NATUROPATHIC CARE: PAIN MANAGEMENT INJECTION THERAPIES

Persistent pain dramatically impacts your quality of life and can affect almost anyone. It’s essential to seek treatment when pain interferes with your daily routine or the activities you love. We’ll work with you to explore the cause of your pain and to assess how best to relieve it.

Injections administered by a naturopathic doctor in Calgary are an effective treatment option for patients experiencing persistent pain. If you’re experiencing pain symptoms that other treatment options haven’t been able to relieve, a number of injection therapies might be right for you.

Naturopathic Care

What types of conditions can be helped with injection therapies?

Our naturopathic doctors are experienced in offering various injection therapies for the following conditions and symptoms:

Perineural injection therapy (PIT)

• Chronic low back pain
• Shoulder pain with radiating symptoms
• Neurogenic inflammation/neuropathic pain
  (Chronic pain that can present as shooting or burning, unresolved with standard treatments)
• Diabetic neuropathies
• Post-herpetic neuralgia
• Pain of unknown cause
• Headaches
  (Usually in conjunction with trigger point injections in the neck and shoulders)

Trigger point injections:

• Muscle knots
• Restricted range of motion

Neural therapy:

• Scar tissue adhesions (These can create pent up energy and cause pain in other areas of the body)
• Neuropathic pain
• Autonomic nervous system dysfunction

Targeted treatment for nerve-generated pain

Perineural injections are specific for nerve-generated pain, so pain solely due to soft tissue damage or degeneration (ligament and tendon tears, osteoarthritis, etc.) likely won’t fully respond to this treatment. However, there is usually a nerve component to most joint injuries so perineural injections are usually done in conjunction with a prolotherapy treatment.

What’s the difference between prolotherapy and perineural injections?

Perineural injections use low concentration dextrose that is anti-inflammatory and targeted at decreasing pain and inflammation around nerves.

Prolotherapy is an entirely different type of injection. It uses a higher concentration of dextrose and targets joint and soft tissue damage.

Could injection therapy be the right option for me?

Most people who opt to try injection therapies have been attempting manual therapies without fully resolving their pain.

Safe and appropriate for all age groups

Perineural injections, trigger point injections, and neural therapy are very safe and appropriate for all age groups willing to try injections. The side effect profile is minimal as these injections are not administered deep into joints. The effects are also quite immediate in pain reduction and improved function. Our naturopathic doctors will go over all the expected benefits and risks before moving forward with the appropriate treatment.

What is a typical treatment schedule for prolotherapy?

A typical treatment schedule varies depending on the results. Some people feel recovered after three or four treatments, whereas others may need to come in for eight or more. We’ll ensure you have a treatment plan suited to you.

We can administer perineural injections multiple times a week to help speed up your recovery. With prolotherapy, on the other hand, you would need to wait for one to two weeks between treatments.

These injection therapies can be revisited if pain resurfaces. If it’s the right treatment option, we should see improvements within a few treatments. It may be short-lasting at first, but relief will become less transient over time.

When working to relieve persistent pain, note that the cause of the pain has to be addressed. So if your pain is due to a specific activity, and you continue that activity throughout treatment, you may not see the results you want. Sometimes the injections are treating the cause, but sometimes there are other health conditions or lifestyle habits that may be contributing as well.

Will I experience pain or discomfort?

Perineural injections decrease inflammation around nerves and block pain receptors on nerves, so you won’t see the same pain flare-ups after treatment as you might with prolotherapy. Nevertheless, you may feel a bit of pain from the prick of the needle, and a bit from the solution itself, though that should fade quickly.

On the other hand, prolotherapy can be a more uncomfortable treatment to receive and may flare up pain after treatment due to its pro-inflammatory nature. This is intended as it is how the injections stimulate your body to heal the damaged tissue.

What are the benefits of naturopathic care?

Naturopathic medicine blends natural and conventional care to keep you as healthy as possible through a wide variety of treatment options and therapies. In addition, we can connect what seem to be unrelated symptoms to get to the underlying cause of your concern. Naturopaths can do complete physical exams and can work as primary care providers.

What can I expect from my first visit?

Our naturopathic doctors will take a thorough health history and discuss your symptoms and concerns. Next, they’ll conduct a physical exam to make an appropriate diagnosis. Finally, they’ll recommend the best treatment plan and walk through what you can expect from your appointments.

NOTE: As always, our licensed practitioners at Action Health are your best source of up-to-date and accurate information regarding this and any other treatment plan we recommend.

Please call our front desk at (403) 243-8114 to book a consultation with one of our naturopathic doctors to see if naturopathic care is appropriate for you.