Articles for People Already Receiving Prolotherapy
 

10 Reasons Why Prolotherapy May Not Be Working For You
We get many emails asking why Prolotherapy may not be working, here are 10 reasons.

Why Prolotherapy Results May Not Be Seen Immediately
Prolotherapy in its ability to cure chronic pain is completely dependent on the Prolotherapy doctor treating completely the injured structures. This means that all the injured structures are treated with a strong enough solution to heal the area in a reasonable period of time.

What Do You Mean the Prolotherapy Worked? I Still Have Pain!
A patient came in for his sixth Prolotherapy visit. The nurse told me the patient wasn’t feeling too much improvement in his knee pain, though he had already received five Prolotherapy treatments.  
 

Soreness After Prolotherapy
A patient is generally sore for a couple of days after Prolotherapy. This is because the Prolotherapy injections have to go through some muscles to get to the ligaments and tendons. To help the muscle soreness resolve itself sooner, massage therapy and moist heat applied to the area is recommended. Natural products to encourage soft tissue healing are recommended. Gentle manipulation techniques, such as myofascial release, strain-counter-strain, or activator gun treatments, are helpful.
 

How To Optimize Response To Prolotherapy
In my opinion there are many ways to effectively optimize the success of Prolotherapy in patients suffering from chronic pain. The following is a guideline:  

A PROLOTHERAPY NIGHTMARE
A patient had significant lower back injury because she fell off of a horse. She tried numerous treatments without help. She finally heard about Prolotherapy she thought about coming to visit us in Oak Park, Illinois but decided to go to someone closer.

How Much Inflammation Should Prolotherapy Create?
It is quite common for someone to ask me or my staff; “How much inflammation should I have with Prolotherapy?” There are actually two answers to this. The first one is obvious. You need enough inflammation to heal. Someone can heal after Prolotherapy with only a minimal inflammatory discomfort and someone else may have the whole area very tender, stiff and inflamed.
 

What's The Proof That The Prolotherapy Is Working?
This is a common question asked by people just about to receive Prolotherapy for the first time. Typically there are several variables that are looked at to make sure the Prolotherapy is achieving the results the person desires.
 

What Could Be Wrong When Prolotherapy Doesn't Work?
The key to Prolotherapy is twofold:  you must have a Prolotherapy-Responsive Ailment (PRA), in other words, a pain that Prolotherapy is effective at treating and you must get a sufficient inflammatory response to the area to stimulate repair through the process of Prolotherapy.
 

Not All Prolotherapy doctors Are Created Equal
Because of the numerous calls we receive, we have a good idea, (the good, the bad, and the ugly) about what is happening with Prolotherapy around the country. Remember that not all Prolotherapy doctors are created equal and the proof is some of the things our patients have told us and what we have heard from other physicians:
 

Obesity and Prolotherapy
When a person is overweight it puts extra strain on the joints, obviously. What this means is that the ligaments in an overweight person have to be stronger than in a normal weight person to support the person.  From a Prolotherapy standpoint this means several things:
 

Natural Medicine Techniques For Prolotherapy
Two case histories below explain many factors that contribute to the vicious cycle of chronic pain, non-healing injuries, and connective tissue deficiency. Even as powerful as Prolotherapy is in stimulating the body to repair painful areas, that's all it does. Prolotherapy starts the healing process by stimulating the growth or regeneration of injured tissue, it is the body that grows the tissue. The regrowth of new healthy tissues depends on many factors, most importantly a strong immune system.

P2G
The Prolotherapy solution P2G includes phenol, glycerin, and glucose.

I Can't Have Injections!
It is really interesting how people respond to the injections of Prolotherapy. You’ll probably be surprised to know that over 95% of the patients at our office use nothing to get through the procedure. However, we realize that there is that 5% of the population who just have a hard time with injections. Yes, injections hurt. We all know that. In fact, recently we were giving a talk on Prolotherapy in the community and when we showed the video portion of a patient receiving Prolotherapy (the patient was actually in the audience), you could see a number of people cringe. So this is a real issue for many people.

Physical Therapy, Chiropractic, Massage therapy
Let me start by saying that Prolotherapy is often used in conjunction with physical therapy, chiropractic care (excluding high velocity manipulation) and massage therapy. When physical therapy, chiropractic care and massage therapy is no longer resolving the problem, it is then that Prolotherapy is a great alternative treatment. There are certain conditions that physical therapy, chiropractic care and massage therapy often have partial success in but don’t cure the problem. Here are a few that I can think of off hand
 

Can Stress Stop Prolotherapy From Working?
Take a picture of someone without pain, then give them chronic pain and take a picture of them 4 years later, still with the pain. Guess what you see? They looked like they aged at least 10 years in those four years!