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Prolotherapy
● Prolotherapy
● How Does Prolotherapy Work?
● How Prolotherapy Helps?
● Indications and Contraindications
● Introduction to Prolotherapy
● Why Get Prolotherapy?
● What is Prolotherapy?
● How Does Prolotherapy Work?
● Are You A Prolotherapy Candidate?
● Tendon, Ligament, Reconstruction
● How Safe Is Prolotherapy?
● Finding a Prolotherapy doctor
● When Prolotherapy May Not Work
● 20 Questions About Prolotherapy
● The History of Prolotherapy
● Curing Chronic Pain
● Sclerotherapy?
● Turning to Prolotherapy
● Prolotherapy and Chronic Pain
● The Proof Prolotherapy is Working?
● Prolotherapy: Creating Collagen
● How To Support Treatment

 

The Journal of Prolotherapy

Table of Contents of all issues of The Journal of Prolotherapy

Ligament Laxity and Back Pain
Marc Darrow, M.D.

Ligaments in the back, as elsewhere in our body, are designed to handle a normal amount of stress (activity or injury) that will stretch them to their natural limit. Once the stress is removed, the ligaments will return to their normal length. If additional (traumatic) stress is applied—stretching the ligament beyond its natural range of extension—the ligament will not return to its normal length, but will instead remain permanently "over-stretched", diminishing its ability to hold the vertebrae in their proper place. Such a condition is called “ligament laxity.”

Ligament laxity in the lower back maybe caused by a major traumatic injury, repeated minor injuries to the same area, simple normal aging, or the wearing out the collagen.
 

Ligaments and tendons are made of collagen. When the ligaments and tendons are injured, the body produces collagen to heal them. The problem with ligaments and tendons is that the body offers them a poor blood supply and, because of it, a poor chance to completely heal.
 

The poor supply of blood to the ligaments and tendons is very apparent from their white color. Muscles on the other hand are red because they have a very good blood supply. Ligaments and tendons therefore are prone to not heal completely from injury, because their limited blood supply does not offer, among other things, the supplies necessary to rebuild collagen.
 

The key to Prolotherapy is its ability to stimulate the growth of collagen and therefore, the growth of new ligament and tendon tissue. Grow stronger ligaments and tendons and you repair the injury and reverse the degenerative cycle of wear and tear disorders.
 

What Can Prolotherapy Help?
Lumbosacral strain or sprain indicates a soft tissue injury of the lower back, equivalent in a sense to a sprained ankle.

Discogenic Syndrome is used to describe pain originating in the lumbar disc, often due to tears in the annulus, release of chemical mediators, or micromotion.

Disc herniation indicates a displacement of the nucleus pulposus from the intervertebral space into the spinal canal or foramen, or outside the foramen. This can "pinch" a nerve root and cause sciatica.

Facet syndrome describes pain originating in the zygapophyseal or "facet" joints between the vertebrae, characteristically localized in the back, aggravated by movement and alleviated by rest.

Spondylolisthesis is the slipping forward, or backward, of one vertebral segment over another. Retrolisthesis describes the slipping backward of one vertebra over another. Anterolisthesis describes the slipping forward of a vertebra over another.

Spondylolysis indicates a defect in the structure of the pars interarticularis.

Spondylosis is a catch-all phrase describing the arthritic changes that occur as a result of degenerative disc disease, narrowing of the interspace, Inflammation, spurring or degeneration of the bone, and ligament hypertrophy.

Degenerative Disc Disease refers to the desiccation (drying out) of the vertebral discs. When this occurs, the discs often shrink or collapse and the vertebrae move closer together. This can cause ligament laxity.

Spinal Stenosis is used to describe the narrowing, in part or in whole, of the spinal canal, either through spondylolsis or a congenital defect.

Spinal Instability refers to excess motion of the vertebrae and can be shown on flexion and extension x-rays. If instability is severe, it can cause spinal cord injury and paralysis. In more benign cases, it simply causes pain.