Prolotherapy is a treatment for acute and chronic pain. Pain can come from new or old injuries, overuse injuries (i.e. tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome tendonitis), arthritis, hypermobile or easily dislocated joints. Prolotherapy is an injection technique in which a solution is injected directly into soft tissue areas to stimulate the body's own healing process. Soft tissue areas include: ligaments (connect bone to bone), tendons (connect muscle to bone), muscles and joint capsules. These areas do not have a rich blood supply and take much longer to repair – if it has a chance to fully repair at all. After an injury, many times the ligaments and tendons are over-stretched, unable to recover fully and remain in the "over-stretched" state. Small pain fibers in the ligaments send a pain signal to the brain when stretched. You could think of it like a rubberband that has been stretched out. This causes the joint to become unstable. Through a subconscious reflex, the muscles surrounding the area will tighten/spasm in an attempt to help stabilize the joint. The only way to actually get to the ligaments and tendons is to directly inject into them.