Reports in the American Journal of Sports Medicine have found a new treatment remedy for stress fractures that seems to reduce recovery time. Good news, considering the injury can keep a runner out of commission for several months. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), a noninvasive technique that uses sound waves to stimulate healing, is an effective way to treat resistant stress fractures in athletes. During a six-year study, young athletes with chronic stress fractures were treated with ESWT, and they experienced “successful bone union” about three months later, when previous therapies had failed to produce such results. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy is also used to treat plantar Fasciitis, heel spurs, and Achilles tendonitis.
Chronic illnesses benefit greatly from shockwave therapy. This is simply because it creates microtrauma at the site of the fracture and so the body realizes that it has forgotten to repair a minor injury and so responds with inflow of immune cells and repair process is restarted.