Hi Harry-

This forum is getting harder and harder to find. I used to be able to click on Live Blog and in I would enter. Now I had several takes in a round about way to get here. In fact, had you not left your message, I would still not be confident that I was in the right place.

Thom really went off on that guy- they develop heinous rules and then force us to live by them using the holy hammer of we are lazy and irresponsible, rather than they are selfish fat pigs.

@foodfascist: Click on "Thom's Blog". Yeah i was confused at first, thougt this was the "chat room"

How about, you can make money as long as it does not endanger person's basic sustenance.

Well Harry,

I am now working the Census myself, in addition to learning how to write for an online publication with editors and quotas to meet.

BTW, I am in the middle of writing a review for Thom's new revision of Unequal Protection - never read the old version but can testify that what I read this past weekend kicks ass! He has a chart in there showing how one board member of one corporation shares a member with a board of another corporation and on and on and on.

What are you doing these days?

And as it is- I will need to get out into the field now....so tally ho everyone and see you tomorrow. Keep it lit...Tag your it! MikeMalloy meets Hartmann!

hmm,..foodfascist starts a conversation, then leaves...

Thom, In Addition

Here are two pro Prolotherapy website links: http://www.getprolo.com/ AND http://www.prolotherapy.com/prolodefine.htm

I didn't find any sites specifically anti-Prolotherapy in nature.

My experience was negative, but many people believe it works. The theory sounds good; injecting a sugar water solution initiates the body's inflammatory response at targeted locations. The proliferation of new collagen at these injection sites leads to stronger ligament, tendons, cartilage, and other connective tissues. If successful, many painful condition are supposed to go away. Good luck with your painful shoulder, I so very much feel for you.

Randy Cole

If you don't want to follow the links, here are two quick overviews:

Prolotherapy is also known as nonsurgical ligament reconstruction,
and is a treatment for chronic pain

Prolotherapy is helpful for what conditions?

The treatment is useful for many different types of musculoskeletal pain, including arthritis, back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia, sports injuries, unresolved whiplash injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic tendonitis, partially torn tendons, ligaments and cartilage, degenerated or herniated discs, TMJ and sciatica.

What is prolotherapy?

First, it is important to understand what the word prolotherapy itself means. "Prolo" is short for proliferation, because the treatment causes the proliferation (growth, formation) of new ligament tissue in areas where it has become weak.

Ligaments are the structural "rubber bands" that hold bones to bones in joints. Ligaments can become weak or injured and may not heal back to their original strength or endurance. This is largely because the blood supply to ligaments is limited, and therefore healing is slow and not always complete. To further complicate this, ligaments also have many nerve endings and therefore the person will feel pain at the areas where the ligaments are damaged or loose.

Tendons are the name given to tissue which connects muscles to bones, and in the same manner tendons may also become injured, and cause pain.

Prolotherapy uses a dextrose (sugar water) solution, which is injected into the ligament or tendon where it attaches to the bone. This causes a localized inflammation in these weak areas which then increases the blood supply and flow of nutrients and stimulates the tissue to repair itself.

Historical review shows that a version of this technique was first used by Hippocrates on soldiers with dislocated, torn shoulder joints. He would stick a hot poker into the joint, and it would then miraculously heal normally. Of course, we don’t use hot pokers today, but the principle is similar—get the body to repair itself, an innate ability that the body has.

How long will it take to complete a course of treatments?

The response to treatment varies from individual to individual, and depends upon one's healing ability. Some people may only need a few treatments while others may need 10 or more. The average number of treatments is 4-6 for an area treated. The best thing to do is get an evaluation by a trained physician to see if you are an appropriate candidate. Once you begin treatment, your doctor can tell better how you are responding and give you an accurate estimate.

Prolotherapy

Prolotherapy is a simple, natural technique that stimulates the body to repair the painful area when the natural healing process needs a little assistance.That's all the body needs, the rest it can take care of on it's own. In most cases, commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory medications and more drastic measures like surgery and joint replacement may not help, and often hinder or even prevent the healing process. The basic mechanism of Prolotherapy is simple. A substance is injected into the affected ligaments or tendons, which leads to local inflammation. The localized inflammation triggers a wound healing cascade, resulting in the deposition of new collagen, the material that ligaments and tendons are made of. New collagen shrinks as it matures. The shrinking collagen tightens the ligament that was injected and makes it stronger. Prolotherapy has the potential of being 100 percent effective at eliminating and chronic pain due to ligament and tendon weakness, but depends upon the technique of the individual Prolotherapist. The most important aspect is injecting enough of the solution into the injured and weakened area. If this is done, the likelihood of success is excellent.

Prolotherapy involves the treatment of two specific kinds of tissue: tendons and ligaments. A tendon attaches a muscle to the bone and involves movement of the joint. A ligament connects two bones and is involved in the stability of the joint. A strain is defined as a stretched or injured tendon; a sprain, a stretched or injured ligament. Once these structures are injured, the immune system is stimulated to repair the injured area. Because ligaments and tendons generally have a poor blood supply, incomplete healing is common after injury.This incomplete healing results in these normally taut, strong bands of fibrous or connective tissue becoming relaxed and weak. The relaxed and inefficient ligament or tendon then becomes the source of chronic pain and weakness.

The greatest stresses to the ligaments and tendons are where they attach to the bone, the fibro-osseous junction. The most sensitive structures that produce pain are the periosteum (covering of the bone) and the ligaments. It is important to note that in the scale of pain sensitivity (which part of the body hurts more when injured), the periosteum ranks first, followed by ligaments, tendons, fascia (the connective tissue that surrounds muscle), and finally muscle. Cartilage contains no sensory nerve endings. If you are told that your cartilage is the cause of your pain, you have been misinformed; the cartilage cannot hurt because they contain no pain sensing nerves. If there is cartilage damage, the ligaments are typically the structures that hurt. Ligaments are weakest where they attach to bone. The periosteum is the most sensitive area to pain and the ligaments second. It is now easy to understand why this area hurts so much. This is where the Prolotherapy injections occur, and thus eliminate the chronic pain of many conditions including arthritis, mechanical low back pain, degenerative disc disease, cartilage injury, and sports injuries.

Prolotherapy works by exactly the same process that the human body naturally uses to stimulate the body's healing system, a process called inflammation. The technique involves the injection of a proliferant (a mild irritant solution) that causes an inflammatory response which "turns on" the healing process. The growth of new ligament and tendon tissue is then stimulated. The ligaments and tendons produced after Prolotherapy appear much the same as normal tissues, except that they are thicker, stronger, and contain fibers of varying thickness, testifying to the new and ongoing creation of tissue. The ligament and tendon tissue which forms as a result of Prolotherapy is thicker and stronger than normal tissue, up to 40% stronger in some cases!