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Chronic Neck and Back Pain A.S. is a sixty-two-year-old female. She owns a health food store and is active in all aspects of its operation, including the lifting of cartons. A.S. had failed to cure her pain with numerous supplements... She was unable to get relief from acupuncture or chiropractic treatments. Radiographs and MRIs of her spine taken by her primary physician did not reveal any abnormalities. On examination, she had full range of motion of her lumbar spine, cervical spine, hips, and knees. She was tender upon palpation of the sacroiliac joints and had tension in the muscles that support the spine. Prolotherapy injections were given to the joints and ligaments of the neck, low back, and sacral area. After three sessions, her pain had decreased 70-80%. She began to sleep better and no longer awoke at night from back or neck pain. For more about Dr. Greenberg. Arthritis, Scoliosis and Degenerative Disk Disease Prolotherapy Offers Relief of Some Pains Six years ago, C. T. couldn't stoop to pick up her 1-year old daughter. And she couldn't sit in a church pew, not for even an hour. She had to pull herself into a fetal position just to cough because her back hurt so much. For six years, the 36-year-old lived in chronic pain. She had arthritis, scoliosis and degenerative disk disease. But none of these should have cause the kind of pain she suffered. She went through different therapies and self-treatments, from homeopathic remedies to copper bracelets, magnet therapy, "endless painful physical therapy", chiropractic visits and medications, without showing any improvement. Then a few moths ago, her husband, Jim, saw orthopedist Dr. Lawrence D. Cohen, of Advanced Pain Care in Danbury, on a television news broadcast... In prolotherapy, a sugar-or chemical-based substance is injected several times over a period of months into the injured tendon or ligament. The substance induces inflammation and stimulates the area to produce stronger and tighter attachments to the bone. Neural therapy uses local anesthetic nerve blocks to restore normal functioning to the autonomic nervous system. Bee venom works locally at an injection site to stimulate the immune system, to increase pain tolerance, or as an anti-inflammatory. All of the medicines used in these therapies are FDA approved, Cohen said. Although C.T. was skeptical, she thought that perhaps one of these treatments could help her. Her husband said she had nothing to lose. "I had given up," she said. "The best fantasy I had was someone numbing me with Novocain and putting me in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. I had no will to go on, to get up out of bed. It was bad and constant." "I'd never heard of anyone who was totally cured and pain-free from back surgery, and I was looking to avoid surgery. That's why I was open-minded to another non-invasive approach. I didn't have to go into the hospital and be cut open. I don't think there are any side effects. I wasn't taking a chance." Through a physical work-up and a look at her x-rays and MRI, Cohen determined that C.T.'s legs weren't properly aligned with her back and that her left hip was out-flared or forward from the right hip, she said. She had lax ligaments that did not hold her legs tightly in place and there was a structural shift in her hip bones that caused pain in her left pelvic and sacroiliac areas. Cohen recommended prolotherapy. "Its really very elegant and simple, " he said. "We induce inflammation and the ligament actually grows thicker, stronger and tighter and stabilizes an unstable joint." C.T. describes it as an oyster making a pearl. "It makes sense to me," she said. "When a grain of sand gets into an oyster it creates tissue over that area to protect the oyster from being harmed by the irritant. It envelops it in tissue." You're causing an injury by jabbing in a needle and injecting an irritant substance, Cohen said. There will be pain for a day or two. The inflammation will keep going for four to six weeks, but healing can continue for up to a year, the literature suggests. C.T. had four months of physical therapy at the Maloney Rehabilitation Center in Danbury and prolotherapy, which she completed in December. She says she is pain free. "Gosh, it seemed like maybe two weeks before I had pain-free moments," she said. "I remember going out on a Thursday, walking the dogs, thinking I could probably go for a walk." "If this is short-lived, at least this has brought me some time to get around and do things. I know where the answer is now to my problem. I can go back for more if need be." For more about Dr. Greenberg.
Sacroiliac Joint
It has now been a year since I received my first Prolo treatment for my lower back and left side sacroiliac region. I received a total of five treatments from June of 2000 to November of 2000. I am happy to report that my back "strength: has been overwhelmingly improved since the treatments. I now windsurf again (jumps and all) and even started kitesurfing this year at age 42 (you are never too old to think young.) It had been 16 years since my laminectomy at L3-L4 and about 5 years ago.. I am an engineer and the scientific articles I read on ligament/tendon regeneration from proliferent therapy made much more sense than the outcome studies of fusion surgeries. And (to make a) long story short, here I am today enjoying life again. ...For me it was steady improvement with some ups and downs along the way (if I pushed too hard too quickly my back let me know it). Finally, I have found that low back exercise/stretching is still critical for my back to be in the best condition possible. No, I do not have the same back when I was 21, but it sure comes close. Oh, and the pain from those needles; a minor irritant compared to the absolute terror of looking at a step-by-step set of fusion surgery pictures... For complete letter. |
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