Pelvic Health & Orthopedic Physical Therapy
Addressing your questions about pelvic, women's, and musculoskeletal health. Health is a journey. Movement is healing!
Shin Splints or what your medical provider might refer to as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome is a common injury especially in people who run or participate in activities with a lot of jumping involved. The pain is localized on the tibia (shin) either towards the inside of your leg or the outside of your leg. The location of your pain is important because it helps the clinician to discern what muscle groups are involved in the injury.
So what is Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome? Your shin bone or tibia has connective tissue surrounding it called periosteum. Periosteum has nerve fibers called nociceptors that relay pain signals to your brain. When the muscles that insert to the bone are overloaded too quickly they irritate and inflame the periosteum creating a painful response. For instance if you don't usually play basketball or run and then you go out and do a lot of that activity for a prolonged time you can overload the muscles of your lower leg too quickly forcing your tibia to have to absorb more of the impact from the activity, inflaming the periosteum where the muscles insert on the bone, and creating painful "shin splints". There are factors that may make you more predisposed to developing shin splints. This includes the alignment of your feet (having arches that are too high, too low, or not wearing footwear that properly supports your feet) as well as being female. Females oftentimes have alignment issues of their hips, knees, and feet during activities that can lead to this type of injury. Though by no means do you have to be a female to have malalignment issues. Now the million dollar question, what can physical therapy do for you and your shin splints? A large aspect to rehabbing this type of injury will be rest. You need to give your body the opportunity to heal. So in the time before your appointment with your physician or PT to assess your injury make sure you rest and discontinue the activities causing you pain. Also note, there are other injuries that may present with symptoms similar to shin splints, it is important to be evaluated by a trained medical professional to ensure you are properly diagnosed and treated. Icing the painful leg can also help to diminish the effects of pain. Your physical therapist will examine your alignment, footwear and movement strategy to discern the cause of your injury. They will develop a treatment plan of individualized stretching and strengthening to progressively return you to whatever activities you want to complete!
Morgan Dodson
6/6/2016 06:44:00 pm
You are so awesome girl! I am thoroughly enjoying reading your stuff! Comments are closed.
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AuthorHello! I am Caitlyn, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Board Certified Women's Health Physical Therapist working in St Louis, Missouri. Faculty in developing residency program. Endowarrior Categories
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