ESWT: The Safest Way To Treat Foot and Joint Pains

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Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy or ESWT is a new treatment modality used for heel pain or foot pain and different kinds of joint pains. This new medical device is approved in the US by the FDA for treating foot pain due to plantar fasciitis and tennis elbow. There are many more future approvals from the FDA with the use of ESWT for other health conditions like Achilles tendinitis, patella tendinitis and a lot more.

ESWT is a unique treatment because it stimulates the natural healing properties of the body and can cure chronic pain. There are two theories on how this device promotes tissue healing:

1. The shock waves produced by ESWT machine induce microscopic injuries to the affected area, creating new growth of vascularisation. Increased vascularisation means more blood flow to the injured muscle tissues, ligaments and tendons.
2. Since there are minute injuries due to the shock wave, the body naturally treats the newly induced injuries and at the same time heals old joint injuries that the body has been ignoring or desensitized to. This makes ESWT very ideal for treating chronic pain.

Extracorporeal is a medical term which means that a medical procedure is done outside the body. It is a low-risk and non-invasive procedure with minimal or no side effects.

The procedure is simple and is very similar to ultrasound. First, the damaged tissue is located around the painful area of the body. Once the targeted tissue is found, multiple shockwaves are introduced to create micro injuries which actually help to induce the natural healing process, creating new tissue growth and therefore repairing new or chronically damaged tendons.

This is all done in just 30 minutes and depending on the extent of damage, it may require successive sessions to treat the pain. For some patients, the pain relief is observed with a single treatment, for some pain relief is gradual. There are complaints of minimal pain after the procedure but this is rare.

Things You Should Know About Heel Pain

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Heel pain is one of the common foot problems in adults. It occurs mostly among active individuals, people who are overweight, those using improper footwear, females or simply reaching the age of 40 and above.

The feet have an important function in absorbing all the weight of the body while walking. At the same time, they help provide stability and balance. The heel bone is the largest of all the bones of the foot.

The heel is the part of the foot that first comes in contact with the ground while walking. Daily walking or other activities like running or jogging can put stress to the heel. Over time, this stress can result to injury to the heel leading to heel pain.

At first, heel pain is only minimal and tolerable, this is commonly ignored because the heel naturally heals itself and the pain usually disappears. But in some cases the healing process is overcome with the constant injury induced by daily activities. If this is not addressed properly and again ignored, this can lead to heel pain.

The occurrence of chronic heel pain happens when an acute pain is managed with pain medications. Pain relievers reduce or sometimes totally stop the pain. This is an improper way to treating foot pain because it can mask foot problems which can actually get more severe in the future. When the heel pain is gone we continue to use the injured foot instead of resting and giving it time to heal.

Generally, heel pain in general can be caused by several factors but commonly involves injury to the plantar fascia (plantar fasciitis) and the Achilles tendon (Achilles tendonitis). In some cases, due to muscle tension and strain, bone formation can occur due to the inflammatory response called periostitis. The bone always grows towards the pulling and can cause severe pain.