Prolotherapy Information

Marc Darrow, a Los Angeles physician, is one of many doctors in the U.S. who offer an amazing new treatment called Prolotherapy. Its name is derived from the word “proliferation,” and its goal is to stimulate the growth of new tissue, repairing damage to worn-out joints and relieving pain and discomfort.

First, the exact location of the pain is found using an acupuncture needle. Then an injection of diluted dextrose and an anesthetic is given. The anesthetic relieves the pain, while the dextrose stimulates the body’s healing response. It does this by acting as a “shock agent,” drawing water from superficial cells and drying out the site. It induces slight, but controlled inflammation, and the healing process is set in motion.

Dr. Darrow emphasizes that inflammation “means the body is responding to an injury or stress to the joint by sending cellular compounds to the damaged area. It’s your body’s way of getting the healing process started.” Once these cellular compounds have done their job, they are replaced by fibroblasts, which begin repairing the damage and forming granular tissue that will become new collagen. Collagen is a major component of the connective tissue found between tendons and ligaments.

A few clinical studies have already confirmed the benefits of Prolotherapy. Researchers at the Bethany Medical Center in Kansas City observed a decrease in pain and swelling in the arthritic knees and fingers of subjects. And this year, Australian researchers at the University of Queensland saw “significant and sustained reductions in pain and disability” after Prolotherapy had been administered to 110 patients with lower-back pain. In the future we will be devoting a full article to Shoulder Arthritis rehab since Shoulder Arthritis rehab is a large topic.

Dr. Darrow discovered Prolotherapy after having undergone it himself. During his fourth year of residency at UCLA, while suffering pain from an injured wrist, he met Dr. Andrew Kochan, who used Prolotherapy. After a few weeks of injections, Dr. Darrow was healed. He now gets great satisfaction from helping other people live active lives free of pain, without the need for anti-inflammatory painkillers.

The list of notables who have successfully found relief after using Prolotherapy include former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and baseball legend Ernie Banks.

This simple therapy has the potential to help many older adults walk and move as they did when they were younger, playing tennis again, traveling and shopping without having to rest, and frolicking effortlessly and joyfully with their grandchildren.

Who Can Prolotherapy Help?

Discussions from our Radio Show:

Dr. Darrow: Prolotherapy has worked for me on many parts of my body-my wrist…from a golf injury which was healed by about 50% the next day by the Prolotherapy Injections
, after that I started practicing on my patients and our clinic…has done thousands of patients, there are three of us now in the clinic doing this therapy and we have people waiting in line to have it done.

After my wrist I did my elbows and my shoulder. I have had lots of sports injuries in my life starting out with gymnastics and high-speed water skiing and snow skiing. All the fun stuff has seemed to taken a toll on my body, tennis, you name it, so we get people in from all walks of life, not just pro athletes, being in Los Angeles we get movie stars and directors and producers too. It is really for everyone, weekend warriors, a lot of older people that have arthritis, it works great for that to regrow some of the cartilage tissue, it works for just about anything on the body that is musculo-skeletal oriented.

Are The Injections Painful, Are There Interactions?
Dr. Darrow: No, it really isn’t painful at all, we use an anesthetic… before we inject and most people don’t even know they got the injection.

Dr. Gene: Is there any type of interactions with the chemicals that you use?

Dr. Darrow: No because it is really not chemical, we use dextrose, sugar. Very dilute just a small amount, less than we eat in a cracker so it has no effect on diabetes. I know that when I had it myself, and I am lucky that I can inject myself, the front part of my body at least, even though I have had my neck and my back done by other people, I sometimes fell a little stiffness afterwards but that is just about it.

Dr. Gene: How does sugar water have a chance of solving the painful condition?

Dr. Darrow: It is a very beautiful process, it inflames the area and gives it a second chance to heal. Sort of creating a mini injury and many of these areas are sore because they don’t heal up because they don’t have a good blood supply to them. So we initiate a little inflammation that brings a new blood supply to the area and these inflammatory cells that grow more tissue actually rejuvenates the tissue and studies show on biopsy that the tissue, the ligaments, become 50% thicker and 200-400% stronger.