Relief From Joint Pain With Injection Therapies
Joint and tendon pain is a common occurrence in everyday life, especially if you have been active and are aging. Movement is vital for health and wellbeing – it’s fun, until it becomes too painful. But joint problems don't have to prevent you from doing the things you love: there are many options for natural pain relief including regenerative therapies such as platelet rich plasma and prolotherapy.
Prolotherapy has been used to treat chronic pain for 80 years. Originally discovered in 1939 by James Hackett, MD, it has been studied extensively by Mayo Clinic, the National Institute of Health, and multiple university medical centers around the country. It was endorsed by the former surgeon general C. Everett Koop, and in 2005 the Mayo Clinic recommended it for chronic tendon and ligament pain as a treatment option when physical therapy and exercises failed, and surgery was the only option left. Prolotherapy is an injection of dextrose (sugar water) to tendons, ligaments, or joints to stimulate healing of chronically injured tissues. There is no cortisone - the dextrose stimulates the injected area to heal, normalizing function, and thereby reducing pain.
Platelet rich plasma (PRP) is another regenerative therapy which became newsworthy when celebrity athletes such as Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and Alex Rodriquez had it done to successfully heal knee, hip and shoulder injuries. Instead of using dextrose, PRP uses a concentration of your own platelets to stimulate healing. When you are injured, platelets rush to the area producing growth factors, which stimulate stem cells to regenerate the injured tissues. If the injury was too much for the body to repair, or the wear and tear has been prolonged, injections of platelets directly to the injured site can give it a second chance at healing, bringing the growth factors, stem cells and nutrients directly where they need to be. It is especially helpful in tissues where blood flow is limited such as cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. For these reasons, PRP is the treatment of choice for injuries to the knee meniscus and the shoulder labrum.
Chronic joint pain is one of the most common reasons for a visit to the doctor. If you have pain and want to know what more can be done contact Dr. Deborah Angersbach at North Coast Naturopathic Medicine (707) 840-0556.
Research Articles: