Prolotherapy is not about strengthening muscles, it is about strenghtening ligaments, which is much harder to do. But it works. And see The Lancet, July 1987, pp 143-146 for a very good, double blind clinical study of Ongley's treatement of chronic lower back pain.
Also, it is not my website. I am not Dr. Ongley, but one of his patients.
MRI can reveal whether lower back pain is is due to pressure on a nerve or spinal cord, for example. It can give surgeons a roadmap for operations, revealing the limits of a tumor. And since MRI itself does not require physically entering the body, it can replace some procedures that patients find uncomfortable.
This is BS. 90% of lower back pain has nothing to do with pressure on a nerve root or spinal cord. Most lower back pain comes from strained ligaments in the Sacro-Illiac joints, or in the facet joints of the lumbar vertebrae.
The MRI has been a major improvement in technology, but it has not been a unmixed blessing. For one, it lead to a number of very expensive, unneccessary, unhelpful, and often harmful back surgeries. It has been used by dishonest surgeons to sell expensive and unneccessary back surgeries. Finally, over-reliance on technology has meant that physical examination has become a lost art.
I recently met a person wearing a knee brace, waiting to see Dr. Milne Ongley in Ensenada, Baja California. This lady had been told by two surgeons, that her ACL was completely severed. She also had an MRI that said there was "no evidence of an attachment" of the ACL. Dr. Ongley drained 30 cc's of blood from the knee, gave her some Demerol and anti-inflammatory medicine, and she walked out of his office with no knee brace. I do not think that would have been possible if her ACL had been truly severed.
This lady underwent proliferant treatment by Dr. Ongley, to strengthen her knee ligaments without surgery, and as far as I know, this treatment was completely successful, saving her some major pain and a year of rehab.
"I have a hunch that many, if not most, people with severe "lower back pain" actually have a herniated disk or disks. If you don't take care of it, it *will* get worse, eventually resulting in surgery, removal of disks, fusing of vertebrae, and then you'll move like you're 110 for the rest of your
life. not something to screw around with."
It is also true that many people with no back pain at all have herniated disks. What is much more difficult to determine is whether disk herniations are have anything to do with your back pain. I saw a quote in the Houston Chronicle from an ex-chiropractor turned orthopedic surgeon, that 90% of pack pain originates in the synovial joints--the facet joints between vertebrae, and the sacro-illiac joints. Particularly if these joints get stuck for a long period of time, the resulting ligament strains and inflammation can cause intense back pain.
There is also a feedback mechanism--back pain causes muscles to tense up, and tight muscles intensify the back pain. My doctor calls this the "pain-reflex arc".
Just about any treatment for back pain has to break the pain reflex arc before doing anything else. This can be accomplished with drugs such as muscle relaxants, sedatives, or in minor cases, by stretching. Some advocate "skilled relaxation" to relax the muscles and also to "unload stress".
Manipulation techniques can restore proper motion and mechanincs to the spine, and this usually reduces pain. However if the ligaments, which hold a joint together and control its motion, have been strained, they may not be able to keep the joint within its normal range of motion and proper alignment, and the joint gets stuck again. When this is the case, you have a chronic back problem. In my humble opinion as a patient, the best solution in this case is "reconstructive ligament therapy, also known as prolotherapy. I do recommend trying other more conservative measures first--physical therapy, stretching, appropriate exercise, a good chair (I like the Aeron), a good bed.
Reconstructive ligament therapy was proved to work in a double blind clincal study published in The Lancet, July 18, 1987, pp 143-146, "A New Approach to the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain" by Milne J. Ongley, Robert Klein, Thomas Dorman, Bjorn Eek, and statistician Lawrence Hubert. They studied 81 patients. 88% of the experimental group had disability score reductions of 50% or more after six months, compared to a much lower percentage for the control group. These results are remarkable for chronic patients who have tried everything.
The primary element of this treatment consists of injections of a sterile mixture of water, dextrose, glycerin, phenol, and lidocaine into the ligaments of the sacro-illiac joints and facet joints, and other supporting ligaments. The injections cause an inflammatory reaction in the ligaments. The injected ligament swells up and tightens up almost immediately. The body responds to the inflammation by healing and strengthening the ligaments over a period of about six weeks.
In the treatment protocol outlined in the Lancet paper, treatment begins with a single manipulation performed with the patient sedated (Valium). The sedation relaxes the muscles, facilitating the manipulation. Injection treatments begin the next day and are repeated weekly for eight weeks. Patients are instructed to do flexion exercises--three times a day, do 50 repetitions of each of the following:
Sit on edge of chair, legs spread apart,gently bend forward, sit back up again.
Stand, gently bend forward in order to touch the toes, as far as one can easily bend. Stand up again.
Repeat previous exercise with one foot on a chair; repeat with the other foot.
This is a comprehensive program and all elements are believed to be important. For example, in the control group, which received a sham manipulation and injections of simple saline solution, but did the exercises, about 35% had reductions in disability scores of 50% or more.
I personally regard Dr. Milne Ongley to be the world's expert at this technique. I have been his patient, and I still do all those toe-touches. You can find his web page at www.ongleyonline.com
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Prolotherapy is not about strengthening muscles, it is about strenghtening ligaments, which is much harder to do. But it works. And see The Lancet, July 1987, pp 143-146 for a very good, double blind clinical study of Ongley's treatement of chronic lower back pain.
Also, it is not my website. I am not Dr. Ongley, but one of his patients.
This is BS. 90% of lower back pain has nothing to do with pressure on a nerve root or spinal cord. Most lower back pain comes from strained ligaments in the Sacro-Illiac joints, or in the facet joints of the lumbar vertebrae.
The MRI has been a major improvement in technology, but it has not been a unmixed blessing. For one, it lead to a number of very expensive, unneccessary, unhelpful, and often harmful back surgeries. It has been used by dishonest surgeons to sell expensive and unneccessary back surgeries. Finally, over-reliance on technology has meant that physical examination has become a lost art.
I recently met a person wearing a knee brace, waiting to see Dr. Milne Ongley in Ensenada, Baja California. This lady had been told by two surgeons, that her ACL was completely severed. She also had an MRI that said there was "no evidence of an attachment" of the ACL. Dr. Ongley drained 30 cc's of blood from the knee, gave her some Demerol and anti-inflammatory medicine, and she walked out of his office with no knee brace. I do not think that would have been possible if her ACL had been truly severed.
This lady underwent proliferant treatment by Dr. Ongley, to strengthen her knee ligaments without surgery, and as far as I know, this treatment was completely successful, saving her some major pain and a year of rehab.
http://ongleyonline.com
It is also true that many people with no back pain at all have herniated disks. What is much more difficult to determine is whether disk herniations are have anything to do with your back pain. I saw a quote in the Houston Chronicle from an ex-chiropractor turned orthopedic surgeon, that 90% of pack pain originates in the synovial joints--the facet joints between vertebrae, and the sacro-illiac joints. Particularly if these joints get stuck for a long period of time, the resulting ligament strains and inflammation can cause intense back pain.
There is also a feedback mechanism--back pain causes muscles to tense up, and tight muscles intensify the back pain. My doctor calls this the "pain-reflex arc".
Just about any treatment for back pain has to break the pain reflex arc before doing anything else. This can be accomplished with drugs such as muscle relaxants, sedatives, or in minor cases, by stretching. Some advocate "skilled relaxation" to relax the muscles and also to "unload stress".
Manipulation techniques can restore proper motion and mechanincs to the spine, and this usually reduces pain. However if the ligaments, which hold a joint together and control its motion, have been strained, they may not be able to keep the joint within its normal range of motion and proper alignment, and the joint gets stuck again. When this is the case, you have a chronic back problem. In my humble opinion as a patient, the best solution in this case is "reconstructive ligament therapy, also known as prolotherapy. I do recommend trying other more conservative measures first--physical therapy, stretching, appropriate exercise, a good chair (I like the Aeron), a good bed. Reconstructive ligament therapy was proved to work in a double blind clincal study published in The Lancet, July 18, 1987, pp 143-146, "A New Approach to the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain" by Milne J. Ongley, Robert Klein, Thomas Dorman, Bjorn Eek, and statistician Lawrence Hubert. They studied 81 patients. 88% of the experimental group had disability score reductions of 50% or more after six months, compared to a much lower percentage for the control group. These results are remarkable for chronic patients who have tried everything.
The primary element of this treatment consists of injections of a sterile mixture of water, dextrose, glycerin, phenol, and lidocaine into the ligaments of the sacro-illiac joints and facet joints, and other supporting ligaments. The injections cause an inflammatory reaction in the ligaments. The injected ligament swells up and tightens up almost immediately. The body responds to the inflammation by healing and strengthening the ligaments over a period of about six weeks.
In the treatment protocol outlined in the Lancet paper, treatment begins with a single manipulation performed with the patient sedated (Valium). The sedation relaxes the muscles, facilitating the manipulation. Injection treatments begin the next day and are repeated weekly for eight weeks. Patients are instructed to do flexion exercises--three times a day, do 50 repetitions of each of the following:
Sit on edge of chair, legs spread apart,gently bend forward, sit back up again.
Stand, gently bend forward in order to touch the toes, as far as one can easily bend. Stand up again.
Repeat previous exercise with one foot on a chair; repeat with the other foot.
This is a comprehensive program and all elements are believed to be important. For example, in the control group, which received a sham manipulation and injections of simple saline solution, but did the exercises, about 35% had reductions in disability scores of 50% or more.
I personally regard Dr. Milne Ongley to be the world's expert at this technique. I have been his patient, and I still do all those toe-touches. You can find his web page at www.ongleyonline.com