Prolotherapy as Treatment for Headaches

Discussions from our Radio Show:

Dr. Gene: So you really get that tightening of the muscles that result in the pinching of the nerves. And that kin of results in the sensation of pain and tightness.

Dr. Darrow: Sure, I have had them myself about a year and a half ago when I had pain coming up from my scapula, the wing bone in the back. I had tweaked it playing tennis or golf. And everyday it would start up in the back and if I would take a Tylenol it would just go away, but I didn’t like to take Tylenol and if I didn’t catch it fast enough I would get a headache that would last all night and I had the spot injected couple of times and I haven’t had a headache since that time.

It is important for the listeners to know that it is not just tension type headaches that Prolotherapy works for, there are cluster headaches which are similar to migraines, they are unilateral like the migraines are but they are usually more frequent, people have them everyday, or sometimes they come and go maybe eight times a day, and they are very painful, and sometimes we have people come in with eye pain, and we can often find that spot that is a trigger to that eye pain and we can get rid of the pain immediately

Migraine headaches are a bit more difficult, the real migraines, because they have a whole different set of symptoms, they have irritability because they know they are coming.

Dr. Gene: Would Prolotherapy at that point be beneficial?

Dr. Darrow: I will be honest with you, I don’t think it is that easy to differentiate between the different types of headaches, we have people who say they have migraines and we find spot son the back of their head and neck or back, and we inject those and we get rid of these (mistakenly thought of as) migraine headaches. It would seem if it were a true migraine headache, that wouldn’t work. I do believe migraine headaches have a musculo skeletal element to it, that can be helped with Prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy is a simple injection of dextrose and a local anesthetic, like those used in dentistry work.

What the dextrose does is start a very small inflammatory response in the body. Inflammation kicks up the immune system, the immune system brings up fibroblasts which are small cells that produce collagen. Wherever we put that small needle, we will be stimulating collagen growth (Studies have shown ligaments actually get 50% thicker and their strength becomes 200-400% stronger.) Typically a person needs to get injected two to four times to show improvement, and if it is a really bad injury, we may have to inject up to eight times over a period of a couple of months as it does take collagen a couple of months to grow.

Prolotherapy helped me personally after numerous chronic injuries and a failed surgery. It is a valuable weapon that can help people with chronic pain.