prolotherapy means proliferation therapy.  A glucose (sugar) solution is injected to promote healing. Some call it "regenerative injection therapy".  Prolotherapy has never become popular because pharmaceutical company cannot trademark “glucose” as a drug. Dr. Everett C. Koop, a former U.S. Surgeon general considered prolotherapy “an effective and useful technique that deserves much more recognition by the conventional medical community".

Prolotherapy is the injection of this sugar solution into ligaments and tendons. Local anesthesia is used. A thin needle is used to inject the solution at precise points of tissue injury. The glucose solution stimulates white blood cells and “fibroblasts” to come in and rebuild healthy tendons and ligaments. The fibroblasts move in and produce new collagen. Weak ligaments become strong again. The result is that you can get back to doing the things you love to do.

What problems can prolotherapy help? 

• Osteoarthritis: hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain, foot pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain, finger pain
• Neck or back pain
• Tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow
• TMJ pain or headaches
• Rotator cuff injuries or knee injuries,

A joint is only as strong as its weakest ligament. Furthermore, the entire body is connected through fascia, so a foot sprain can cause back pain! The entire skeleton and muscles work better when weak ligaments and tendons are made strong again.

Sciatic pain can come from a bulging disc, but the underlying cause is weakened ligaments supporting the spine. After an injury spinal ligaments become weak and a cascade of events leads to pressure on the discs. MRI scans frequently show disc bulging even in asymptomatic adults. MRI scans are easily misinterpreted. If the injury is misdiagnosed, the outcome may be unnecessary surgery.

Do you need an MRI scan before getting prolotherapy?

An MRI in a prolotherapist’s mind stands for “My Regional Investigator”. MRI is the doctor’s thumb or index finger.  When a doctor examines a patient, he or she puts pressure on ligaments and tendons. This re-creates the patient's symptoms.  To properly diagnose injuries to tendons and ligaments, the doctor needs to examine the patient with his hands and not just with an MRI scan.

Who should get prolotherapy?

Consider prolotherapy if your doctor says:

• “Take this medication for your pain”
• “You need to learn to live with it”
• “Just don’t do that sport anymore”
• “There is nothing more we can do about it”
• “Maybe you need to have surgery”

 Prolotherapy

• Repairs the underlying cause of your joint pain, arthritis, or tendinitis
• Allows your body to heal itself
• Gets you back faster to doing things you want to do
• Decreasess pain, and is safe and effective
• Avoids surgery. Do prolotherapy 1^st and surgery last.  Surgery can always be done, but never undone.

How safe is prolotherapy?

Prolotherapy is an extremely safe procedure if done by properly trained physician. It is extremely rare to have an allergic reaction to the local anesthetic used (Xylocaine). After the injections a common side effect is that the area can be sore for a few days afterwards. After just a few days, the pain often starts improving.

How many treatments are necessary?

The healing time can take up to 4 to 6 weeks after treatment. If early on after an injury only one or two treatments may be needed. For conditions that have been present for a long time, 4 to 6 prolotherapy treatments may be necessary. Prolotherapy is typically done at 4-6 week intervals because 4-6 weeks is necessary to see how much improvement has occurred. Prolotherapy is complemented by a holistic, integrative approach including an elimination diet (cutting out inflammatory foods), osteopathy, chiropractic, and hormone therapy.

Watch a video about prolotherapy in action at the YouTube link below: