Prologel Founder Dr. Howard Rosen Interviewed On The Arthritis Show

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In December 2012, ProloGel creator Dr. Howard Rosen appeared on The Arthritis Show. Watch the full interview here: http://youtu.be/wy4LwDO3ub4.

Dr. AlimoradFarshchian: Dr. Howard Rosenis a board certified anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist. He went to medical school at New York Medical College and his residencies were at USC and UCLA. Dr. Rosen is also a teacher in the field of prolotherapy and he’s been at it a long time. I go to these meetings and the doc is fantastic. He’s there, he teaches his heart out, and I’ve learned a few things from him myself. Can you explain what prolotherapy is?

Dr. Rosen: Prolotherapy is short for proliferation. Basically, it’s using a dextrose or a similar substance to create regeneration or to repair nerves for bodies. It’s probably the most effective thing available.

Dr. Farshchian: Now, prolotherapy actually dates back to thousands of years ago. There’s history that, during Roman times, Hippocrates used to take a very hot stake and when people were coming back from war, whether they were soldiers in fact, it’s documented that it was a shoulder surgery ...
... that he would stimulate using that. Now, we’ve come a long way. Now we have new material. What are the solid materials you like to use in your field?

Dr. Rosen: Well, there are two. One is the standard, and, actually, recently, I went back in history. I found information that almost no one knows, that the first injections ever performed in the 1800′s were actually a form of prolotherapy. They were using morphine, and I didn’t believe that morphine was giving them great results. So I researched it, and they were using glycerin with the morphine to mix it up. Now I’m using a new formula for ProloGel includes similar ingredients and is getting even better results.I do things that other people don’t do. One of the things is I’ve come up with a topical formulation cream which I call ProloGel, for pain relief. That’s one of the new ways to go that you can actually treat people without injections. But mostly I use it to add to injections so they get a certain amount of pain relief with the injections. I add to that with my gel. Another thing is they’re now treating nerves just below the skin with small needles. That, someone’s called neuroprolotherapy.

Dr. Farshchian: What is it that prolotherapy helps most? Does it help shoulder injuries most, knee injuries, or it helps all around, doc?

Dr. Rosen: Well, it helps almost any area, especially now that we have all these new ways to treat people. Musculoskeletal, where the muscles and ligaments is important, now we’re trying to be more and more effective for arthritis. I find the newer ways you’re going just under the skin, that’s been better. But I’m able to treat anyone from the top of the head to the bottom of the foot, and that’s very similar to what other people can do.

Dr. Farshchian: The patients that you’re getting, at what age would you say they’re too young or too old to get this procedure done?

Dr. Rosen: Well, first of all, I never tell anybody that they’re too old. As you get older, it’s a little harder for things to work, because all these processes, prolotherapyis using the body to heal itself. Too young…I will start off with my gel. When they get very young, kids below 14 don’t really like injections, so, for them, I mostly use my ProloGel. But around 14 is usually when they start to tolerate any injections.

Dr. Farshchian: Tell us how you got involved with prolotherapy yourself, doc, because I know you were a board certified anesthesiologist. How did you get involved with prolo?

Dr. Rosen: Well, I got into a car accident going for an emergency C section. My neck really hurt, it was almost broken, and traditional methods didn’t help at all. So I researched, I went all around the United States, some parts of the world, and I was able to see that prolotherapy was able to help me, so I wanted to help other people. That’s how I got involved.

Dr. Farshchian: About how many treatments do patients usually need? Of course, that depends on their severity and the damage that they have, but, on average, how many procedures does a patient usually need before they see good results?

Dr. Rosen: What I usually see with most of my patients is that two or three treatments, they’re doing very well. If they want to get hopefully complete pain relief or almost pain relief, that takes longer. That may take six treatments. But most of my patients go for two or three treatments.

Garcia: Prolotherapy is much more than just an analgesic treatment. It actually stimulates a biological reaction in the tissue that promotes tissue healing. Is that a correct statement?

Dr. Rosen: That is correct. It is looking though that these days that they used to think it was like a stimulus to the muscles. It believes now it’s more a stimulation to the nerves. And all pain is carried in the nerves and when we’re able to treat the nerves, the C fibers is what they’re called. The body is able to heal itself.

Garcia: When you treat a case such as an arthritic condition in a joint, when you do the prolotherapy does it go in the joint itself, the meds or the substances that you use? Or the prolotherapy, is it ever the actual joint itself?

Dr. Rosen: Most of the time I’ll go into the joint to get better benefit. And I also go on the outside where the nerves are. So I usually go at both places for arthritis.

Garcia: Is it correct to say that prolotherapy, the major tissue that you’re trying to stimulate is the neurological system, the nervous system itself?

Dr. Rosen: We believe most pain’s neurogenic pain. The only reason that you hurt is because of nerves. And by blocking these nerves you’re able to have the body help promote its tissue healing. That’s the current theory I believe that’s coming down right now.

Garcia: And does the patient usually respond after the first treatment immediately or does it take a succession of treatments for you to get some kind of pain relief?

Dr. Rosen: Well, it depends which kind of prolotherapy we’re going with. Traditional prolotherapy, it will take a few days to get relief. With the newer form called neuroprolotherapy, they should be out of pain right then, within five minutes. Garcia: And Dr. Rosen, the difference between one and the other is the substance that you use for the prolotherapy?

Learn more on how ProloGel, a pain-free prolotherapy alternative, can help relieve joint and nerve pain.

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