Sugar In Your Joints, Not Your Stomach?

Prolotherapy is a relatively non-traditional procedure that can possibly help with a variety of musculoskeletal injuries, including, but not limited to osteoarthritis of the knees, low back pain and tennis elbow. Prolotherapy is also known as proliferation therapy and involves the injection of a sugar solution into the affected region, particularly the tendons and/or ligaments with the purposes of stimulating an immune response at the site and strengthening collagen fibers.

The reason this is in the news is due to a recent study that found prolotherapy beneficial for patients with diagnosed knee osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is commonly referred to as degenerative joint disease and affects a large segment of the population, especially the elderly. Typical treatments include steroid injections, physical therapy and even surgery. What's interesting about those treatments is that recent evidence has found that steroid injections increase bone fragility in the elderly, so prolotherapy should be viewed as a viable alternative.

The study found that patients who underwent the dextrose-based injection procedure had a 24% increase in a knee-specific quality of life survey one year after having the procedure performed.