Caring Medical
& Rehabilitation Services
715 Lake Street, Suite 600
Oak Park, Illinois 60301
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Prolotherapy is a minimally invasive, tremendously safe therapy that stimulates the body's healing mechanisms. The most common sports injuries are tears in the ligaments commonly referred to as sprains, where tears in the tendons are called strains. Ligaments connect the bones together, providing stability to the joints. Tendons connect the muscles to the bones and move the joints. When ligaments and tendons are injured they hurt, especially when the athlete puts them under tension during sports-related activities.

Typical treatments available to the athlete including cortisone shots, ice, and anti-inflammatories just cover up the pain, so the athlete feels better temporarily. The athletes then continue to perform the athletic events with injuries that they cannot sense because the cortisone shot is covering up the pain. This just makes the injury worse and many athletes have experienced shortened careers with this logic.

Prolotherapy can remove the source of the pain, rather than covering it up, because it actually helps the ligaments heal.

Ligaments have a deficit in their ability to heal because they have a poor blood supply. Because they have a poor blood supply, and because they are rich in nerve endings, they are white in color. Muscles, on the other hand, appear red in color because of their plentiful blood supply. This is why muscle injuries heal quickly and are almost never the source of chronic pain or athletic injuries.

Ligaments and tendons have a poor blood supply that is often sheared during an injury. Unfortunately, for the injured tissue, the athlete has been conditioned to routinely put ice on the area to decrease swelling. This is not the proper way to treat an injury because not only does ice decrease swelling, but it also decreases the blood supply to the area. Ice has a net catabolic effect, whereas heat enhances connective tissue growth (anabolic effect). Athletes are commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen, Advil, and Motrin, which stop the inflammatory reaction, yet this reaction is needed to help heal the area.Prolotherapy, on the other hand, activates the inflammatory healing cascade, even long after the initial injury occurred.

For those with a chronic sports injury, Prolotherapy essentially turns the chronic injury into an acute one, (Banks, A. A rationale for Prolotherapy. Journal of Orthopaedic Medicine. 1991; 13(3):54-59.) by activating the immune system at the site of the injury. After the Prolotherapy treatment is given, an increase in the blood supply to the area occurs which brings nutrients and immune cells to heal the area.

Prolotherapy not only strengthens weak joints, some studies have shown it can continue to increase the strength in a joint above normal. (Liu, Y. et al. An in situ study of the influence of a sclerosing solution in rabbit medial collateral ligaments and its junction strength. Connective Tissue Research. 1983; 11:95-102.)

This is one of the ways it enhances athletic performance. Prolotherapy also enhances athletic performance by strengthening injured ligaments and tendons so the athletic event and training is non-painful.

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