Don’t Let Chronic Pain Get the Best Of You – A Guide to Using Prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP) to Overcome Injuries
For those of you who don’t already know, I was injured in the army and diagnosed with a bad case of Jumpers Knee. After that, I was possibly one of the first people in the entire Middle East to be treated with Prolotherapy for bilateral Jumpers Knee. I’ve also recently gotten Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy or PRP, and I’ve come a long way from being in constant chronic pain and while I’m not 100% yet, I’m on the road to recovery.
[Life is too short to be bogged down by chronic pain. That's why I'm so passionate about letting people know about Prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy treatments that can potentially help them live pain free again.]
In the past few days, I’ve come across a fair amount of people who in my opinion could really be helped with Prolotherapy or PRP but aren’t aware of it. Because of that, I’m writing this post as a short, convenient guide from someone who has gotten both these treatments on when you should look into getting prolo or PRP and which treatment you should get. Feel free to pass it around. Here it goes:
First, What is Prolotherapy and What is Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy?
Prolotherapy was discovered when Hippocates would poke a hot needle into the area of the dislocated shoulders of injured Javelin throwers and then seemingly miraculously, their shoulders would heal! The modern day doctor uses Prolotherapy by injecting the injured ligament, tendon or meniscus with an irritant like sugar water (dextrose solution) which causes the body to react and heal the area.
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy is a little bit more “high-tech” (and expensive) and what the doctor does is take your blood, spin it down to get the healing factors or the platelets out and then injects the platelets into the injured area. This both irritates the spot causing your body to heal the area in the same manner as Prolotherapy, as well as immediately placing the healing factors or platelets into the injured area to stimulate better healing. Dr. Hauser, an expert on Prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy or PRP, says that PRP is really just another kind of Prolotherapy.
When Should I Get Prolotherapy or Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy?
If you have any kind of soft tissue injury which isn’t healing up well, Prolotherapy or PRP might be for you. It’s especially worthwhile to checkout Prolotherapy or Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy if the injury is painful enough that you’re considering surgery. A few examples of injuries that prolo or PRP can help are:
- Back Pain
- Jumper’s Knee
- Tennis Elbow
- Hip Pain
- Wrist Pain
- Torn Meniscus
- Chondromalacia Patellae
- Infallamatory Arthritis
and much more…
Is Prolotherapy and PRP Essentially Like Getting a Cortisone Shot?
No. Cortisone and other steroid shots can potentially weaken your ligaments and tendons. Prolotherapy and PRP however, strengthen the injured soft tissue by causing an inflammatory healing reaction to go off in your body, naturally healing and strengthening the injured area. When I asked the doctor in Israel who recently started doing Prolotherapy whether or not he had injected knees before, he responded, “Yes, but unfortunately it was with Cortisone in the past.”
When Should I Use Prolotherapy and When Should I Use Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy?
Prolotherapy is the cheaper solution, so I would start with that. If you have a bad injury and Prolotherapy is not healing the injury as fast as you would like, at that point I would suggest talking with your doctor about whether it’s worthwhile to upgrade to Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy. As a note, there are some doctors who only do Prolotherapy and some who only do Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, so you may have to switch doctors even although in my opinion, the best scenario is a doctor who is able to do both.
When Is Prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy Most Effective?
In my personal opinion as a patient, I found that Prolotherapy and PRP are most effective when combined with normal physical therapy exercises and stretches.
Where You Can Find Out More About Prolotherapy
My three part audio interview with Dr. Hauser on Prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (If you only have time for one part, listen to part III).
Here are some other sites where you can find out more about Prolotherapy:
Dr. Hauser’s sites on Prolotherapy (no, he hasn’t payed me to link to him, he just has a ton of great information on the internet):
Other sites:
Find a Prolotherapy Doctor (Getprolo.com)
Dr. Darrow’s Prolotherapy Blog (This is a really cool blog that also features success stories by people who have had Prolotherapy.)
Sounds very interesting. Is there a home remedy like method that I could do before I go to a specialist for Prolotherapy?
Rahim – I have heard of African Tribes where they take massive fire ants and put them over the injured tendon or ligament and let them bite at it to get the body to start healing the area but I would NOT recommend it!
Basically, you need to see a certified Prolotherapist just like you would need to see a certified doctor for any other kind of procedure.
-Rafi
Thank you Rafi for your discussion on Prolotherapy and PRP.
Yes, I agree that regular dextrose solution does the job quite nicely.
Importantly dextrose prolotherapy is 80 some years old and has a long history of many medical studies. PRP has only one: on tennis elbow and not really better than dextrose prolotherapy.
PRP requires a kit to prepare the blood and more time.
Cost in my office for dextrose prolo- at the knee is $275 versus $950 for PRP. My patients have reported higher fees for PRP.
My 30 years of experience with Dextrose prolotherapy agrees with you: start with that…and always look for someone with experience in the procedure and the details on what the patients course of treatment will be.
More info is on my Web site and on Dr. Hauser’s comprehensive site.
Thanks again.
Irwin Abraham MD – I’m happy to talk about Prolotherapy and PRP because they’ve helped me a lot in healing my own injury and I want to let people know about them. Also, I checked out your site and liked it a lot. I didn’t know there were Prolotherapists who only used the dextrose solution and it would be interesting as someone who has gotten dextrose Prolotherapy to see a discussion between doctors about their experiences with different solutions. Thanks for the comment! (It’s pretty cool to have a medical doctor commenting on the blog!)
-Rafi