At Blackberry Clinic, one of the most commonly occurring conditions in our patients is Shin splints, medically known as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome. This is an overuse injury of the shin bone, commonly seen among runners, dancers and military recruits.
Thanasis, one of our physio team at our Milton Keynes Clinic has a great deal of expertise in treating this condition, as he has worked for many years with sports teams, particularly rugby players.
Here he explains the mechanisms that cause this painful condition and what can be done about it.
Thanasis Lionas
Excessive forces reproduced towards the tibia bone, can cause inflammation, and you can experience the pain at the front or at the back of your shin.
The exact mechanism of this injury is still unknown, therefore, the diagnosis and the treatment are based on the following 3 clinical findings;
A. A history or a repetitive and demanding activity, such as running, to trigger the pain, and a pain that gets better with rest
B. An MRI showing inflammation of the surrounding of the bone or of the tibia bone itself
C. Physical findings during the Assessment.
On the physical assessment I am expecting to find pain on palpation at the medial part of the shin, swelling might be found as well, muscular weakness or tightness, joint stiffness, and I assess the leg biomechanics (how you use your lower limbs), during the related activity.
The goal of the treatment is to reduce your pain and the forces towards your tibia.
I recommend rest from this activity, ice packs and medication, I can provide muscular relaxing techniques, manual therapy, stretching and strengthening exercise and I may suggest running or activity modifications.
As well as manual therapy, it may be that you require orthotics to correct the biomechanics of your foot. At Blackberry Clinic we recommend Phits custom 3d orthotics as, using Foot scan technology, our Phits trained experts, Shelley Terry and Milly Dalton, will assess you thoroughly for the right pair of orthotics.
Also, vitamin D and Calcium, can be beneficial. Read our blog on Vitamin D, – ‘Vitamin D – are you taking yours?’ written by our Blackberry Clinic nutritional therapist Eleanor Allum to find out more about how much Vitamin D you should take and why.
Hope you find this information helpful!
Thanasis
