Prolotherapy and Back Pain
Arachnoiditis
Arachnoiditis is typically diagnosed in someone who has undergone back surgery and still suffers severe back pain that radiates down the legs and often to the feet. The pain has a persistent burning, stinging, or aching quality. The diagnosis is occasionally made when similar symptoms are felt in the neck, arms, or the mid back with radiation into the chest. This pain is typically unresponsive to pain medications and muscle relaxants.

Ankylosing Spondylitis
It is an accepted fact in the medical literature that an individual who presents with four out of the following five symptoms, without having any trauma to the lower back, has an 80 percent chance of having the diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis

Low Back Pain and Prolotherapy
The first step in determining ligament laxity or instability in the lower back is by physical examination. The examination involves maneuvering the patient into various stretched positions. If weak ligaments exist, the stressor maneuver will cause pain. Do this simple test at home:

Scoliosis and Prolotherapy
Scoliosis is a lateral curvature of the spine of 11 degrees or more. An estimated 500,000 adults in the United States have scoliosis. Scoliosis is usually discovered during adolescence and is called idiopathic scoliosis, a fancy term meaning the doctor has no idea what caused the scolios.

Degenerative Disc Disease
When talking back pain, it is important to talk about the intervertebral disc. It is not commonly known that the intervertebral disc undergoes the most dramatic age-related changes of all connective tissue. By the third decade of life, much of the distinction between the annulus fibrosis (outside of the disc) and the nucleus pulposus (jelly middle) is lost, as the latter is progressively replaced with fibrocartilaginous tissue.

Degenerative Disc Disease & the Athlete
Degenerative disc disease (DDD). This is a common form of osteoarthritis in the back. A degenerated disc is one that has lost some water and as a result loses height and flattens. When the disc is of normal height, the ligaments  that hold the spine together remain at normal length.

Degenerative Disc Disease & Sports
So you have been diagnosed with degenerated discs. Join the club. Yes, even yours truly had an MRI. What a horrific experience. I had a pinched nerve in my neck and the flu both at the same time. The MRI technician placed me in the exact position that caused the radiating pain down my arm.

Spinal Stenosis and Prolotherapy
People generally question us when we tell them that Prolotherapy can help relieve the pain of spinal stenosis, yet, the answer to their questions can be found in the following five facts.

Spinal Cord Stimulators
“Can I get Prolotherapy if I have a spinal cord stimulator?” This is a question I get asked once or twice a year.

Mal-rotation C1 vertebrae Prolotherapy
Numerous patients over the years have come in with what I term “C1 Syndrome.”  I am sure it is called something else in chiropractic and osteopathic literature, but regardless of the name, it is a condition caused by mal-rotation of the C1 vertebrae. The first cervical vertebra is extremely important since your head sits on it. It is responsible along with C2 for the rotation of the skull.  C1 is the reason we can turn our heads to the right or the left. In C1 syndrome, there is excessive movement of C1 so that it stays either rotated to the right or to the left.  

MRIs, Herniated Discs, Prolotherapy
It is prudent for a patient to consider why he or she is getting an MRI. If a patient wants to get surgery then go ahead and get an MRI. There is almost no other reason to get one. MRI’s cannot tell a person what is causing their pain, it only confirms what is known by the history and physical examination.

Radiofrequency denervation
Radiofrequency denervation of nerves for low back pain is becoming more and more of an accepted treatment. In my experience very few people receive long term relief with this therapy. In addition, this therapy makes absolutely no sense to me.  Let's see if it makes sense to you.

Acute Lumbar Disc Herniation
Here at CMRS we often find ourselves going against conventional wisdom in our therapeutic recommendations. Our explanation for this is that we really care for patients and dig diligently for the right answers, and we are not bound by establishment blinders and the need for conformity to an established but arbitrary and often ineffective standard of orthodox care.

BACK PAIN-WHAT'S THE DIAGNOSIS?
People are confused because doctors, most commonly orthopedic surgeons, give them diagnoses that they do not understand. In one study, 51 surgeons were asked to give the four most common diagnoses used for patients with low back pain and a total of 50 different terms were used.

Facet Syndrome
Chronic low back pain is the most common complaint seen at pain clinics. Typically people with chronic low back pain show degenerative changes in their vertebrae on x-rays. When the pain is primarily located at a specific attachment of two vertebrae, which is the facet joint, the person is said to have facet syndrome.

Loose Ligaments and Back Pain
When back pain is due to loose ligaments, a very characteristic behavior of pain is observed. A patient with loose ligaments of the lumbar spine or pelvis will experience recurring dysfunctions at the intervertebral joint (degenerative disc and possible nerve compression), at the facet joints (locking in flexion or extension), and at the sacroiliac joints. In other words, the low back pain can be due to an unstable disc problem, facet joint locking, or sacroiliac dysfunction.

Women, Back Pain and Hormones
During pregnancy, a woman's body secretes a hormone called relaxin which causes ligaments to loosen in preperation for birth. Ligament laxity is normal during pregnancy.

ARTIFICIAL SPINAL DISK
The 11-02-2004 edition of The Wall Street Journal ran an article on Johnson and Johnson’s newly approved artificial spinal disk. Once an adequate number of surgeons is trained (it is a very technically difficult operation), the procedure will be offered as the new alternative to fusion operations in the treatment of degenerative disc disease.

Sacroiliac Pain
I never get tired of hearing from patients who have experienced alleviation of their chronic pain by receiving Prolotherapy. On a follow up with a particular patient, the patient told our staff he felt so much better that he wouldn't need to be coming back into the office anytime soon.

Tarlov Cysts
The key to deciding about treatment of these cysts is to be certain the cyst is the cause of the symptoms. Before deciding on intervention the symptoms should be serious enough that their treatment is indicated.

The problem with getting properly diagnosed: SI strain
I just saw a 35 year old man who had low back pain for the past 6 years. Physical therapy had failed to help him at all. When he saw an orthopedist he specifically showed the doctor the location of his pain (over the right sacroiliac joint), and described the clicking and popping sensation that he frequently experienced in the same area. The doctor told him "there is nothing there"!!!

SPINAL DISC PROBLEMS
Why I believe disc degeneration has very little to do with chronic low back pain

Sacroiliac Blog