DARROW
WELLNESS INSTITUTE
Prolotherapy:
Non-Surgical Pain Relief Therapy My
name is Dr. Marc Darrow, M.D. and I can
imagine that if you are visiting this site
you or someone you know, is suffering from
chronic joint pain, and, that you are
interested in learning more about your
options, including Prolotherapy. As a
board-certified physician, I have used
Prolotherapy with thousands of my patients
that struggle with back pain, neck pain,
ankle pain, shoulder pain, knee pain,
headaches and more to help them
avoid surgery and go on to
live pain-free.
If you have questions, simply
contact me
or call my office in Los Angeles, California
(310) 231-7000
CALLER: I had a question, I wanted
to know how the doctor felt about repetitive stress injury as the result
of computer use.
Dr. Darrow: That is a great
question, we have found an epidemic of people who are having repetitive
use syndromes of their fingers,
wrist and
elbows,
shoulders, sometimes all of
that from computer use. We talk about the proper ergonomics about the
proper hand placement around different equipment, the proper distance of
the chair to the equipment, the type of chair, etc.
In the office, there are people who are on
the computer all day long, they do not have a chance. Doing anything
repetitively, they are going to get an overuse syndrome. I see people
come into the office sometimes with their arm tucked around their
abdomen. They are afraid to touch anything with it because they hurt so
bad.
One of the greatest things to watch is to
do some Prolotherapy into the area and seeing the tissue that has been
worn down, regrow,
The thing that is so unique about this is
people are always coming in and telling me, I am already inflamed, why
do you want to inflame me anymore and make it worse? And Prolotherapy
actually does this, it actually re-inflames the area, brings up more inflammation in a very short period of time, usually 24 hours, which
will bring more blood supply to the area, and these
fibroblasts and
chondroblasts that actually help regrow tissue. It is the chronic low
level inflammation that hurts and to get over it we have to increase the
inflammation a little bit. The body's natural healing response is
inflammation. Prolotherapy has helped so many people with computer
overuse syndromes, not just computer over use, we have musicians and
athletes who also get overuse syndrome.
Tennis Elbow for the most part is an
overuse syndrome, it occurs usually because the backhand is
not performed correctly. Which is to keep the elbow more in an extended
position, those beginners or players who do not have proper technique
down, will bend the elbow when they are ready to hit the ball and then
they will straighten it out. This causes quite a bit of overuse strain.
What we do is inject around the elbow and
we are actually thickening up the tendon that attaches to the bone.
There was a study done before and after Prolotherapy in the ligaments of
the
low back which showed a 50% growth of the ligament itself and a
200-400% strength growth. So that is what we are doing, growing more
tissue, strengthening the area.
My way of thinking is
that it is a very invasive technique, even though it is much less
evasive than cutting the area open with a knife, but at the same time,
you are typically poking two or three holes the size of a pencil into
the tissue, and creating an awful lot of destruction by just entering
the area. And I was one of the poor unfortunate souls that had
arthroscopic surgery on my
shoulder when I was in medical school because
my boss at the time did it. And my arm blew up like a balloon and it
took about a year for that shoulder to calm down enough to get back the
level of pain it was at before the surgery. I later learned about
Prolotherapy, injected myself in the shoulder and it healed right up.
Now for the pain the caller has the
"lateral epicondylitis" or tennis elbow, pain around the outside of the
elbow, typically Prolotherapy will take 4-5 sessions to clean that up.
Now if you use the computer a lot, and this action caused the pain in
the first place, it will cause it again if you are not careful. Find
equipment that is ergonomically suited for you.
A Multi-Disciplinary
Clinic For Professional and Amateur
Athletes
and Chronic Pain Sufferers
11645 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 120 Los Angeles, CA (310) 231-7000
►Contact
Darrow Wellness Institute via email
Patient's stories herein,
and the language used, is intended to inform and educate. HOWEVER, it
does not imply that you or anyone else will receive the same outcome.
Prolotherapy and other modalities mentioned are medical techniques that
may not be considered mainstream. As with any medical procedure, results
will vary among individuals, and there could be pain or substantial
risks involved. These concerns should be discussed with your health care
provider prior to any treatment so that you have proper informed consent
and understand that there are no guarantees to healing.
Neither
Dr. Darrow, nor any
associate of
DARROW WELLNESS INSTITUTE
offer medical advice on this website. This
information is offered for educational purposes only. Do not act or rely
upon our information without seeking independent professional medical
advice. The transmission of this information does not create a
physician-patient relationship between you and
Dr. Darrow
or any associate of
DARROW WELLNESS INSTITUTE. Neither Dr. Darrow, nor any associate
of
DARROW WELLNESS INSTITUTE
guarantees the accuracy, completeness, usefulness, or
adequacy of any resources, information, apparatus, product, or process
available at or from this transmission. The photos in this Web site
feature models for illustrative purposes and do not depict real
patients.
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