How Acupuncture Can Relieve Your Shin Splints

Shin Splints (also known as tibial stress syndrome) are one of the top ten most common sports related injuries. Runners, joggers, and anyone who plays a sport with a lot of running involved are at risk from this injury. The pain you feel from shin splints happens due to the shinbone (or tibia) and the attached connective tissues to become overloaded suddenly. This is generally when athletes train for too long or too hard, or if the athlete increases the duration or amount of exercise all at once. Running downhill or on hard surfaces, as well as having flat feet makes one especially prone to shin splints.

Along with the pain from shin splints, you may also experience swelling and hardening of the soft tissues in the area. Although rest is recommended, the damage has already been done due to the muscle tissue surrounding the shin bone becomes traumatized, causing micro-fractures of the bone to develop. Even if you rest completely, it can take up to six to eight weeks for the injury to heal, but will be prone to reaggravate it again.

How Acupuncture Can Heal Your Shin Splints 

Acupuncture is an excellent treatment option for shin splints, especially since Western medicine has very little to offer treatment-wise besides rest, ice, and pain killers. Acupuncture is found to be the most effective if started when the symptoms first begin.

By releasing several your body’s natural healing cells and substances such as endorphins, neuropeptides, serotonin, and neurotransmitters, acupuncture helps to promote healing of the area, alleviate pain, increase microcirculation, as well as attract white blood cells to the area of focus. This helps to speed up the healing rate, decrease swelling, and help to disperse bruising of the area.

Research to Back Up This Claim 

An article by Matt Callison, printed in the Journal of Chinese Medicine in October 2000, shows a study conducted on shin splints and the efficacy of acupuncture to help heal the injury. The study concluded that acupuncture shows to be effective in helping to relieve pain associated with shin splints. The group that received both acupuncture and combined acupuncture and anti-inflammatory medicated groups. The use of medication decreased over the duration of the study, as well as their perception of pain. The participants reported being less hindered due to pain both during sporting and non-sporting activities and felt greater pain relief.

Acupuncture is the great treatment option for shin splints. It is safe because no chemical substances are injected into the body’s systems and often painless because the needles used are much thinner than the ones used in injections. Fast Relief Acupuncture has a developed a unique treatment system where shin splints can be treated with long lasting effects! With a specialized combination of modern treatment modalities and precise diagnostic techniques, Fast Relief Acupuncture can make your ‘trigger points/ knots’ be a problem of your past! Call today to get the relief you deserve!