Prolotherapy First

Have pain or arthritis?
Avoid NSAIDs and Steroids – they both lead to joint breakdown!

By Dr. Jessica Corbeille Harris, ND ​

Do you have pain?  Do you have “bone on bone”? 
 
Have you seen your primary care doctor about it? If so, they’ve probably recommended you take up to 800mg of ibuprofen once or twice a day for the pain. They’ve also probably recommended a steroid injection (or sent you to someone else who did). 
 
NSAID prescription is one of the first-line treatment recommendations for moderate to severe osteoarthritis. And steroid injections remain part of the standard of care for treatment of joint pain if NSAIDs haven’t helped (or sometimes in combination with NSAIDs). The next step is physical therapy and/or surgery, and that’s sometimes all your doctor may have to offer.
 
The NSAIDS and/or steroid injection(s) may have helped…and if you’re one for which they did  – GREAT! 
 
For the majority of my patients, though, these treatments haven’t helped. What’s more is that for several years now (at least 10), research has shown that corticosteroid (i.e. “steroid”) injections lead to increased joint deterioration. Newer research is also revealing that NSAID medications, in addition to stressing your gastrointestinal tract, may actually be causing deterioration in your joints as well! 
 
So why is this the standard of care in our model? What else can be done!? 
 
When you have pain or when your doctor has recommended NSAIDs or steroid injections – STOP!! Think PROLOTHERAPY FIRST! 
 
Prolotherapy works to repair arthritic joints (“bone on bone”) and stop pain. In this treatment, the joint is treated with natural products like dextrose, saline, and sometimes vitamins and growth factors to promote the healing from within. There’s no masking of the pain or decreasing the inflammation – in fact, the opposite is true. With prolotherapy, we trigger a small amount of controlled inflammation alongside administration of the proper nutrients to allow your joint to heal in the proper way. This is true healing. 
 
So, the next time you or your friends or family have pain, before you consider taking medication or getting steroids injected into the area, STOP! Think PROLOTHERAPY FIRST!! 
 
 
Check out these articles from the Journal of Prolotherapy for more information: 
http://journalofprolotherapy.com/the-acceleration-of-articular-cartilage-degeneration-in-osteoarthritis-by-nonsteroidal-anti-inflammatory-drugs/?fbclid=IwAR3liqiawvv7UH0lGnV_lGgEFnZJqLJN4vNRbXQ9Xd5FuJzJD4aVnSf6RzA
 
http://journalofprolotherapy.com/the-deterioration-of-articular-cartilage-in-osteoarthritis-by-corticosteroid-injections/