Treatment of Arachnoiditis:
The Response of Modern Medicine
Arachnoiditis is one of many conditions typically diagnosed, using MRI or CAT scans, in someone who has undergone back surgery. While back surgery invariably leads to scar tissue, it does little to relieve the severe back pain experienced with arachnoiditis. The result is that eventually the scar tissue will be identified on the scans, and surgery will be repeated. The problem with this approach is that while the scar tissue was not there before the surgery, the back and leg pain were. The surgery does nothing to repair the sacroiliac ligament and, thus, does not alleviate the chronic pain that people with this condition experience.
Another standard practice of modern medicine is epidural steroid injections. However, in the long run, these treatments do more damage than good. Cortisone shots have been shown to produce short-term pain benefit, but result in long-term loss of function and even more chronic pain by actually inhibiting the healing process of soft tissues and accelerating cartilage degeneration. Plus, long-term use of these drugs can lead to other sources of chronic pain, allergies and leaky gut syndrome. Spinal cord stimulator implantation is another traditional practice of modern medicine, but with limited results.
The Natural Medicine Approach to Arachnoiditis
A better approach is to stimulate ligament repair with Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy treatments to the weakened structures such as the sacroiliac ligaments causing the pain of arachnoiditis will cure the condition and alleviate the pain. Once the weakened structure in the back becomes strong, the pain stops. Prolotherapy is the safest and most effective natural medicine treatment for repairing tendon, ligament and cartilage damage. In simple terms, Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair painful areas. It does so by inducing a mild inflammatory reaction in the weakened ligaments and cartilage. Since the body heals by inflammation, Prolotherapy stimulates healing.
Prolotherapy offers the most curative results in treating chronic pain. It effectively eliminates pain because it attacks the source: the fibro-osseous junction, an area rich in sensory nerves. Whatfully treated with Prolotherapy, including:
Osteoarthritis
Tendonitis
Migraines
Sports Injuries
Loose Joints (Hypermobility)
Fibromyalgia
RSD Pain
Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ)
Sciatica
Herniated Discs
Degenerated Discs
Degenerated Joints
Chondromalacia Patellae
Osgood-Schlatter Disease
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Ligament Sprains
Plantar Fasciitis
...and Back, Hip, Neck, Shoulder, Knee, Elbow, Foot, Ankle, Hand, Wrist, Finger and Toe Pain
I am not sure I would agree with prolotherapy but I am by no means an expert. I just think that causing more inflammation to the area might produce adverse results. Kind of like all the people who swear by the chiropractor or acupuncture. While they may work for someone else I am not about to let them start twisting and cracking me while I have hardware installed or jabbing hundreds of tiny needles into nerve points.
2 comments:
I found that site too a couple weeks ago. If you read it carefully, you'll find this guy is trying to promote his book and his practice. He also supports this therapy for a great number of other conditions as well. He has carefully laid out his website so that all the key search words people use when looking for info on a particular condition pop up on the search engines, making sure a link to his page comes up on one of the first couple of pages in the search.
It reminds me of the traveling salesmen from the turn of the 20th century who would pull into town with their horse drawn carriage and sell their "patented healing ointments and potions." By the time anyone figured out they were a crooks selling bottled water, they was already on to another town to pawn their 'cure all products'.
I am not saying this form of therapy does not work for some conditions. Indeed, strengthening the muscular system and helping the body to heal itself naturally are can be extremely beneficial. But arachnoiditis could be classified as an immunodeficiency response. In other words, your own immune system is already working overtime in an inappropriate manner and causing the inflammation and scar tissue to build up in places it does not belong. Think of it as a snowball roling down a really long hill. Trying to strengthen that effect could do tremendous harm. Besides which, he claims that causing inflamation in the sacroiliac joints (the hip bones)will cure arach. Well, the cause of arach. doesn't stem from the muscular-skeletal system, it comes from the spinal cord - trauma to the cord began an inflamitory response that never went away when it should have, causing the scar tissue to form and cutting off the supply of blood and nutrients to the nerve roots, making the inflamitory response continue.
He also totally discounts arachnoiditis as the cause for the pain and does not offer any objective proof for what he says whatsoever, other than the M.D. he has attached to his name. He in effect calls all the doctors out there trying to help with arach. liars and charlatans. Be very wary of people that offer a 'permanent cure' for all sorts of conditions based on one singular approach. It makes my blood boil to see supposed professionals take advantage of people's hopes and ailments in order to enrich themselves, and that is what it seems this esteemed gentleman is doing.
Sorry about the rant. Hope it doesn't offend. I'd put it on my blog, but I thought maybe it would be better to put it here in the comments instead where you can decide to take it out if you wawnt to. No sense creating misunderstandings. I won't be offended if you decide to delete it.
Oh - and that friend of mine that is an orthopedic? He tried two different accupuncture techniqes on me this last summer. They were designed to do the same thing as the prolotherapy - stimulate the bodies natural immune response to heal the cause of the nerve pain. Both techniqes sent me into clinical shock. Not only was he suprised at my bodies response to the treatment, he said the only cause for such a response would be some form of physical obstruction to the nervous system. So I agree with you, now that I've been stuck a few dozen times - No Needles!!! That also lends to the notion that the gentleman touting the prolotherapy is talking out of his butt, frankly, when it comes to advanced arachnoiditis.
I agree Gil. I take everything people like him say with a grain of salt. He reminds me of the crackpot snake oil salesmen you mention but I figured if they advocate a treatment I would put it on the blog. If people read this and then the comments and decide to dismiss this guy then we have done our part and steered someone away and in to the right place.
I have some more treatment sites I found and plan on posting some of them over the next few days. I need to read them first and see what they have to say.
BTW, welcome to the COFWA list.
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