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Prolozone

Regenerating Joints & Alleviating Pain

WHAT IS PROLOZONE?

When properly performed, prolozone is arguably the most economical and effective nonsurgical treatment for painful musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis and injuries of the wrist, elbow, shoulder, neck, back, SI joint, hip‡, knee and ankle; tendonitis; sciatica; old injuries; chronic dislocations; pinched nerves; pain associated with scars/prior surgeries and muscular trigger points.

 

Prolozone often provides immediate relief as well as long-term reduction in pain. At least 75% of our patients experience permanent elimination of pain and improvement in function following a recommended series of prolozone visits. Your body is the greatest healer. These treatments correct multiple obstacles-to-healing at the tissue and cellular levels in order to break the vicious cycle of pain and allow your body to heal. Prolozone also provides painful and diseased area(s) with the proper fuels and stimulation to encourage repair and regeneration of cartilage, tendons and other tissues.

The Benefits of MAH & HOT

When an injured area is acutely or chronically inflamed and painful, multiple local factors must be addressed in order for it to become healthy again. These include inflammation, of course, but also impaired blood flow, decreased availability of nutrients and oxygen, acidic pH, unhealthy cell membranes, and dysfunctional cells which are unable to utilize local oxygen, glucose and other fuels in order to produce the cellular energy (ATP) needed to function properly and to heal (mitochondrial dysfunction).

 

Prolozone was designed to target each of these factors through a unique combination of ingredients that are injected together. These components work together synergistically to provide rapid relief of pain and stimulate the body to repair itself over time. An initial prolozone treatment consists of an injection of an “anti-inflammatory cocktail” which reduces pain, decreases inflammation, repolarizes cell membranes, replenishes vital nutrients and restores a healthy pH balance to the tissues†. Next, pure medical oxygen (O2) gas mixed with a small but powerful dose of ozone (O3) is injected into the joint or soft tissue through the same needle. Ozone restores healthy mitochondrial function (cellular energy production), promotes a long-term improvement of blood flow and oxygen delivery to the area and destroys pathogens on contact.  Many pathogens (bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc.) thrive in low-oxygen/low-blood-flow areas, and there is evidence that they are present in many cases of osteoarthritis and back pain! Oxygen provides instant fuel for the healing process.

 

Because diseased tissues are “softer” than healthy tissues, this O2/O3 gas mixture naturally travels via the path of least resistance to the areas that need it most. For example, prolozone given in appropriate superficial areas of the back or neck travels deeply through the vertebral ligaments to arthritic facet joints and bulging discs. This means that compared to other types of injections like steroids, prolotherapy or PRP, you will likely receive fewer and/or less invasive (not as deep) injections and they will be more comfortable to receive.  After your first anti-inflammatory prolozone injection, Dr. Haas will most likely recommend that you return in 2 weeks for your next visit.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Benefits of PROLOZONE

In a 20-year, multi-center IRB approved investigation headed by Dr. Frank Shallenberger and the American Academy of Ozonotherapy, prolozone was found to be an effective and cost-effective treatment for painful and arthritic joint, soft tissue and spinal conditions. 

A series of 3-6 prolozone treatments, sometimes in conjunction with growth-factor-rich PRP and/or allografts such as exosomes (read on to learn more), frequently provides long-lasting and permanent relief of painful conditions and has helped countless patients worldwide avoid surgery for localized conditions including:

  • Herniated disc(s) in the neck and low back

  • Osteoarthritis of the knee, shoulder, hip and spine

  • Sciatica and sacroiliac joint pain

  • Bursitis of the hip, knee, shoulder

  • Tennis, golf, and pickleball elbow

  • Post-surgical pain, painful and unsightly scars

  • Painful conditions including of the ankle, wrist and foot

  • Trigger points and chronic myofascial pain

PROLIFERATIVE PROLOZONE AND CGF-PRP

Once your pain and/or dysfunction is reduced by at least 50% (typically after 1 to 3 anti-inflammatory treatments), the “anti-inflammatory cocktail” is replaced with a slightly different “proliferative cocktail” which is more specifically geared towards the regenerative and remodeling phases of the healing process.† This cocktail is also followed by the oxygen-ozone mixture. In conditions with loss of cartilage, partial rotator cuff, tendon, ligament or meniscus tears, instability, significant degeneration, and/or certain other characteristics, Dr. Haas may recommend adding ozone-activated concentrated growth factor (CGF) which is essentially the next generation of platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) to these proliferative prolozone treatments.  In these cases, CGF-PRP is injected in addition to the “proliferative cocktail” and the ozone-oxygen mixture, so you get all the benefits of prolozone with the addition of the healing stimulus of the CGF-PRP.

 

Traditional PRP, which is a more mainstream (and often more expensive) treatment than prolozone at the time of this writing, starts with drawing blood from your vein into tubes as if you were getting labwork done.  The tubes are then spun in a centrifuge, and the doctor, nurse or technician carefully extracts the portion of the plasma that contains most of the platelets (called platelet-rich plasma or PRP) and activates it with calcium.  PRP is then injected into joints and tissues with some numbing medicine.  PRP seems to stimulate healing by releasing growth hormones via an excellent delivery system called "exosomes," which are taken up by nearby ligaments, cartilage and other damaged tissues, stimulating your own local stem cells to repair and regenerate.

 

Note on CGF: Dr. Haas continuously seeks and delivers the best available treatments, thus in July 2019, we upgraded our technology to offer the next generation of PRP, called concentrated growth factor CGF, which contains more platelet-derived growth factor vessicles (exosomes) AND CD34+ stem cells.  This requires a highly specialized centrifuge that spins the blood using a specific, research-driven protocol!  We have heard of other doctors offering CGF injections without prolozone for $1600 a pop!!  Watch a short video about CGF-PRP here.

 

With traditional PRP or CGF, you don’t get all the nutrients, oxygen or ozone discussed above, and the PRP doesn’t spread out through the damaged tissues the way that it does with prolozone.  This means that in general, combining CGF-PRP with prolozone is less painful during and after the procedure, and leads to more dramatic and more lasting (usually permanent) benefits compared to PRP by itself.

 

Another advantage of prolozone with CGF-PRP is that instead of using calcium to activate the platelets, the doctor uses ozone.  Activating CGF-PRP with ozone kills any pathogens that are present in the blood (you might be surprised to learn that blood is not sterile!), and ozone has been shown in-vitro to be superior to calcium in terms of increasing exosomes, platelet-derived growth factor, transforming growth factor b1, as well as the signaling molecule interleukin-8 which attracts circulating white blood cells into the region to clean up old damaged tissue(1).

 

Everyone is different, and a general rule of thumb is that the longer the condition has been present, the more treatments it will require to resolve.  That said, most patients experience permanent pain relief and recovery of function after a series of 3-6 prolozone visits‡.

Additonal Regenerative Treatment Options

Depending on your unique needs, specific condition(s), overall health and age you may choose to add a regenerative boost to your musculoskeletal injections by adding birth-tissue derived CharaCoreTM stem cells, Kimera XoGloTM exosomes or AmnioFixTM to a prolozone injection. 

Biopuncture

Injecting acupuncture points and trigger points with small doses of ozone, energetic remedies, procaine and/or the activated vitamin methyl-B12, called biopuncture, can increase the efficacy of prolozone. Up to 3 biopuncture injections may be included as part of your prolozone treatment at no additional charge. In some instances, more extensive biopuncture may be recommended instead of, or in addition to, prolozone. There is a discount for adding-on biopuncture to a prolozone treatment, similar to the discount for treating multiple locations with prolozone during the same visit.

OPTIMIZING YOUR TREATMENTS

Detoxify for a few weeks prior to your first treatment, if possible, focusing on organic whole-food nutrition, avoiding gluten, conventional meat, artificial sweeteners and GMOs and minimizing sugar, processed foods, red meat and alcohol.  Do a few rounds of MAH or HOT* during those weeks if you haven’t already, to prime your body and get your cells and mitochondria “firing on all cylinders.” During the 24 hours prior to your treatment, eat light, healthy foods.  Exercise, hydrate with fresh clean water and trace minerals, use a far-infrared or other DRY sauna, and/or do 10 minutes of whole body vibrational therapy. Meditate, focusing on concentrating your body’s healing energy in your blood/platelets (OK, I made this one up, but we know how powerful the mind can be!)  Starting a few days after your treatment, stimulate your face and/or scalp for at least 30 seconds per day using massage, dry brushing and/or rolling with a 0.25mm microneedle roller (dermaroller).  Continue focusing on organic whole-food nutrition, avoiding gluten, conventional meat, artificial sweeteners and GMOs and minimizing sugar, processed foods, red meat and alcohol.  You can boost your results by using medical technology such as JOOV red light/infrared therapy, NanoVi and/or Avacen 100.

For Dr. Haas's full instructions on getting the most out of your treatment read her blog here.

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