How Laser Treatment Can Get You Active Again

An ill-timed injury can be frustrating, even devastating, for anyone with an active lifestyle.

Not that there’s ever a “good” time for an injury, of course. But you know what we mean:

• A youth athlete who must call off their entire season after just a couple of games.
• A working adult who must take time off work, use PTO, or work fewer paid hours due to a short-term injury.
• A vacationer who must cut back on her itinerary and skip activities she was looking forward to due to pain.
• Anyone, anywhere, at any time who simply can’t do the things they used to love anymore—hiking, playing with the kids, running, shopping, or whatever it is you love to do.

Whenever chronic pain strikes, people with active lifestyles really suffer—especially when the discomfort and disability drag on, and on, and on.

But thanks to recent advances in medical science, there’s more hope than ever before. And laser therapy from the Kansas Foot Center is one of the best ways to get active people running, playing, and working again.

A Short Explanation: How Laser Therapy Works

We’ll spare you the long, drawn-out technical explanation for now, but it would probably help to at least give you a decent overview of the system.

Essentially, laser treatment acts like a shot of energy to the cellular processes responsible for reducing pain and healing damaged tissue. Just like sunlight energy warms your face in the summer sunshine, laser energy (when properly controlled and focused) can penetrate deep into your tissues and stimulate intercellular activity.

Most patients experience some level of immediate improvement after just a single 10-minute session—they’re already starting to feel better the next day. However, a full treatment course may require multiple sessions to fully heal the injury. The sessions have cumulative effects—this is full healing, not periodic temporary relief like a cortisone shot.

More In-Depth: How Does MLS Laser Help An Athlete In Pain?

What does this all mean for you, the active athlete who needs to get back to play, work, or wherever your lifestyle takes you?

The great news is that laser therapy’s versatility makes it a great non-invasive option as part of treatment for almost any kind of foot or ankle injury.

Eliminating Chronic pain

When pain won’t go away for weeks and months at a time, it’s usually because the body has gotten “locked” into a constant state of inflammation.

Normally, inflammation is a natural reflex that signals to the rest of the body that repair is needed. However, when your body is unable to repair itself fast enough, the inflammation can continue indefinitely, which leads to further tissue damage.

MLS laser therapy both triggers a reduction in inflammation and energizes the cells to begin tissue healing activities.

Sore heels, shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, stress fractures, and other common source of constant, chronic pain are among the best candidates for MLS laser therapy.

Responding to Acute Pain

Laser therapy can also assist in the treatment of acute and traumatic injuries as well. If you come in with a fresh ankle sprain, for example, the pain-relieving and accelerated healing effects of the laser do not discriminate.

In fact, integrating even a single laser therapy session early in the treatment course for an acute trauma can help the tissues repair themselves faster and lower the chance that chronic pain will ultimately develop.

This also means you can start your rehab earlier, before surrounding muscles and tendons have had extra time to lose strength and flexibility. So rehab is quicker and easier, too.

Accelerating Recovery and Rehab

Of course, the laser can also be fully part of the rehab process, too. While laser therapy is most commonly thought of as an exceptional alternative to surgery, it makes a good companion to surgery, too.

The laser can help wounds close and heal faster, and again, will help the healing tissues rebuild themselves as quickly as possible so you can do your rehab sooner and more efficiently, and thus get back on the field as quickly as possible.

A Short Summary of the Practical Benefits for Active Individuals

To recap and expand:

• Laser therapy can dramatically shorten the overall recovery time from any kind of injury—acute or chronic. In some cases, the expected time to return to full activity can be cut in half.
• More than that, laser therapy has been able to heal injuries that have previously had no progress whatsoever despite months of stretching, injections, or other conservative therapies.
• Sessions are extremely quick (10 minutes isn’t unusual). They fit conveniently into almost any busy schedule.
• Treatment is completely painless with no known side effects.
• No medication is required whatsoever—not even anesthesia. If you’ve been relying on pills and injections to get you through your day, MLS will help you reduce or eliminate them from your life.

Let’s go back to those examples we talked about at the top of the blog:

• For the youth athlete, it could be the difference between missing the rest of the season or being able to rejoin the team with plenty of time for the playoffs.
• For the working adult, it could mean a much faster return to full hours and activity at work (and a much more pleasant experience while you’re there).
• For anyone, anywhere, at any time, it could mean a complete restoration of a lifestyle that you thought was gone forever.

That’s why this treatment means so much to active people. And that’s why we’ve made it a part of our practice and proudly offer it to our patients.

If you’re ready to finally defeat pain that’s stopping you from living your best life, give us a call today at (866) 222-5177.