Injection therapy is a type of therapy where a needle is used to inject a specific sterile solution into the body for the purpose of healing. These types of therapies include intravenous therapies (where a solution is injected into the vein to travel throughout the body), or prolotherapy (where a solution is injected into the joint, ligament or tendon insertion), or other types of therapeutic injection therapies, where a solution is injected into the muscle, subcutaneous tissue, acupuncture points or scar tissue. These latter types of injections are the subject of this article.
1) Nutrient Injections
These usually consist of injecting some form of B vitamin into the muscle or subcutaneous tissue. Vitamin B12 (methylcobalamin) is the most common type of nutrient injection I use. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is another. These types of injections are often administered in states of deficiency, pernicious anemia, or poor gastrointestinal tract absorption, in order to improve energy, moods and neurological function.
2) Therapeutic Injections
This type of injection consists of injecting a sterile solution of a homeopathic remedy into acupuncture points or trigger points. These types of therapeutic injections can be helpful for repetitive stress injuries, myofascial pain, and joint pain.
3) Perineural Injection Therapy (PIT) - formerly known as Neural Prolotherapy (NPT)
This therapy is used to help treat conditions associated with musculoskeletal pain, nerve pain, or pain due to injuries.
Perineural Injection Therapy involves using a very small needle for multiple injections of buffered dextrose 5% in sterile water under the skin near cutaneous nerves. This therapy is excellent for various types of chronic pain syndromes, especially pain associated with neurogenic inflammation. Although cutaneous nerves are superficial, the pain they create is often felt in the deeper tissues. This procedure was developed by Dr. Lyftogt MD. The use of the word prolotherapy for PIT is a misnomer since this therapy is more involved in addressing the neuralgic cycle of pain, as opposed to stimulating a regenerative proliferative response by inducing inflammation commonly seen in prolotherapy as discussed on this website.
3) Neural Therapy
This therapy usually consists of injecting a combination of an anesthetic and homeopathic remedy into scars and superficial surrounding tissue. Neural therapy treats the disturbances in the electrochemical function of these tissues to improve energy flow in the area that can help with pain and referred pain.