What are Prolotherapy and Prolozone?

Prolotherapy is a treatment that triggers proliferation of connective tissue for the purposes of regenerating damaged or weak ligaments, tendons, joints, and bones. Prolotherapy as a treatment using sugar solution (dextrose) was first published in 1937 by osteopathic physician Earl Gedney, who discovered the therapy in treatment of his own finger injury. Read about the history of prolotherapy here.

Prolozone is a variation of prolotherapy using ozone gas that was pioneered by emergency medicine physician Frank Shallenberger, MD. Ozone can be used as an additional proliferation causing agent (proliferant) which works through a variety of different mechanisms related to oxidative stress, triggering an anti-inflammatory and pain relieving effect. Read the 2011 journal article by Frank Shallenberger here.

Treatments at our office combine prolotherapy and prolozone, using first the prolotherapy dextrose solution (medically pure sugar water), which is injected into the ligament, tendon, muscle, or joint capsule. Then ozone is added to the injection as an additional proliferant agent. These together cause a localized inflammation that increases blood supply and flow of nutrients while stimulating the tissue repair mechanisms.

Conditions and Symptoms that HAVE beEN Improved WITH PROLOTHERAPY IN OUR OFFICE

Degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis)
Chronic low back pain, such as spondylolisthesis
Chronic or acute neck pain, such as from whiplash injury
Herniated or damaged intervertebral disc disease
Unstable, loose, or hypermobile joints
If prolonged manipulation is necessary this is an indication of joint instability and prolotherapy may be helpful in addition
Failed surgeries - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5573860/
Decreased strength and endurance
Pain with activity, such as repetitive motion injury (eg. tennis elbow)
Temporomandibular joint disease
Various conditions such as osteoporosis with compression fractures, muscular dystrophy, and spinal defects such as scoliosis.
Sports injuries or other traumas

Sports Injuries?

Prolotherapy can help the injured athlete with chronic injuries, such as sprains, strains, tendinopathy, and tendinitis. Chronic knee and ankle injuries such as found in football and basketball players respond well to prolotherapy and prolozone. Chronic rock climber shoulder injuries and tennis elbow are also ideal candidates for prolotherapy, usually responding very quickly.

How long will it take to complete a course of treatments?

The response to treatment varies depends upon the individual healing ability, based on factors such as poor sleep, toxicity, malnutrition, and chronic stress. Some people may only need a few treatments while other may need 10 or more. The average number of treatments is 4-6 for an area treated. Once you begin treatment, we can get a better sense of how are you responding and give you a more accurate estimate. There are many other tests and treatments that may be recommended for you based on your individualized need.

Prolotherapy is not experimental:

According to The American Academy of Orthopaedic Medicine, prolotherapy is no longer an experimental therapy. Click here to discover what they mean by this (.pdf downloaded directly from their site). For more information from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Medicine, visit their overview by clicking here: http://www.aaomed.org/prolotherapy

There is a long list of other professional, medical organizations that endorse prolotherapy and neural therapy, found here: http://www.journalofprolotherapy.com/organizations-that-promote-prolotherapy/

The scientific evidence for prolotherapy:

Here are some recent examples of scientific support for prolotherapy: (click on the title to download .pdf). There is MUCH more research in the last 4 years showing a growing momentum of medical providers offering prolotherapy.

How does prolotherapy work? Can we regrow cartilage?

Many mechanisms have been proposed for how prolotherapy works, with a rapidly growing body of evidence each year. For example, just recently (2016) dextrose prolotherapy has been shown to directly regrow cartilage when directly looking into the knee joint (by arthroscopy).

Click here to download the original 2016 article mentioned above.

Prolotherapy on TV

Prolotherapy explained briefly on the television show, The Doctors.