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There are so many older athletes with arthritis in the knees; we want to make sure you get the message. If an athlete does not heal the cartilage, meniscus, ligament, or tendon injury when it occurs, he/she is just one more step closer to developing symptomatic arthritis. There is no reason for an athlete to get arthritis, when a treatment like Prolotherapy is available. Prolotherapy stops the arthritic process because it strengthens the joint, thus ending the need for the knee and other joints to grow bone or form bone spurs.
The key to stopping the arthritic process is keeping the articular cartilage healthy. The ends of the knee bones are lined with articular cartilage. This amazing structure, which is only one-eighth to one half-inch thick, works to distribute the load of each step and minimizes peak stresses by deforming and regaining its previous shape. Articular cartilage is also remarkable in that, once formed, it remains unchanged for many years unless due to injury or illness. It has a very low metabolic rate and lacks blood vessels as well as nerves. Under normal circumstances, cartilage cells (chondrocytes) in an adult rarely, if ever, divide. The nutrition required by these cells to stay alive is derived from the joint fluid. For the cartilage to remain healthy it must be regularly subjected to weight-bearing exercise. (Woo, S. Injury and repair of the musculoskeletal soft tissues. Park Ridge, IL: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 1987, p. 429.)
Once injured, the articular cartilage makes only a very small attempt to repair itself. When a knee is examined one year after cartilage injury, it is virtually unchanged from 24 hours after the injury! (Woo, S. Injury and repair of the musculoskeletal soft tissues. Park Ridge, IL: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 1987, p. 468.)
Prolotherapy injections provide what the knee joint lining needs to heal. What it needs is a strong stimulus to heal! There is experimental and clinical evidence that saline irrigation or enzyme irrigation of the joint stimulates a repair. (Woo, S. Injury and repair of the musculoskeletal soft tissues. Park Ridge, IL: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 1987, p. 476.) That is, Prolotherapy very likely stimulates stem cells from other areas of the joint to migrate into the injured area. These stem cells change their form slightly and begin to make cartilage and other proteins that are needed for knee cartilage repair. With three to four series of injections, spaced a few weeks apart, pain from injury to the articular cartilage can be improved with Prolotherapy and activities restored! Prolotherapy, in our experience, has been the only treatment we have seen to effectively stimulate articular cartilage growth.
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