Flames defenseman gets Prolotherapy

CALGARY - Dedicated to prolonging his career, Cory Sarich has gone through months of treatment to help him deal with a case of osteitis pubis — a non-infectious inflammation in the pelvis.

From multiple injections to learning a new way make his body move, the work finally felt like it was worth it when the veteran Calgary Flames defense man returned to full-contact practice for the first time Wednesday at the Westside Recreation Centre.

After popping pills and taking cortisone shots over the last half of the season, the 33-year-old Sarich got more aggressive with treatment with a specialist in Vancouver.

“It comes down to, first and foremost, kind of retraining your mechanics,” Sarich said. “My hips were out of alignment. I had a lot of things out of whack. The first thing is trying to straighten those out and be in a position where your body’s working in unison and not against each other.

“It’s all these new movements and things that I definitely wasn’t used to. It was kind of like starting from scratch all over again.”

Meanwhile, in order to help get to the root of the problem, Sarich went through as series of prolotherapy injections.

“A sugar-based injection,” he explained. “It’s just a natural irritant to help stimulate growth of connective tissue. It’s one of the most natural approaches.

“As you’re stimulating this new tissue that’s hopefully being formed, you’re trying to train it and get it moving and get it working the way you want it to.”

If Sarich is healthy enough to start the regular season, the effort will definitely have been worth it.

From the Toronto Sun
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/28/flames-blueliner-returns-from-injury-layoff