Thursday, July 11, 2013

Prolozone – Eliminating Pain for Chronic Pain Patients including CRPS…

What is Prolozone?

Prolozone is a technique that combines the principles of neural therapy, Prolotherapy, and ozone therapy.  It involves injecting combinations of procaine, anti-inflammatory medications, homeopathics, vitamins, proliferatives, and ozone/oxygen gas into areas of pain.  This article is meant as an informational piece only, to review the nature of what medical grade ozone is, how it works in biological systems, and how it can be used to help alleviate pain.  You can see more at:  http://www.journalofprolotherapy.com/index.php/prolozone-regenerating-joints-and-eliminating-pain/#sthash.ZEP9gFi6.dpuf

The result of this combination is nothing short of remarkable in that damaged tissue can be regenerated, and otherwise untreatable pain can be permanently cured according to the information in the Journal of Prolotherapy.  I want to provide readers and Chronic Pain suffers with insight into what Prolozone is, and how it works. 

Let’s start with ozone. 
 
OZONE = TRIATOMIC OXYGEN, Oxygen is an atom that cannot exist in a stabilized form as a single atom.  This is because it does not have enough electrons to balance it out.  So in order to provide stability, two oxygen atoms bond together in close proximity and share electrons.  This molecule, called O2, is what is generally referred to when the word “oxygen” is used. O2 is the stable form of oxygen that exists in the atmosphere.  When an energetic force, such as electricity (lightning) or ultra-violet light (solar exposure), is imposed upon a molecule of O2, the two oxygen atoms are temporarily split apart into single oxygen atoms.  Then in a matter of nanoseconds these highly unstable oxygen atoms will pair up again and reform back into O2 molecules.  But a small percentage of them will unite with a ménage-a-trio known as ozone.   Thus, ozone, referred to as O3, is a gaseous molecule which consists of three oxygen atoms all sharing the same electrons.  This is exactly what happens in a corona discharge generator.  Oxygen molecules go into the generator and are exposed to an electric spark.  What emerges from the other end is a mixture of oxygen and ozone.  The parameters of the generator can be set to produce a given amount of ozone in that mixture.  In clinical circumstances the concentration of ozone in the final gas mixture is between 1-3%.  In the therapeutic sections of this article the word “ozone” will be used to refer to the mixture of ozone and oxygen.  Ozone is a relatively unstable molecule.  This is because there just are not enough for two atoms, but not three.  This instability is exactly why ozone is so powerful – because it is driven to give off the extra oxygen atom so that it can be reduced to the stable O2 form.   This of course requires getting electrons, and the best place for a single oxygen atom to get an electron in a cellular environment is from a double bond found in lipids and amino acids.         


Prolozone History

In 1983 there was a four day training seminar in Germany on the use of ozone in medicine.  One of the things that was taught during this training was that ozone was very effective when injected into rheumatic joints.  Inflammation decreased, swelling decreased, and most importantly pain decreased.  How and why all this happened was not explained, but the procedure has been done for years, and several clinical studies had verified the effect.  As so often happens after we learn something, shortly after the seminar a patient with rheumatoid arthritis showed up at the clinic with severe inflammation and pain in both of her knees.  After explaining to her what had been learned, she consented, and she was injected in both of her knees with ozone gas.  The result was dramatic.  Within two days 75% of the pain and inflammation was gone.  But the case is only the beginning of the story.  The following week a neighbor of this patient came into the clinic asking to have her right knee injected with “the same thing you gave my neighbor.”  Only this patient did not have an inflammatory condition.  She had an osteoarthritic knee that she had been suffering with for several years.  It was explained to her that treating an inflamed joint was very much different from treating a degenerated joint, and although her neighbor had good results, it was not known if the treatment would be helpful in her particular case.  She was told that from the information that was available, no one had reported any success in treating degenerative conditions with ozone.  Then she asked, “Well will it make me any worse?  I can hardly walk as it is.  They already want me to have a total knee replacement.  What harm could it do to try?”  She was right.  One week later she was 20% better, and then further treatments were set up. 
 

How Does Prolozone Work?

If Prolozone is not working simply as another form of Prolotherapy, how is it working?  Prolozone works by improving oxygen utilization in a localized are of damaged connective tissue, allowing it to heal, and to restore full function.
 

Other Localized Effects of Ozone:

As a powerful oxidizing agent, ozone has several other effects that are important for tissue repair and regeneration.  One is by stimulating growth factor production and release.  One paper published in 1996 examined the critical role that protein tyrosine phosphorylation events play in proliferation and differentiation.  The authors determined that oxidizing agents “stimulate growth response events in vascular smooth muscle cells,” and also “stimulate tyrosine phosphorylation of several proteins including epidermal growth factor receptor.”  The stimulation of growth factors, especially endothelial factors are important for tissue regeneration to occur.

But ozone therapy can do more than just stimulate growth factor production and release.  It also activates the membrane receptors through which growth factors exert their effects.  For example, a paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry established a novel role for the mitochondrion as a proximal target specific to oxidant induced signaling and growth factor transactivation.

And finally, there is evidence that ozone therapy can mediate the effects on the various growth factors.  A recent 2005 paper entitle, “NAD(P)H Oxidase 4 Mediates Transforming Growth Factor-ß1–Induced Differentiation of Cardiac Fibroblasts Into Myofibroblasts,” describes how oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) induces circulating fibroblasts into repairing damaged cardiac tissue.  NAD activity is enhanced by ozone therapy because it increases the NAD/NADH ratio.

In layman’s terms ozone therapy has the ability to repair tissue, assisting with regeneration of damaged tissue, and it can help decrease inflammation.  Combine this with the traditional Prolotherapy to get Prolozone and you have a product that can in effect help to substantially reduce or eliminate pain for Chronic Pain patients or CRPS / RSD patients.  Personally I think this is something that needs more research for CRPS patients and it has viability to be a real options for patients dealing with CRPS, RSD, and Chronic Pain!
 
If you have questions please feel free to post any questions or comments back on this blog, or you can contact me directly at rsd.crpsforum@gmail.com