Vicki Moseley’s shoulder pain started six years ago when she held onto her car door after slipping on ice. An MRI revealed a slight rotator cuff tear too small for surgery. It wasn’t long, though, until lingering discomfort appeared in her shoulder joint.
“I had this constant, nagging deep ache, and I found myself rubbing my shoulder all the time,” says 69-year-old Moseley, who plays the double bass. “I’m very active with my shoulder. I play the bass a lot, and I work out. The more I did, the more irritated my shoulder became.”
To ease the pain, Moseley turned to acupuncture, chiropractic care and physical therapy. Everything helped a little, but nothing gave her long-term relief. Luckily, she was already enrolled in a longevity study through AIM for Wellbeing, an integrative and functional medicine partner of The Christ Hospital Health Network. When a whole body analysis revealed Moseley didn’t have enough muscle mass, doctors sent her to Morganne Venters, DC, an AIM chiropractor and personal trainer.
“She wanted me to do push-ups to help me gain muscle mass, but I told her I couldn’t,” Moseley says. “My shoulder hurt all the time. That’s when she told me about shockwave therapy.”
Moseley started shockwave therapy in April. Her shoulder pain disappeared after only one treatment, but she had several others to maximize the benefit. Today, she’s back to heavy practices and multiple performances with her double bass—and she can do four sets of six push-ups without pain.
What is shockwave therapy?
Shockwave therapy is a noninvasive treatment that uses sound and pressure waves to trigger your body’s natural healing process. Using a device that looks like a massage gun, providers target your injured ligaments, soft tissues, and tendons with short spurts of focused energy waves. The waves create some inflammation to draw more blood to the injured area. They also impact your nerves and reduce pain. The result is tissue regeneration and reduced discomfort.
“Shockwave therapy stimulates your tissues at the cell level. It affects injured nerve fibers in your tissue to give you some pain relief,” Dr. Venters says. “When your body responds and sends more blood to the area, that’s when the tissue starts its healing process.”
There are two types of shockwave therapy:
What can shockwave therapy treat?
For people ages 18 and up, shockwave therapy can be a first-line treatment for several conditions that cause acute or chronic pain.
“In a perfect world, we want people to come see us when their injury occurs,” Dr. Venters says. “Starting shockwave therapy as soon as possible gives patients the best chance of healing.”
In addition to arthritis, providers typically use this therapy to treat overuse and sports-related injuries. Among other problems, these conditions can include:
Achilles tendonitis
Distress fractures
Frozen shoulder
Golf elbow
Plantar fasciitis
Rotator cuff injuries
Shin splints
Tennis elbow
“We can use shockwave in a bunch of different spots all over the body. When tissues have chronic pain, nerve endings have irritation or scar tissue builds up, shockwave gets in there and jolts the system,” Dr. Venters says. “It’s like hitting the reset button on your body.”
Shockwave therapy can also improve outcomes from joint replacement surgery. Receiving treatment before surgery helps strengthen your muscles, ligaments, and tissues so they’re in the best position to heal after the procedure. Then, after surgery, treatment encourages faster healing with less pain.
When not to use shockwave therapy
There are certain circumstances where you should avoid shockwave, however. Dr. Venters advises against using shockwave therapy for patients who:
are pregnant.
have active cancer.
have blood-clotting problems.
have a lung injury. (Shockwave can cause a collapsed lung.)
received a cortisone injection. (Wait at least six weeks before adding shockwave therapy.)
The benefits of shockwave therapy
Dr. Venters says shockwave therapy is a fast, convenient and effective treatment. The average session lasts roughly 20 minutes, including the time needed to get comfortable on the treatment table.
Pain relief is common after one session. But most people complete six to 10 treatments, three to seven days apart.
“Every single time we treat a patient’s injury, we’re promoting healing. The improvement to the tissue builds,” she says. “We try not to space sessions out much farther than seven days because we want to continue to push the tissues to regenerate and make progress.”
In addition to being noninvasive, fast, and comfortable, shockwave therapy offers these benefits:
Better mobility
Greater flexibility and range of motion
Improved athletic performance
Minimal side effects (usually feels like soreness from a tough workout)
No downtime after the procedure
Reduced need for pain medications
Convenient, complete, coordinated care
To ensure you receive the most effective, comprehensive shockwave therapy, AIM’s chiropractors work closely with your providers. Together, they weave treatment into your overall care plan. And, if you need a joint replacement, they will consult your surgeon about the best time to begin therapy.
AIM also blends expertise with sophisticated technology to ensure you receive the most effective care. Every AIM chiropractor has specific shockwave therapy training. Using ultrasound guidance to direct the energy waves, they rely on the most sophisticated therapy machine used in research studies—DolorClast® Radial Shock Waves—to deliver each treatment.
Instead of only concentrating on a single body part per session, Dr. Venters says AIM providers focus on whole-body care.
“We use both radial and focal shockwaves to address the more surface-level issues, as well as the deeper problem areas,” she says. “We’re going to work on all those spots in one treatment. We don’t just do the traditional point-and-shoot approach where we hold the shockwave on the tender spot and keep it there. We take a global approach with each therapy session.”
Ultimately, Dr. Venters recommends asking your provider about shockwave therapy when you first notice pain that won’t go away.
“Shockwave therapy is a tool that optimizes the ability of your muscles and tissues to perform. It’s a great addition to wellness care,” she says. “It’s an option patients should pursue as soon as they start to feel discomfort, whether it’s from an acute or wear-and-tear chronic kind of injury.”
Moseley agrees, noting shockwave gave her the extended relief she needed.
“Getting shockwave therapy was such a positive thing for me,” she says. “After pursuing physical therapy, acupuncture and other treatments, shockwave is what worked. This was the long-term fix that worked best for me.”
If you want to learn more about the costs and benefits of shockwave therapy or to set up an appointment, contact AIM for Wellbeing, a partner of The Christ Hospital Health Network.