Allergies and Prolotherapy
ARE ALLERGIES A REASON WHY PROLOTHERAPY IS NOT IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE?
It is hard to explain why my knee hurts when I eat pizza, but it does. It is well known that allergies can cause localized, as well as systemic chronic pain. Yes, any allergy to a chemical, inhalant, tree, mold, dust, or food, can be the cause of your chronic pain, or the reason why your healing from chronic pain is hampered.
The method utilized at Caring Medical to determine if there is a allergy causing chronic pain is called provocation neutralization. In this type of allergy testing, the symptom the person has been having is the goal of the test! A small dose of allergen is given to the patient and then after 10 minutes the site is examined for a reaction but even more important is did the allergen produce any pain in the person. This is a common type of allergy testing done by natural medicine physicians. Besides a needle and syringe it is not the type of testing done at conventional allergist offices. If a person is found to have a reaction to an allergen, then the allergen is neutralized through either injections in their arm or drops that they put in their mouth. So when the person is desensitized to that allergen the symptom eliminated. This type of testing procedure is called provocation neutralization. It is perhaps the best way to find if a particular pain or symptom such as fatigue is due to an allergic reaction. The most common allergens that we find causing a persons chronic pain are foods.
Food allergies can be tested by the above methods or various blood tests. When a food allergen is found, the person is told to eliminate that food from the diet and see if their particular pain is improved. Often this is the case and if they so desire, then can undergo desensitization treatment with food drops or food allergen shots, so they can once again eat those particular foods without inducing a symptom. Don’t underestimate the power of what you put into your mouth in regards to its pain-provoking or pain-preventing power.
One must always remember that just about anything can be an allergen. This includes, chemicals, molds, dust, cat dander, trees, pollens, and sometimes people have allergic reactions to their own hormones or neurotransmitters that must be desensitized. It is for these reasons that any person suffering from chronic pain is best seen by a natural medicine physician that utilizes these methods along with Prolotherapy.
This shows the patient and the physician that there is something wrong in the back of the head and the neck that is causing the muscle-contraction, migraine, or cluster headaches. Researchers have shown that vascular (migraine-type) and muscle-contraction headache sufferers do in fact have musculoskeletal abnormalities in their necks, compared to people without headaches. This would explain why people like Marion receive such dramatic relief from their headaches after Prolotherapy.
Autonomic Nervous System
Most functions in the human body occur automatically. They are not under our voluntary control. The autonomic nervous system controls all the bodily processes that occur automatically in the body, including breathing, heart rate, saliva formation, digestion, pain control, and of course, blood flow. The somatic nervous system controls those actions that are under our control, including muscle control, moving our eyes to see something, and decision-making. In regards to headaches and neck pain the sympathetic nervous system has three ganglia, or nerve centers, in the neck region. These are known as the superior, middle, and cervicothoracic (stellate) ganglia. The cervical sympathetic ganglia affect the various glands of the face including the salivary glands which control secretions in the mouth, lacrimal glands (secretions in the eyes), and the nasal, sinus and palatine glands (secretions in the nose and sinuses). One can easily see that if too many secretions were produced by these glands that excessive tearing could result (as in cluster headaches), dizziness/vertigo (by excessive secretions in the inner ear), and sinus headaches (by too many secretions in the sinuses irrespective of allergies). It is also significant that the cervical sympathetic ganglia are one of the controls of the diameter of the blood vessels in the brain. This would account for the aura of migraines (vasoconstriction of blood vessels) and the actual headache itself (vasodilation).
Doctors who utilize Prolotherapy and Neural Therapy routinely help patients not only get rid of their pain, but also relieve them of other symptoms, such as muscle weakness, dizziness, ringing in the ears, pins/needles sensation, and fatigue, that are related to a soft tissue injury they suffered during competition.
Neural Therapy is a gentle, healing technique that involves the injection of local anesthetics into autonomic ganglia, peripheral nerves, scars, glands, trigger points, specific points in the skin, and other tissues.
It is based on the theory that any trauma, infection, or surgery can produce long-standing disturbances in the electrochemical or electromagnetic function of tissues.
A correctly applied Neural Therapy injection can often instantly and permanently resolve chronic long-standing illness and chronic pain.
Conditions likely to be caused by an interference field:
The autonomic nervous system is that part of the nervous system that regulates the body’s automatic functions. It helps control for example: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, bowel movements, urination, sexual function, menstruation, perspiration, and skin temperature. Any symptom related to these functions, such as palpitations, indigestion, constipation, or cold hands may have an interference field as all or part of the cause.
Chronic pain, especially migraine, often has an autonomic component, e.g. nausea and sweating. One should think of an interference field if sciatica or any other leg pain or distant referral pain is accompanied by coldness or change in skin color.
The chronicity of the complaint in response to a surgery or infection is also an indicator of an interference field. If a chronic pain or condition started within several months of dental work or other procedure and there was not any inciting event then think interference field. It is quite common for me to hear the complaint, "I did not do anything to my back, it just started hurting." Hear those words, think of an interference field.
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How is Neural Therapy done?
The first step is to use segment therapy, which involves injections directed into the painful area. The segment therapy is then continued as injections are made into the skin overlying and around the painful area (called quaddles) as well as any scars in the area. Next injections are given into painful, tight muscle regions, or into ligaments, as well as the periosteal origins and insertions of tendons, ligaments and muscles. Next, Neural Therapy may proceed to include injections into nerves, nervous centers, or intravenous and intra arterial injections. Should the segmental therapy be unsuccessful, then a search for the various interference fields is started. Interference fields can be everywhere, though typical ones are tonsils, sinus cavities, tooth and jaw areas, gynecological areas, and all scars. By eliminating the interference fields with injection of a local anesthetic like Procaine, we interrupt the damaging effect to the regulation ability of the organism. Therefore, the healing process will be possible.
Scars, surgery sites, and sites of previous infections can affect cell ion pumps from working correctly and the electrical charge and signaling of those cells becomes altered. These cells can influence other cells and eventually an interference is set up. The local disturbance of the autonomic nervous system can affect the autonomic nervous system as a whole, leading to sometimes severe dysfunction at sites remote from the scar tissue responsible for the disturbance. By infiltrating a local anesthetic around the cell wall, the ion pumps resume normal activity and eventually the autonomic nervous starts functioning properly again.
Chronic Body Pain
BENIGN CONGENITAL HYPERMOBILITY
An often overlooked but extremely important reason for chronic body pain is benign congenital hypermobility (BCH). Generalized joint hypermobility (loose joints in the entire body) due to ligamentous laxity occurs in about five percent of the population and may be a genetic problem. People over 40 affected by BCH typically have recurrent joint problems and almost universally suffer from chronic pain. The end result of this condition is often diffuse osteoarthritis.
People with benign congenital hypermobility are prone to bone dislocation. Hypermobile joints are exhibited by bending the elbow or knee past the neutral position, touching the floor with the palm while bending at the waist, and touching the thumb to the forearm In subtler cases, this condition can only be determined by a physical examination-one of the reasons it is not diagnosed by most physicians. Most physicians are not trained how to adequately examine for joint mobility and ligament laxity-another reason why a person with diffuse body pain should be evaluated by a physician familiar with the technique of Prolotherapy.
Prolotherapy is a good treatment for benign congenital hypermobility because it strengthens the connective tissue to "normal" or "better than normal" condition, preventing over-extension of joints. It is recommended that all hypermobile joints be treated to prevent the formation of arthritis. Patients with chronic pain from diffuse body ligamentous laxity require more than the normal four Prolotherapy sessions. Patients suffering from BCH may also require some Prolotherapy in the future for maintenance purposes.
NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCY - WHY YOU DON'T HEAL The body has tremendous regenerative capabilities but one must never forget the fact that many different factors affect connective tissue healing. Perhaps, the most overlooked factor in healing is nutritional. Generally by the time someone is seen at Caring Medical in Oak Park, Illinois, they have seen ten health care clinicians and often none of them have considered any of the 10 causes as to why you don’t heal. The first factor that needs to be considered is nutritional.
By definition, pain means something is weak or injured, assuming a musculoskeletal cause for the pain. Most people can tell the date and time when their pain started. “I was in a car accident on….I fell down the stairs on….I was playing a lot of golf when…My wife kicked me when…”
Hopefully, the last incident doesn’t pertain to anybody. Most people with pain know what started the pain they just want to find out how to end it! The first place to start is to look at what you are putting in your mouth to nourish your body.
In just about every nutritional study on Americans, nutritional deficiencies are found. To grow ligaments, tendons, or for that matter to heal any bodily structure, it is safe to say that the whole gamut of essential nutrients are needed. This means the spectrum of amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements that are supposed to be consumed in a healthy diet.
Unfortunately the average person in America gouges on fried fatty foods in between the nutrient-deficiency binges of bread and pasta, which are helped down the old windpipe with sugar-ladened soft drinks.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea for the person in chronic pain to get some nutritional testing done to look for nutrient deficiencies. For the person with chronic pain, perhaps the main reason you don’t heal is because you don’t eat right! Too many carbohydrates is the number one reason people are overweight. The more weight you have the stronger your joints and ligaments have to be to support the weight. So weight loss is a part of curing chronic pain. What you don’t know is that one sugar load hampers immune function for four hours! So the person that has a soda every few hours is suppressing their immune system all day. This is the same immune system that heals your connective tissues. If you want to heal, cut out the sugar and take control of your diet.
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