How Shockwave Therapy Helps Treat Sports Injuries
Shockwave Therapy is a modern, evidence-based treatment that uses high-energy acoustic waves to stimulate the body’s natural healing processes. This treatment option is minimally invasive and can offer pain relief, quick healing and musculoskeletal rehab without complications or a need for surgery. This article will explain how shockwave therapy in Lilly Physical Therapy can help treat sports injuries.
What is Shockwave Therapy?
Shockwave therapy is a minimally invasive medical treatment that uses high-energy acoustic waves to stimulate the body’s natural healing mechanisms. These waves are delivered directly to injured tissues, helping to relieve pain, improve blood flow, and accelerate the repair of damaged cell tissues.
During treatment, your physical therapist may use a handheld device that generates controlled pulses of sound energy, which travel through the skin to the affected area. These high-energy sound waves cause microtrauma in damaged tissues, increasing blood circulation and releasing growth factors that trigger faster healing. Like every other holistic therapy, shockwave therapy addresses both the symptoms and the underlying cause of the injury.
How Does Shockwave Therapy Help to Treat Sports Injuries?
After the high-energy sound waves are delivered to the injured area of your body, what happens next? The following explains the physiological responses to shockwave therapy that help repair damaged cells and tissues and restore function:
- Increased blood circulation: The mechanical pulses from shockwave therapy stimulate the formation of new blood vessels, improving the blood circulation in the affected area. Increased blood flow means more oxygen and nutrients to the affected area, promoting faster healing.
- Stimulation of collagen: Collagen is an essential protein that strengthens the tendons, ligaments, muscles, and other soft connective tissues. Shockwave therapy stimulates the production of new collagen fibers, improving the strength and flexibility of the soft connective tissues in the affected area.
- Breakdown of calcifications and scar tissues: Calcification occurs when calcium salts build up in the body tissues, causing them to harden. This process is common with some chronic injuries, leading to restricted movement and severe pain. However, shockwaves from shockwave therapy help to break down these calcifications for the body to reabsorb normally.
- Pain relief: Sports injuries are often accompanied by severe pain. However, shockwave therapy can alter the transmission of pain signals by the nerves, reducing sensitivity and discomfort.
- Trigger natural healing: Shockwave therapy can trigger the body’s natural healing mechanism by causing a mild inflammatory response through the high-energy acoustic waves it sends into the affected area.
The combination of these effects helps shockwave therapy to address the symptoms and root causes of sports injuries, leading to pain relief, restoration of mobility and physical function, and improvement of overall physical health.
Related Topics:
- Role of Shockwave Therapy for Post-Surgery Healing
- How Shockwave Therapy Compares to Other Physical Therapy Techniques
- 5 Reasons to Choose Shockwave Physical Therapy
- Conditions Treated with Shockwave Therapy
- Top Benefits of Shockwave Therapy for Pain Relief
Conclusion
Shockwave therapy effectively treats several acute and chronic sports injuries by reducing pain, increasing blood circulation, breaking down calcifications, and producing other positive physiological responses. Therefore, if you have been suffering from persistent sports injuries despite exploring several treatment options, you should consider undergoing shockwave therapy at Lilly Physical Therapy.
