Sugar
Fix for Torn Ligaments
Doctor prescribes
injections of glucose and herbs to get yogis back on the mat.
 The
Hippocratic Oath requires doctors to "do no harm." But sometimes the
road to healing takes an unlikely detour. For example, Hippocrates treated
back pain by lancing hot pins into the vertebrae of patients. It sounds
barbaric, but it worked. The new
injury helped heal the old one.
When yoga teacher Richard Freeman
sprained his sacroiliac (SI)
joint, he turned to an orthopedic treatment called prolotherapy, based on the same principles Hippocrates used.
"Prolotherapy works like certain types of
acupuncture," explains Dr.
Allen Thomashefsky (www.drtom.net), the
orthopedist and Ashtanga Yoga student who treated Freeman, "applying
injections of herbs and
dextrose, or sugar, to microscopically re-injure
ligaments and stimulate a new healing cycle."
 Unlike
muscle and bone, ligaments heal very slowly. Since the body's reconstructive
processes stop a few weeks after an injury, even a moderate sprain can leave
you with ligaments that never get a chance to heal completely. Then, like a
door with loose hinges, these damaged ligaments allow your bones to swing out
of alignment in the joint, leading to cramped muscles,
Inflammation, pain, and
eventually arthritis. To jump-start the healing process, Thomashefsky uses a
mildly irritating solution of dextrose he calls "sweet shots"
injected directly into the stretched or torn
connective tissue. Over several
weeks the body reacts by sending "fibroblasts"—connective tissue
builders—to the area. These biological repairmen lay down new, fibrous cells
wherever they detect damage. The new cells strengthen the joint capsule and
restore stability. The repaired tissue can be up to 40 percent stronger.
Research published in the Journal
of Spinal Disorder in 1993 shows prolotherapy leads to substantial
improvement in over 80 percent of patients. Even the conservative Dr. C.
Everett Koop, former United States Surgeon General, calls himself a true
"believer." Koop turned to prolotherapy after two neurological
clinics diagnosed him with incurable back pain. Prolotherapy proved them
wrong. And because yoga students generally lead healthy lives, they enjoy an
excellent rate of recovery.
Prolotherapy
costs $150 to $300 a session, and many private insurance policies cover the
treatment.
By Fernando Pagés Ruiz |
|
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