Did you know 50+ million people in the United States live with chronic pain? And with a growing and aging population, this number is expected to increase. Osteoarthritis can seriously impact people’s lives not just from physician activity, but they are also more likely to have poor general health and mental health. While there is no cure for it, shockwave therapy offers a remedy for arthritis in the knee to reduce pain and improve function.
Shockwave therapy can accelerate the body’s healing process through acoustic pressure waves that boost metabolism and blood circulation. The Journal of Physical Therapy Science measured the effectiveness of using shockwave therapy to treat patients with degenerative knee arthritis.
Researchers divided twenty patients into groups of two. A control group received only general conservative physical therapy, and the other was treated with additional shockwave therapy on top of the physical therapy.
The shockwave therapy group showed significantly greater improvements in both scores. Researchers concluded that shockwave therapy “may be a useful nonsurgical intervention for reducing the pain of patients with degenerative knee arthritis and improving these patients’ function.
How Shockwave Therapy is Changing Lives
Shockwave therapy, also known as Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) is a multidisciplinary device used by podiatrists and other sports physicians with the main benefits being fast pain relief and restoration to function and mobility. It is used for resistant soft tissue injuries that do not respond to conservative treatments such as icing, heat, stretching, strengthening, massage, supportive footwear and orthotics.
Until now, treatment for these resistant injuries would normally involve extended periods of complete rest or immobilisation, cortisone injections and possible surgery. Shockwave therapy is now recommended before considering these treatments.
Shockwave therapy is non-invasive, highly effective, requires no anaesthesia and has no nasty side effects. It is relatively pain-free and you can return to work straight after your treatment. Depending on your condition you may be able to continue exercising whilst recieving treatment.
What does Shockwave do?
ESWT delivers low and high energy shock (acoustic) waves to the injured tissue via a hand-held probe. These non-invasive shockwaves which activate the body’s self healing process to reduce pain by:
- Increasing metabolic activity through improved blood circulation and formation of new blood vessels
- Accelerates the healing process through cell regeneration
- Stimulates nerves to help decrease sensitivity in the area of pain
- Break up calcification within tendons which is reabsorbed by body
- Has an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect
There is no need to wait any longer. This simple, effective non-surgical non-invasive therapy has been heralded by practitioners and patients as a “game changer” for eliminating pain for even the most complex cases.