Prolo-acupuncture

How is Prolo-acupuncture performed?

Prolo-acupuncture involves needling into the area where the ligaments have been weakened or damaged through injury or strain. It is performed similarly to normal acupuncture.

When is this type of treatment advised?

• Recurrent swelling or fullness involving a joint or muscular region

• Popping, clicking, grinding, or catching sensations with movement

• A sensation of your  legs giving way with associated back pain

• Temporary benefit from chiropractic manipulation or manual mobilization that fails to resolve the pain ultimately

• Distinct tender points along the bone at tendon or ligament attachments

• Numbness, tingling, aching, or burning referred into an upper or lower extremity

• Recurrent headache, face pain, jaw pain, ear pain

• Chest pain with tenderness along the rib attachments on the spine or along the front of the chest

• Spine pain that does not respond to surgery or whose origin is not clear from MRI, CT, X-ray, Myelogram, or other similar studies

Prolo-acupuncture can:

• Accelerate healing and reduce the severity of acute sprains and strains

• Re-stabilize hypermobile joints,  restoring regular joint tracking and biomechanics

• Limit and reverse the effects of joint degeneration that leads to osteoarthrosis

• Enhance the treatment of muscles, nerves, other soft tissues, and systems contributing to chronic pain.

After a musculoskeletal injury, ligaments are often strained or stretched. Usually, healing occurs over time, restoring ligaments to their normal strength. However, if this healing does not occur, the result is lax ligaments. This can cause instability, muscle spasms, and a tendency to incur re-injury.

An injury to fibrous connective tissues, such as tendons and ligaments, often causes pain that fails to respond to the traditional approaches. Ligaments connect bone to bone, while tendons connect muscle to bone. Major or minor trauma may damage Both ligaments and tendons—smaller activities are repetitive. In most people, these injuries heal over 1 to 2 months.

Sometimes, tissue damage is beyond repair. These tissues have a lower blood supply and are known to heal poorly compared to other tissues, such as muscle, and therefore, surgery may be needed. In other cases, patients with conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome may have underlying metabolic deficiencies that impair the healing process. These patients will often demonstrate pain and tenderness at the connections of their ligaments and tendons. This discomfort presents with pain patterns, such as numbness, tingling, and other abnormal sensations.

Ligaments and Joints that can benefit from Prolotherapy and Prolo-acupuncture:

Shoulder, Arms, and Hands

• Acromio-clavicular joint

• Glenohumeral joint: AMBRI, TUBS, and SLAP lesions

• Elbow collateral ligaments

• Wrist ulnar- and radio-carpal ligaments and the triangular fibrocartilage complex

Hip, Knee, Ankle, and Foot

• Knee patellar, collateral, and cruciate ligaments

• Knee menisci and the tibio-meniscal ligament

• The superior and inferior tibiofibular joints

• Lateral ankle/foot: ATF, CF, PTF and CC ligaments

• Medial ankle: hyper-pronation, deltoid, and spring ligaments

The Spine

• Cervical and lumbar facet joints

• Posterior sacro-iliac, ilio-lumbar and sacro-tuberous ligaments

• Whiplash and the supraspinous ligament

Schedule your Prolo-acupuncture consultation by clicking here

Rabago, D., Slattengren, A., & Zgierska, A. (2010). Prolotherapy in primary care practice. Primary care, 37(1), 65–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pop.2009.09.013