Category: Education

Published article

23/4/2021

Platelet-Rich Plasma Centrifugation Changes Leukocyte RatiosTheodore E. Harrison, Jannice Bowler, Todd N. Levins, K. Dean Reeves, An-Lin Cheng

Published: April 13, 2021 (see history)
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.14470
In this study, we looked at what happens to the white blood cells during centrifugation. In our first study we observed that there seemed to be a swing from the "heavier" denser white blood cells to the "lighter" white blood cells. While we don't know what effect this has for your PRP results, we do know that some of these "lighter" cells act as scavengers cleaning up debris and removing the more inflammatory white cells, as well as stimulating the "rest and repair" aspect of the immune system. This may explain some of the healing mechanisms that happen after your initial PRP inflammation has settled down.

Training physicians in prolotherapy in Canada

23/4/2021

Prolotherapy is such a wonderful treatment. It can make a big difference to pain reduction and to correcting instability in the body. It is a privilege to be on the teaching team heading to Calgary in September, Covid-precautions permitting, to train 20 physicians from across Canada. We hope this will lead to easier access to prolotherapy for more people, as more physicians become proficient in the treatment :-)

Toronto and the CAOM

19/10/2017

I have recently attended the annual Canadian Association of Orthopaedic Medicine conference, this year held in the big TO. As usual there were some excellent presentations and workshops, and I left feeling inspired and privileged to be working in musculoskeletal pain management. There was a lot of focus on nutrition: so much of pain can be attributed to the foods we eat! Also there was an excellent talk on genetic testing - knowing one's genome can help tailor treatment very specifically and even prevent certain problems/diseases from occurring. I presented a workshop on the hydrodissection of peripheral nerves using 5% dextrose under ultrasound guidance, along with a colleague, Dr Jag Gupta. This was well-attended, showing the interest in treating neuropathic pain without using drugs which have many side effects (aka brain fog). Dr Gordon Ko organised a terrific conference and I hope to incorporate new pearls of wisdom into my practice!

Back Pain and Exercise

12/9/2016

Exercise is better than medication for chronic low back pain :-) A new systematic review from the Alberta College of Family Physicians has been published, and this is encouraging news. Exercise should be part of any chronic low back pain management, and we advise this routinely. They found strength and stability training to be effective, but they also found aerobic exercises help. Likely a mix of strength, core and aerobics will give the best results. As always, start slowly, and gradually work at increasing exercises and you should have less pain.

University of Alberta Pain Certification

15/3/2016

David and I have enrolled in a recent pain management certificate program at the University of Alberta. We never stop learning! Things have certainly changed since we were undergraduates. Over the next couple of years we'll be participating "virtually", attending "e-classes" and online lectures, submitting assignments electronically, searching virtual libraries and accessing a wealth of material, adding citations with a computer-generated program that automates the process so quickly, and best of all, able to enjoy Victoria instead of the frozen north!

Prolotherapy Medical Mission to Honduras 2016

15/3/2016

Here are the doctors, nurses and volunteers who headed down to inject prolotherapy in Honduras this year. It was my third opportunity to work in Honduras, where we helped many hurting people at clinics in 3 small towns there. It is such a privilege to do this, teaching, learning and helping. My lecture there this year was on wrist prolotherapy - we take it in turns to present topics. The Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation is such an excellent teaching organization based in Wisconsin, where we meet up with good friends that we have made from different countries. In addition the foundation also sends down an Ear, Nose and Throat team as well as a Varicose Vein and Ulcer team. What a difference they make!

Research

7/11/2015

This is an important topic of interest to all physicians: that we should strive towards evidence-based medicine whenever possible. For this reason we have reorganized our website with a page dedicated solely to worthy studies, rather than include them in the links page. We encourage you to visit periodically as we add new studies when they become available.

Canadian Association of Orthopaedic Medicine

7/11/2015

The CAOM holds annual conferences in Regenerative Medicine and this year we met in Vancouver. It is always stimulating to listen to excellent speakers in the field, meet old colleagues and new, and exchange information that makes all of us better practitioners. This year we heard an excellent talk on nutrition and its importance by Dr Aileen Burford-Mason - this will have its own blog entry. In addition we had workshops on prolotherapy, platelet-rich plasma and ultrasound-guided techniques. Erik Ouellette, well-respected prolotherapist from Ontario gave a great lecture on injecting the shoulder, and followed up by doing just that. Physicians presented new research studies, some so new they haven't been published quite yet, and our North Vancouver colleague Dr Helene Bertrand discussed her positive shoulder prolotherapy study which has been accepted for publication. Kelowna physician Dr Francois Louw piqued our interest with favourable early trends in his TMJ (jaw) pain study. We came away tired but grateful to belong to such a good organization.

Neurokinetic Therapy certified

3/5/2015

In April's blog I described Neurokinetic Therapy - a system of muscle testing and correcting imbalances. David and I are now officially level one certified in this technique and you will notice us incorporating NKT as a helpful method of honing in on the cause of pain. Always good to have an exam over!

Ultrasound training: Toronto

19/4/2015

In April, David and I attended an excellent course in the use of ultrasound for certain of our injection techniques. It is always good to attend these reviews which add to our ultrasound training and we also meet interesting people for an interchange of ideas in the world of musculoskeletal pain. This one was held at the University of Toronto and run by Dr Philip Peng, professor in Anaesthetics and Pain Management at U of T, and his team. Attendees were largely anaesthetists involved in pain management, but I am pleased to report there were at least 5 physicians present who use prolotherapy, helping to spread the word of this remarkable therapy to the wider medical community. This also shows that some prolotherapists are embracing the use of ultrasound guidance for certain of their injections - it is not necessary to use ultrasound but it is very helpful for certain areas of the body. Below you can see Dr Peng, and also a bonus: we met Anne Agur who for 30 or more years has been the illustrator of the famous medical atlas, Grant's Anatomy. She is a delightful and humble lady who is Professor of Anatomy at the University of Toronto.