Supercharge Your Healing
The training of the physician who is making your treatment plan matters. At Intuition Health our physicians have spent many hours and treated hundreds of patients with oversight from many leaders in this field. It takes time to examine and diagnosis a patient. We have designed our clinic to make sure we have the time for you.
Prolotherapy, PRP, and Perineural Injection Therapy are great treatment options because it works well for many different body parts such as tendons, ligaments and arthritic joints- both extremities and in the spine (neck and back pain). It can be used on new and chronic issues.
What is prolotherapy?
Prolotherapy is a treatment to help the body heal itself. This is done by injecting a concentrated dextrose solution into the area causing pain or dysfunction to help stimulate the body’s own repair system. It is used to strengthen and heal joints, tendons and ligaments.
What is PRP?
Platelet Rich Plasma is a high concentration of platelets made from your own blood. Your blood is drawn and processed the same day and then reinjected back into the area of pain or dysfunction. Not all PRP is created equally. The dose matters.
What is Perineural Injection Therapy (PIT or PNI)?
PIT or PNI treats nerves in a different way. Essentially all pain is a form of nerve pain. Nerve pain can be treated several ways, either by superficial injections or by performing deeper injections, called nerve hydrodissections (using larger volumes of fluid to release the entrapped nerve directly), using ultrasound guidance and a low concentration of dextrose in IV fluid. The solution matters. Traditional anesthetic and steroid injections do not work well for this. When nerves are not healthy, they will not function properly. Poor functioning of nerves throughout thebody can lead to nerve entrapments, thus causing more pain and dysfunction. There are many different types of nerve entrapments in the body. Carpal tunnel is probably the most familiar nerve entrapment, but essentially any nerve can get entrapped. The vicious cycle continues until we treat the area of entrapment and determine why the nerve became sick in the first place.
How does the body heal itself?
The body heals by reacting to inflammation. Both prolotherapy and PRP cause localized inflammation at the sites of injection. Inflammation then starts kick-starts the body's natural healing mechanisms to repair damaged tissue. Prolotherapy and PRP signal your body to repair damaged joints, tendons, ligaments, fascia and muscles.
What are some of the conditions treated by PIT/PNI, prolotherapy, and PRP?
- Nerve entrapments such as carpal tunnel
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Pain in the extremities- shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, hip, knee, ankle, and foot- and all areas in between
- Pain related to overuse injuries
- Achilles tendinopathy
- Plantar fasciitis
- Osteoarthritis of joints and arthritis in the spine
- Tendon and ligament strains, sprains, and tears
- Tendinopathies
- Meniscus and labral tears
- Laxity of ligaments
- Tennis elbow
What are the risks of PIT/PNI, prolotherapy and PRP?
All of these treatments are safe and well tolerated when performed by our well trained and experienced physicians. Common side effects are minor and usually go away without further treatment. They may include:
- Pain with injection
- Mild bleeding
- Bruising
- Numbness at the injection site
- Pain after injection up to 72 hours
- Any other risks will be discussed with you prior to treatment
What are the benefits?
- Minimally invasive, non-surgical procedure
- Enhanced healing stimulating your own natural healing
- Extremely low incidence of side effects
- Decreased pain and improved function
- PIT/PNI have essentially no down time.
- PRP has minimal downtime and some restrictions based on area treated. This is still signficantly less than with surgery.
How can I improve my chances that PIT/PNI, prolotherapy, or PRP will be effective?
You can make changes in your lifestyle to promote your body’s ability to heal and response well to prolotherapy. Our metabolic health evaluation is an excellent way to improve you likelhood of a great outcome.
- Stop smoking
- Manage your blood sugar
- Limit alcohol use
- Limit fried and processed foods
- Maintain a healthy body composition
- Manage stress
- Get Adequate Sleep
What improvements can I expect?
- Decreased pain
- Decreased need for pain medication
- Improved function
- Increased activity
- Decreased clicking or grinding of joint
- Improved mood
- Increased exercise tolerance
- Decreased tenderness in the area of pain
What information will I get at the initial consultation?
Treatment plans at Intuition Health follow a model:
Right Patient at the Right Time in the Right Place with the Right Product
At your initial consultation, the physcian will assess your specific condition and determine if you are a good candidate for PIT/PNI, prolotherapy, or PRP. You will be given an idea of how many treatments you will need, how often they will be, and what response you can expect.
Our comprehensive approach includes:
-Picking the treatment best suited to help treat the area of pain that is inline with your life and goals- many times these treatments are done in combination.
-Use of US for both diagnostic and injection guidance
-Assessment for root cause of pain
-Treat supporting structures with prolotherapy and/or PRP.
-Incorporating a comprehensive lifestyle management program
-Advanced testing including labs, hormone evaluation, VO2 Max, and body composition
What is a realistic expectation of treatment?
Experiencing occasional pain is part of the normal human condition. The goal of PIT/PNI, prolotherapy, and PRP is to decrease pain and improve function so you can have more good days. These can provde long lasting pain relief.
What is the success rate for PIT/PNI, prolotherapy, and PRP?
Taking into consideration the patient’s overeall ability to heal it can be excellent.
