What Is Shockwave Therapy?
If you’ve ever struggled with a sports injury or dealt with an ache that just wouldn’t mend, your body might have benefited from extra help during the healing process. Shockwave therapy can offer such help, jump-starting the body’s ability to regenerate new tissue. It also decreases your pain by directly stimulating your nerves at the site of the injury. Though the name of the treatment makes it sound painful, it’s only mildly uncomfortable for most people.
It’s often prescribed as a treatment for patients who have sports injuries like a golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, or pulled hamstring. It’s also administered to patients who experience pain in their soft tissues.
How Does Shockwave Therapy Work?
In the 1990s, scientists began to study the effects of high-energy shockwave therapy on soft tissue injuries. Both high-energy and low-energy shockwave treatments work by sending pulses of energy to the injured area.
Shockwave therapy may be used to:
- Increase circulation around injured soft tissues
- Break down calcified deposits (like kidney stones)
- Stimulate cells that generate new bone tissue and connective tissue
- Reduce pain by overstimulating nerve endings in the affected area
