"Midfielder will miss the next 12 weeks with an achilles injury."
So went the story in a Melbourne newspaper recently about an Australian Rules footballer. It went on to say he had been managing the injury for the past year, but could no longer continue playing. I was horrified when I read the next sentence:
"The damage is a bit more significant on the scan, so we've decided that he can't continue from week to week and he'll actually have a minor operation to repair some of the damage and to shave a bit of the bone on the heel .... his work-ethic will make sure he's back in 12 weeks' time...."
The reason I react like this is because there is a much better way of going about this very common sports-related injury that accounts for around 10% of all running injuries. The large tendon at the back of the lower leg that connects the calf muscles to the heelbone is injured or suffers overuse. Often the tendon swells visibly and the pain can be quite unbearable. Sometimes the leg has to be rested in a plaster cast. There are numerous supportive treatment methods including massage, ultrasound, night splints and heel pads. But overall, very little works. And here we have a footballer who is about to have his heel bone shaved! Hardly a minor operation for a highly trained athlete.
But Achilles tendinitis doesn't only come on because of injury. Often it occurs spontaneously without any preceding injury or strain in sedentary individuals, which suggests that other factors may be at work.
I believe one of these factors is auto-immunity, where the body's immune system, for some reason or other, attacks the body's normal tissues. This leads to cell damage and physical dysfunction, often leading to pain. Another example is plantar fasciitis, or painful heel.
Over the years, I have treated many Achille's tendon sufferers successfully by applying wheatgrass extract. Usually there is visible reduction in the swollen tendon and pain is modified within a few days. However it may take a month or two to resolve completely.
But how does it work? If my auto-immune theory is correct, and I believe it is, growth factor stimulation appears to be the most likely possibility. These factors are responsible for many physiological activities, one of which is to strengthen the body's immunity to enable it to prevent or overcome auto-immune damage, also to reduce inflammation. Wheatgrass frequently works very well in autoimmune conditions e.g. acne rosacea.
Tibialis posterior (a muscle and tendon) dysfunction is another painful disorder of the lower leg, similar to Achilles tendonitis. In 1999, a group of American orthopedic surgeons biopsied the tendons of 7 patients with this condition. Auto-antibodies were bound to the tendon in 5 of the patients. The other two had no antibodies, but were considered "end stage" cases. In other words, their condition had "burnt out" to the point no immune response remained. Because of these findings the authors recommended a larger study be done....so maybe I'm on the right track!
Reference: Michael E. Brage, MD et al
Investigative Humoral Auto-Immunity as a Contributing Factor for Progressive Tibialis Posterior Dysfunction: A Preliminary Report Clin Orthop 1999 Aug;(365):12-22
Dr. Chris Reynolds. M.B.,B.S.
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