Almost everyone has dealt with back pain at some point in their life. Back pain is often due to injury, whichmay occur from repeated heavy lifting or a sudden awkward movement that strains back muscles and spinal ligaments.At times, just the muscle is tweaked, and a few days later, the muscle is healed and you’re back to normal. But when pain becomes chronic, low back pain can be disabling, interfering with life as you know it. There are numerous treatments aimed at providing relief for nagging back pain. Cortisone and steroid injections are common, but unfortunately, these injections provide only temporary relief, and are harmful to the soft tissue over the long-term. Pain medications are also common, and although they provide pain relief, they do not repair the underlying issue, and can lead to an endless and possibly dangerous dependency cycle.
The underlying, and frequently missed, problem is often ligament damage causing joint instability. Ligaments aid in the stability of the back, so when they are injured, instability results. When standing, bending and turning, the ligaments in the back work to keep motion in check, allowing the vertebrae to move, but not letting them move too much. Injured ligaments become weak and stretched out, like an overstretched rubber band, void of elasticity, and unable to efficiently do their job. Ligaments are also full of nerves, so when you go about your daily activities, and bend or twist or even sit too long, those nerves get tweaked.
The treatment used to repair ligaments in the low back is known as Prolotherapy. It is a regenerative method for long-term stability, unlike cortisone, which is temporary and degenerative over the long-term. Popular Prolotherapy solutions can include a person’s own healing cells, such Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) or stem cells.
