ARTHRITIS

Question:
"I will be blunt and to the point! I HURT! It doesn’t matter if its winter, summer, night or day - I HURT! I have tried various pills without any help. I am only 42 years old and the doctors say that I have arthritis. Please help me! I’m even having trouble getting through the day working."

Answer:
"Dear Mr. Hurt, your condition is not uncommon. There is an epidemic of people suffering from chronic pain. We believe part of the reason is incorrect diagnosis. Very seldom do we find in a young person with arthritis that, that, is causing their pain. Yes, we do consider you young. It is estimated that 15% of the U.S. population has arthritis. With prevalence being about 50% over the age of 65 and only 5% under the age of 44. So, as you can see, very few people your age have arthritis and we would contend only a small percentage of these people with arthritis are symptomatic.

Part of the problem, Mr. Hurt, is that medical technology has taken over the role of the medical touch. It used to be that doctors would touch patients to make a diagnosis especially in regards to pain. Today it’s very common for people in pain to get an extensive array of X-Rays to show some abnormality. The problem is that often the abnormality is causing the problem. Mr. Hurt, did you know that up to 50% of asymptotic people have abnormalities on MRI scans, including herniated discs.

Mr. Hurt, the most important thing a doctor could do for you when you go in for an office visit, is to reproduce your pain. Yep, that’s right, that doctor or chiropractor ought to be pokin’ round until you down right hurt! We believe, in our practice, if you can reproduce someone’s pain in the office, then the pain can be relieved.

Generally chronic pain is from the soft tissue structures of the body, such as ligaments and tendons. It is reasonable, if you have not had a trial of chiropractic manipulation, to give this a try. Vertebral subluxation or improper positioning of the vertebrae can cause pain. Any physician or chiropractor who is skilled in manipulation can provide you relief and this may be a good place to start.

You should make sure that you have proper nutrition also, as this will be necessary to help the soft tissues heal and the manipulation hold.

For an unknown reason, Mr. Hurt, some folks who are slow to heal when they injure tissue. You may not know it but everybody is injuring tissue all the time. Just our daily activities of working, running around, mowing the grass causes some injury of soft tissues. Our muscles get strained and ligaments and tendons become weak over time. To encourage these to heal, we utilize an injection technique called Prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy, as defined in Webster's New International Dictionary, is the "rehabilitation of an incompetent structure, such as ligament or tendon, by the proliferation of cells."

Prolotherapy injections start the healing cascade so ligaments and tendons begin to grow. (Watch where do Prolotherapy injections go and do they hurt?) This is in contrast to cortisone shots which relieve pain (often temporarily) but ultimately weaken the tissue.

Prolotherapy injections are given generally every six weeks until the pain subsides. The average person needs three to four treatments.

We know, Mr. Hurt, it’s injections and you don’t like injections. We don’t like injections either but so many people feel better with the Prolotherapy injections and we have to look at your long haul. We don’t want you to have pain for years. If that occurs, you might get grumpy or something. Prolotherapy injections should be looked into for your problem also. Remember, No Pain, No Gain.