7 Benefits of Shockwave Therapy
Shockwave therapy is a unique form of therapy that encourages healing, while also being non-invasive. It can help you recover from an injury a lot quicker. At the same time, it delivers more comfort as you get back in shape from microtrauma or inflammatory problems. The benefits of shockwave therapy surpass even the largest expectations since you can use it to repair and also protect your body as well.
Understanding Shockwave Therapy
Whenever you deal with an injury or severe pain, you always need to find immediate relief. Finding the right modality to achieve that can help quite a bit. For example, your chondrocyte might be affected, or you might have ischemic issues. When that happens, it’s a good idea to use shockwave therapy. The procedure has been established since the 1980s. However, at that time, shockwaves were only used to break kidney stones. Nowadays, they can address ossification and alleviate pain, along with many other orthopaedic benefits.
How does it work?
- At first, the practitioner will take the machine’s portable head and place it above the area that needs to be treated.
- Once that happens, they will set up the machine at the rig
parameters. Most shockwave therapy machines offer customizable pressure. That means you can avoid adding too much pressure unless it’s necessary.
- After the machine starts, it uses compressed air to generate pressure waves.
- Depending on the shockwave therapy machine, you can use different heads to enhance/absorb some of the pressure. These machines can penetrate the tissue up to 6 cm. That’s more than what massage units can do.
The shockwave therapy effectiveness is unmatched since it can go deep into the affected tissue. You can get relies on hyperemia, tenosynovitis, osteoarthritis and a variety of injuries. It’s highly recommended to talk with a medical professional first, just to ensure everything is ok. Some underlying health issues might not allow you to undergo shockwave therapy.
7 Benefits of Shockwave Therapy
Pain Reduction
One of the main reasons why people opt for shockwave therapy is pain reduction. If you’re dealing with chronic pain, you’re always looking for immediate relief. Thankfully, shockwaves can target the bone structure and that will encourage the creation of a hematoma. The ultrasonic technology will boost our body’s regenerative process, and that will speed up natural healing. You don’t have to deal with damaged bone cells, and the recovery time after an injury is shortened.
If you had musculoskeletal conditions like tennis elbow, tendonitis or plantar fasciitis, these are associated with intense pain. Thanks to shockwave therapy, you can address that pain. It’s a better option than electromagnetic recovery because it’s almost painless. Not only that, but it boosts your body’s natural healing ability. These fibroblasts have controllable power, and the practitioner can easily adapt to your requirements. A sonographic machine like this is very detailed, and that offers enhanced safety for the patient.
Eliminating pain is a huge priority. Being able to do that for the patient can help save a significant amount of both time and effort. That’s why shockwave therapy is ideal for anyone dealing with intense, chronic pain.
Improved Blood Circulation
There are a multitude of studies which show how effective shockwave therapy is in regards to boosting your bloodflow. Most of these studies back up the fact that in many cases, having a sped-up bloodflow can help bring the nutrients and compounds needed to the damaged area. That will enhance the recovery process. You always want to have a great circulation, since that enhances your overall health.
That highlights the positive effects of shockwave treatment. Despite being an extracorporeal treatment, it can help target a specific area that needs healing. Thanks to a better circulation, your damaged tissues will heal and regenerate at a much faster rate.
Accelerated Tissue Repair
Another one of the advantages brought by shockwave therapy is a boost in tissue repair. Directing shockwaves towards damaged tissue is very helpful. It speeds up the rehabilitation process. As you do that, it boosts the biomechanical repair process and osteogenesis. It basically encourages your body to form new blood vessels quicker, and it will heal faster.
Non-Invasive Treatment
Sometimes, when you deal with injuries, one of the options to solve the problem comes in the form of a surgery. However, surgeries have downsides. They come with very long recovery times. They also need injections, and you can also encounter numerous complications. Using a shockwave therapy machine reduces any potential issues. It gives you the means to heal wounds in a non-invasive way.
On top of that, the shockwave therapy process is performed by a professional. And the outcomes of shockwave therapy are very easy to predict. You’re only targeting the damaged area, and there’s little to no recovery time. That leads to minimal downtime, you can go back and work on your projects incredibly fast. Yet at the same time, you don’t have to encounter any complications, nor do you have to deal with injections.
Minimal Side Effects
A surgery can lead to scars, a prolonged recovery time and a huge range of complications. Your body can have negative reactions to surgery, and those might appear over time. However, shockwave therapy doesn’t have that. It’s boosting the overall regenerative process of your body. There are also minimal side effects you will encounter as well.
Some of the most common side effects are mild swelling and numbness for a few hours at most. In some cases, there can be skin reddening or migraines. However, these side effects are rare, and even if they appear, they will not last for long. That makes the shockwave therapy treatment very safe and efficient.
Long-lasting Relief
One of the most sought-after benefits of shockwave therapy is that its effects are long-lasting. Shockwave therapy effects will last for a very long time, and you’ll find that you don’t have to repeat the treatment very often. In some cases, a few more rounds of shockwave therapy might be necessary. That happens when you are dealing with a larger injury.
In that case, repeating the treatment can bring many advantages. It slowly helps you rebuild damaged tissues naturally. While it takes time to repair the damaged tissue, repeated shockwave therapy sessions will help speed things up. On top of that, since shockwave therapy effects last for a long time, you reduce the need for ongoing medication. You can stick to this therapy and few to no meds, depending on what your doctor recommends.
Versatility
Shockwave therapy is known for being one of the most versatile forms of therapy for people that dealt with any type of injury. What’s great about it is that you can target a variety of body parts. If you have musculoskeletal conditions or any type of tissue damage, shockwave therapy can certainly help. It will address those concerns, while also being a great method to solve any of those problems as quickly as possible.
Another advantage you get from shockwave therapy is that you have lots of room for adjustment. The shockwave power can be modified for each patient. Not every patient will need the same shockwave pressure. In some cases, you need more powerful shockwaves, but other times you start with a very low intensity. Some machines have different pressure heads you can exchange, other machines offer pressure settings themselves.
That means you can easily adjust/adapt to the needs of every patient accordingly. It’s a powerful way to ensure that you alleviate pain and target any musculoskeletal conditions. Yet at the same time, the entire process of doing that is efficient, and easy to understand.
Conclusion
As a whole, shockwave therapy does a variety of great things. For starters, it allows you to focus on a variety of body parts, and it can alleviate a multitude of musculoskeletal conditions/problems. In addition, it speeds up your recovery process, and at the same time it doesn’t have major side effects. It’s one of the best ways to heal your body after an injury, address chronic pain, while also offering more comfort to people during the recovery process. It’s an excellent treatment, and one that’s highly recommended by medical experts!