We are often asked how long it takes to find relief and recover from a Prolotherapy treatment session. Although we wish we could simply answer with, a few days, that is not always the case. Like all other treatments, relief and recovery vary; from individual to individual and injury to injury.
We cannot give a direct time frame, but we can provide you with some tips to help in the recovery process!
- Movement: Exercises are good! We aim to get you back to your active lifestyle as quickly as we can while optimizing your healing. Your provider may even have a few new exercises they want you to do at home or with your trainer or physical therapist. We recommend you take it easy for the first few days after a treatment. This doesn’t mean be a couch potato! Activities of daily living are great. It simply means no heavy workouts for the first few days. More specific instructions will be provided to you during your visit and written in your treatment plan.
- Diet: We cannot stress enough how important a whole foods diet is! The immune system is what proliferates the tissue after Prolotherapy, which means that we should be focusing on eating foods that fuel our bodies in a positive way! Take an assessment of what you are eating every day – are you fueling your body with “quick and easy” or “filling and nutritious”? Your body needs protein, vitamins, minerals, and water to heal. Are you providing it? If you need recipe ideas, head over to our recipe page!
- Rest: When you rest, your body can focus its energy on repairing the damaged tissues and reducing inflammation caused by the treatment. This allows the body to heal more efficiently and speeds up the recovery process.
- Positivity: What we think, speak, hear, believe, and say about ourselves and others has a profound impact on our overall health! When you consistently engage in gossip, have negative thought patterns about yourself and others, watch cable news, doom scroll, etc. it can trigger a stress response in the body, leading to the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. While our bodies are in healing mode, our brain should be there as well! When your thoughts are engaged with hopefulness, positivity, and confidence, your brain releases dopamine and serotonin (the happy hormones!), communicating those emotions to your body, where your body can relax, and your immune system is boosted.