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 LIGAMENT INJURY
Ross Hauser,
M.D.
In my opinion, many people suffering from
chronic pain
do not heal their initial injuries because of improper treatment. This improper
treatment generally takes the form of one or all of the following
recommendations:
rest,
ice,
immobilization,
anti-inflammatory medication,
cortisone,
taping,
or bracing.
The anyone suffering a soft injury should say:
No to rest,
No to ice,
No to immobilization,
No to anti-inflammatories,
No to cortisone shots,
No to taping, and finally,
say No to bracing.
RICE
treatment
vs. MEAT
The R.I.C.E. treatment is the gold standard for pain management and sports
injuries today. Just go to any emergency room or sports trainer with an acute
ankle sprain or other
ligament
injury, and the injured person will be given these instructions: Rest, Ice,
Compression, and Elevation. Most people would also receive instructions to take
anti-inflammatory medications. This treatment is recommended because ligament
sprains are sometimes accompanied by quite a bit of swelling. The premise with
the RICE treatment is that the swelling and edema is harmful to the tissue.
Where did such a preposterous idea originate?
Unfortunately, sports medicine specialists and athletic trainers fell into the
trap that muscles were like
tendons
and that tendons were like
ligaments. In high-energy trauma, the RICE treatment
is essential for muscle injury because it can contain swelling. Swelling in the
muscle causes decreased circulation which leads to still greater swelling and
more tissue damage. RICE treatment is very effective at eliminating edema in
muscle injury. What occurred in the early 1970s, unfortunately for the athletes
of the world, is that sports medicine doctors and trainers started treating
every injury as if it were a muscle trauma injury.
The main difference between muscles and ligaments is that muscles are massively
strong structures with a tremendous blood supply, both outside and inside the
muscle (this is why steak is red). Ligaments, on the other hand, are small
tissues that have a poor blood supply both inside and outside of the ligament
(why they appear white). Muscles, because of their good circulation, heal
quickly and rarely cause a long-term problem, whereas ligaments, due to their
poor blood supply, often heal incompletely and are the cause of most chronic
sports injuries and pain. It is our opinion that nonhealing ligaments are the
number one cause of early retirement in athletes.
M.E.A.T.
This stands for Movement, Exercise, Analgesics
(pain relievers), and specific Treatments that increase blood
flow. To speed up recovery from an injury, an athlete or patient should
put weight on the area, move the injured limb, take pain relievers that
do not decrease
inflammation, and then receive
specific treatments that encourage healing. These include
physical
therapy,
massage, ultrasound, electrical stimulation,
magnetic therapy, and the most potent of the techniques,
Prolotherapy.
Prolotherapy injections to the injury site can decrease the usual and
customary healing time by 50 percent or more. Most athletes who do not
heal are unfortunately subjected to more myths to "help them heal,"
versus
Prolotherapy.
The Small, Sensitive, Yet Mighty Ligament
Many of our muscles are mammoth structures, like the quadriceps. Ligaments, are
generally less than one inch in length, and whose width is measured in
millimeters. Yet these small structures must be mighty because they have the job
of binding the bones together.
Ligaments have essentially no blood vessels of their own to bring them
nutrients. Their nutrition must come from diffusion of nutrients, most likely
from the joint itself. This should make it evident to you why ligaments are so
easily injured. A joint is impacted during an athletic event. The small blood
vessels to the joint are sheared. The little blood supply that the ligaments had
is then cut off. The immune system reacting to the damaged caused to the joint
wants to repair the damage, but can not do so if no immune cells can get to the
area because of the poor or interrupted blood supply.
The blood supply to the ligaments is the worst at the point where the ligament
attaches to the bone, called the
fibro-osseous
junction. This is the most common
area injured in the athlete and is responsible for most lingering sports
injuries. This is the exact site where
Prolotherapy
is administered.
Other articles
What is Prolotherapy?
Alvin
Stein, M.D.
How
Safe Is Prolotherapy? Ross
Hauser, M.D.
The
Importance of an Experienced Prolotherapist Ross
Hauser, M.D.
How Does Prolotherapy Work? Marc
Darrow, M.D.
When
Prolotherapy May Not Work David Harris, M.D.
Twenty
Common Questions About Prolotherapy
David
Harris, M.D.
The
History of Prolotherapy Ross
Hauser, M.D.
 |
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Ross Hauser, M.D., & Marion Hauser, M.D.,R.D.
Read more about this book at Amazon.com
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