Is Shock Wave Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis effective?

Chronic pain can make your life miserable. You lose interest in certain things and you’re unable to do certain things because of your pain. Plantar fasciitis is a condition where a person’s heels ache badly. Having pain one day is okay because you can deal with it.


You cannot deal with pain every day because there is no way you can avoid it. However, with the emergence of shock wave therapy for plantar fasciitis, lives have been made easier. It is the treatment for severe chronic pains.

It works by making use of electromagnetic pulses for delivering shock waves to a patient’s body to relieve pain. 

What is Shock Wave Therapy?

Shock wave therapy is a treatment process that does not involve any surgery. It is an eighteen-minute process that treats plantar fasciitis and other chronic diseases.

This treatment procedure has become popular all over the world. Studies show that shock wave therapy has been successful in treating patients by reducing pain by 92% in the first session.

The most attractive benefit of this therapy is that it eliminates the risk of
surgery and it can be treated extracorporeally. Shock wave therapy is both safe as well as effective.

One study asked patients to rate their level of pain on a 1-10 scale. The resulting figure was 7.7. One year later after the shock wave therapy, the patients were again asked to rate it on a scale of 1-10.

This time the result showed that their pain level had been reduced to 0.6. This study is enough to prove the effectiveness of shock wave therapy. 

You might be interested to know: How to do a Heel Stretch? Plantar Fasciitis Physical Therapy

How it works 

Shock wave therapy involves treatment via two procedures. One includes a high energy shock wave treatment and the other one undergoes a low energy shock wave treatment. In case of low energy shock wave treatments, a patient must attend 3 to 4 sessions of treatment.

Also, these treatments are not very painful. However, in the case of
high energy shock wave treatment, the entire treatment procedure is done in one session.

This can be very painful if we compare it to the low energy shock waves. 
A mild micro trauma is induced to the affected tissue which brings a signal of “healing” from the body.

This forms the blood vessels and excessive nutrients are delivered to
that part of your body. This therapy relieves the pain and lets you enjoy life like everyone else. You won’t have to cancel any plans because of your chronic pain.

This therapy gives you freedom from eternal pain. After therapy, an individual should buy the best shoes for plantar fasciitis to provide comfort to the foot.

Pros 

  • The first positive aspect is that it’s a noninvasive treatment i.e. it treats those disorders that are not very easy to treat.
  • Secondly, it doesn’t involve any surgery. Surgery can lead to several complications if went wrong.
  • There are fewer chances of complications in the case of shock wave therapy. 

Cons 

  • It is very costly.
  • It is quite effective but a single treatment would cost you a lot.
  • Sometimes, an individual has to attend multiple sessions which are going to be very costly.

Explore more: Why do my feet hurt when I workout?

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