I’m 26 years old. I grew up showing horses and I have and injury where I injured my L4 and L5 vertebrae in my lower back. Would I be a good candidate for prolotherapy?

Possibly. The key to prolotherapy is if you have point tenderness in your lower back. Some people think prolotherapy is helpful for herniated disc. I disagree with that. I think it’s too invasive a procedure. But if you have areas on your back where you can say, “I know exactly where this hurts,” prolotherapy is very appropriate. Because when we give you the injections, we give them at the point of pain, because that’s telling us where the ligament or tendon is damaged.

For an older relative of mine, he often experiences shoulder pain, possibly arthritis. Could prolotherapy help him?

Yes. I had a woman come to me who could not raise her shoulder. She had severe arthritis. She also had what’s called adhesive capsulitis.

She came to me and asked if I’d do prolotherapy. At the time I was a little skeptical. I gave her the injections and also an intensive physical therapy program to get her shoulder moving again.

She is my favorite patient now. She is so happy. She has 90% motion in her shoulder and her pain has gone away. I didn’t believe it so much, so I took another x-ray, and actually some of the arthritis was decreased. Really.

I had another woman with a torn rotator cuff who refused to have surgery. I said, OK, I’ll treat you. She had an MRI which showed the rotator cuff. She came back three months later like this [raises his arm]. Is said, “Do you mind if I do another MRI? I’ll pay for it myself.” The MRI report showed no rotator cuff tear – it was completely healed.