Dextrose Prolotherapy for Knee Pain: How Does It Work?

If you’ve been dealing with knee pain, you probably already know that it’s often difficult to treat. You may have tried taking over-the-counter pain relievers or even yoga stretches, but you haven’t gotten much relief. 

Knee pain is often a very common symptom of osteoarthritis. When you have osteoarthritis, your joints eventually lose their cartilage, which can cause bone to rub against bone.

There’s a new treatment that’s gaining in popularity: dextrose prolotherapy. It helps your body to heal itself. Our providers at Nutura Clinic in Portland, Oregon, explain more about how dextrose prolotherapy works and how it can help you.

What is dextrose prolotherapy?

Dextrose prolotherapy is a form of treatment delivered by injection. The injections contain an irritant that aggravates your joint.

The irritant is a type of sugar. When it’s injected into your knee joint, this irritant produces a reaction that stimulates your body to heal itself. Many people receive powerful pain relief after getting this treatment.

How dextrose prolotherapy helps

Dextrose prolotherapy has mechanisms that stimulate healing in a very specific way. After you receive an injection, it sets off a chain of reactions. 

The injection starts an inflammatory defense in your body. While your body is fighting off the inflammation from the injection, it also produces a lot of other healing properties. Your body releases growth factors, deposits collagen, and creates fibroblasts. These fibroblasts form the basis of your connective tissue.

After getting dextrose prolotherapy

When you get a dextrose prolotherapy injection, you will find that your pain decreases and your joint gets stronger. 

Your tendons and ligaments will grow stronger and your cartilage may even grow thicker, which allows your joint to glide more smoothly. In most cases, this results in significantly less osteoarthritis pain.

However, you may find that your pain initially gets worse after receiving an injection. This is normal and expected. Triggering the pain response is a good thing, because your body begins to heal.

Other issues dextrose prolotherapy can treat

While dextrose prolotherapy helps treat knee pain, it can also treat other areas of joint pain resulting from osteoarthritis, including:

• Shoulder pain
• Hip pain
• Elbow pain
• Wrist pain
• Hand pain
• Sacroiliac joint pain

Dextrose prolotherapy can also help with some lower back conditions, especially if your connective tissue is damaged.

To find out if dextrose prolotherapy may be an option for treating your joint pain. Contact the providers at Nutura Clinic today by calling our office or requesting an appointment online.