RICE: The customary immediate treatment for most sports injuries is RICE(see figure), which refers to treating soft tissue injury with Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. This treatment approach decreases inflammation (inflammation heals!) at a time when the injured area needs it most, resulting, unfortunately, in decreased healing of the injury. Anything that decreases the metabolic rate or blood supply to soft tissues, such as rest, immobilization and ice, will further promote the decline of that tissue, and profoundly delay its healing. In other words, RICE treatment does nothing to repair the injured and weakened ligaments or tendons and, thus, does not alleviate the chronic pain that people who have suffered sports injuries experience, not to mention the fact that they may be prevented from continuing their sports for extended periods of time, or even permanently.
Steroids and NSAIDs: Another standard practice of modern medicine is to inject steroids into the injured area or to prescribe anti-inflammatory medications. However, in the long run, these treatments do more damage than good. Although cortisone shots and anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to produce short-term pain benefit for soft tissue sports injuries, both result in long-term loss of function and even more chronic pain by actually inhibiting the healing process of soft tissues and accelerating cartilage degeneration. Plus, long-term use of these drugs can lead to other sources of chronic pain, allergies and leaky gut syndrome.
Sports injury surgery: When all else fails, individuals with chronic pain from sports injuries that fail to heal are usually referred to a surgeon. Unfortunately, surgery often makes the problem worse. In fact, surgery, which usually involves removing damaged tissue, actually weakens the area. Removing cartilage, ligament or any other soft tissue of the body will make that body part weaker. In addition, surgeons use x-ray technology as a diagnostic tool, which does not always properly diagnose the pain source. And finally, removing cartilage tissue will most commonly result in arthritis. As a result of these standard modern medical treatments, many soft tissue sports injuries do not heal completely and are often easily re-injured.
The Natural Medicine Approach to Sports Injuries MEAT: Although rest, ice, compression and elevation may provide temporary relief, they do not aid the healing process of a painful sports injury. This is one of the major differences between traditional sports medicine and the natural medicine approach, including Prolotherapy. A much better immediate approach to a sports injury is a treatment known as MEAT (see figure above) — Movement, Exercise, Analgesics and Treatment. Movement increases joint nutrition, exercise increases blood flow, analgesics increase pain control and treatment completes the healing. Specific treatments that aid in the healing process include ultrasound, heat and massage because they increase blood flow.
Prolotherapy for sports injuries: If a sports injury has not healed within six weeks, more aggressive treatments, including Prolotherapy, should be considered. However, Prolotherapycan be done immediately after an injury because it has been found to speed recovery. While stretching, body balancing or body work, chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation and other physical modalities do help correct problems with posture, tight muscles and other factors that contribute to sports injuries, the fact remains that sports injuries occur when an area in the body is weak. They occur because a muscle, ligament or tendon is not strong enough to perform the task the athlete requires of it. Thus, the best curative treatment for a sports injury is to strengthen the weakened tissue with Prolotherapy. And while muscles are quick to heal regardless of treatment because they enjoy a constant blood supply that brings them healing ingredients, ligaments and tendons do not enjoy the same circulation. In fact, they have a very poor blood supply and are more prone to incomplete healing after an injury.
Pain relief should never be the ultimate goal of sports injury treatment, but rather repairing injured and weakened tissue. Ibuprofen, aspirin, cortisone shots and surgery may relieve the pain, but they do not strengthen the weakened tissue as Prolotherapy does. Prolotherapy stimulates the healing process and therefore decreases the length of time it takes for soft tissue sports injuries to heal. Because it triggers the growth of normal collagen tissue, it causes stronger ligaments and tendons to form. As a result, athletes can not only return to their game and/or sport, but often the particular area that was injured will be stronger than before the injury and performance will be enhanced.
Our Prolotherapy physician, Dr. Ross Hauser is an avid athlete himself who has battled many a sports injury. He relates to each person battling a sports injury and conducts a thorough assessment before deciding on the best course of treatment. He is able to guide the athlete through an aggressive rehabilitation program that gets each patient back to his or her sport.
In summary, the safest and most effective natural medicine treatment for repairing tendon, ligament and cartilage damage due to a sports injury is Prolotherapy. In simple terms, Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair painful areas. It does so by inducing a mild inflammatory reaction in the weakened ligaments and cartilage. Since the body heals by inflammation, Prolotherapy stimulates healing.
Prolotherapy offers the most curative results in treating chronic pain. It effectively eliminates pain because it attacks the source: the fibro-osseous junction, an area rich in sensory nerves. What's more, the tissue strengthening and pain relief stimulated by Prolotherapy is permanent!
Caring Medical is a full time Prolotherapy doctor’s office. We have successfully treated all of the conditions we write about. This is why patients travel from across the country and internationally to be treated by our Prolotherapy physician Dr. Ross Hauser. The difference is in the care, technique, and experience you get with Dr. Hauser and team at Caring Medical.
The treatment regimens suggested here are based on the experience of Caring Medical. They do not apply to every case or condition. A person using these recommendations without the aid of a personal physician does so at their own risk.
This information is provided for informational purposes only. It is essential to have your condition evaluated by your own personal physician.
For an appointment with Ross Hauser, M.D., please call 708-848-7789. or email us at scheduling@caringmedical.com.
