If you’ve ever damaged a muscle, tendon, ligament or joint, you’ll know how incredibly painful and frustrating it can be. When the injury is in the area of your feet or legs, you feel it with every step you take. It can stop you from carrying out even the simplest daily activities and household chores. It can interfere with your ability to work, and importantly, your ability to spend time with your family and those you care about.
In that moment, you just want something – anything – to ease the pain. Low level laser therapy (LLLT) and cortisone injections are two of the main options you may consider. But what’s the real difference between the two and which is better? Here are five facts that you need to consider.
1. Cortisone inhibits healing, laser promotes it
Cortisone impairs the healing process, meaning it’ll take longer for your injury to heal. This is because cortisone works by reducing inflammation at an injured area. Inflammation is our body’s response to injury and a cause of pain. It is also the process by which the body heals and repairs itself. Inflammation directs blood flow to the injured area which carries the materials our cells need for regeneration and repair. Because cortisone limits the inflammatory process, it impacts the rate at which the body repairs the injured area.
Laser, on the other hand, promotes healing and repair. It works by a photochemical process which affects the tissues at a cellular level. This results in:
Faster wound healing
Rapid cell growth
Less scar tissue formation
Improved circulation
Reduced swelling
Stimulated nerve function
2. Cortisone puts you at risk of causing further injury, laser doesn’t
The pain-relieving effects that cortisone is most used for can be effective, but do nothing to repair the injury, instead merely masking the symptoms. During this pain-free time, you begin to use the injured tendon or area as you normally would if it was uninjured. It’s easy to do when you don’t feel any pain and so don’t know that a particular action is actually causing further strain and damage to the injured site. This means you are left off with more damage than when you started, which you’ll then feel once the cortisone wears off.
Laser doesn’t mask the symptoms like cortisone, so your body still ‘guards’ against movements and positions that’ll cause further injury and pain. Paired with the enhanced healing effects of laser, you don’t have that same risk (or any risk if you’re careful) of worsening your injury.
3. Cortisone will wear off, the effects of laser are long-term
The effects of cortisone are short-lived and temporary. Various researchers have unanimously described cortisone as “a short-term treatment of a chronic problem”. Many studies and physicians agree that the duration of pain relief cannot be guaranteed above two months. The length of time can vary greatly between patients and are influenced by the overall health, the amount of inflammation and its cause. Generally speaking, the effects of cortisone can last from several days to several months. It is the hope that in this time, the body will have repaired enough to relieve symptoms once the cortisone has worn off. However, for many of our patients, this is not the case, and their pain persists.
Laser, on the other hand, works by stimulating healing and repair to deliver the best long-term results. Its focus is on getting the body to efficiently repair the injury and get the affected tissues back to full strength and function. Therefore, while it may not deliver the same numbing effects as cortisone initially, it delivers the better long-term results by a mile and keeps your overall strength and health as a priority.
4. Cortisone has many potentially harmful side effects, laser has none
Cold laser therapy has no harmful side effects, with the FDA finding no red flags or adverse effects, other than just needing to avert your eyes from the infrared light of the laser. This makes it the perfect option for those that are health conscious.
Unfortunately, cortisone does come with a long list of harmful side effects. These range from weakening the tendons and cartilage in the injected area, to “cortisone flares” in 2% of patients, to infections at the injection site. Cortisone also impairs healing, encourages more scar tissue formation, inhibits growth hormone release, impairs calcium uptake in bone, to name a few.
5. Laser has shown superior results to cortisone in clinical studies
Research into various tendinopathies and conditions conclude that while cortisone provides pain-relief in the short-term, their effectiveness has not been demonstrated long-term. Laser has repeatedly shown positive clinical results and efficacy in the short, medium and long-term. It is described as a “promising and consistent treatment for tendinopathies”. It has shown to boost the effectiveness of strengthening exercises and other treatment modalities.
In our clinical experience at Sole Motion Podiatry, we find laser therapy to be superior to cortisone in producing the best long-term outcomes for our patients. Our focus is on delivering the most effective, safe and pain-free results for our patients, and laser therapy achieves all of this and more. We love the results that laser therapy achieves and have seen countless patients back on their feet and out of pain much faster than expected. We successfully manage a range of conditions including tendinopathies, ligament strains and even arthritic pain.
For more information about the laser or to book an appointment, give us a call on 1300-FX-FEET!
References:
Clin Orthop Relat Res 2008 Jul 466(7) 1539-54
Photomed Laser Surg 2014 May 15
J Pain Res 2015 8 247-52
J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 2013 Sep 9 29C 272-285
In that moment, you just want something – anything – to ease the pain. Low level laser therapy (LLLT) and cortisone injections are two of the main options you may consider. But what’s the real difference between the two and which is better? Here are five facts that you need to consider.
1. Cortisone inhibits healing, laser promotes it
Cortisone impairs the healing process, meaning it’ll take longer for your injury to heal. This is because cortisone works by reducing inflammation at an injured area. Inflammation is our body’s response to injury and a cause of pain. It is also the process by which the body heals and repairs itself. Inflammation directs blood flow to the injured area which carries the materials our cells need for regeneration and repair. Because cortisone limits the inflammatory process, it impacts the rate at which the body repairs the injured area.
Laser, on the other hand, promotes healing and repair. It works by a photochemical process which affects the tissues at a cellular level. This results in:
Faster wound healing
Rapid cell growth
Less scar tissue formation
Improved circulation
Reduced swelling
Stimulated nerve function
2. Cortisone puts you at risk of causing further injury, laser doesn’t
The pain-relieving effects that cortisone is most used for can be effective, but do nothing to repair the injury, instead merely masking the symptoms. During this pain-free time, you begin to use the injured tendon or area as you normally would if it was uninjured. It’s easy to do when you don’t feel any pain and so don’t know that a particular action is actually causing further strain and damage to the injured site. This means you are left off with more damage than when you started, which you’ll then feel once the cortisone wears off.
Laser doesn’t mask the symptoms like cortisone, so your body still ‘guards’ against movements and positions that’ll cause further injury and pain. Paired with the enhanced healing effects of laser, you don’t have that same risk (or any risk if you’re careful) of worsening your injury.
3. Cortisone will wear off, the effects of laser are long-term
The effects of cortisone are short-lived and temporary. Various researchers have unanimously described cortisone as “a short-term treatment of a chronic problem”. Many studies and physicians agree that the duration of pain relief cannot be guaranteed above two months. The length of time can vary greatly between patients and are influenced by the overall health, the amount of inflammation and its cause. Generally speaking, the effects of cortisone can last from several days to several months. It is the hope that in this time, the body will have repaired enough to relieve symptoms once the cortisone has worn off. However, for many of our patients, this is not the case, and their pain persists.
Laser, on the other hand, works by stimulating healing and repair to deliver the best long-term results. Its focus is on getting the body to efficiently repair the injury and get the affected tissues back to full strength and function. Therefore, while it may not deliver the same numbing effects as cortisone initially, it delivers the better long-term results by a mile and keeps your overall strength and health as a priority.
4. Cortisone has many potentially harmful side effects, laser has none
Cold laser therapy has no harmful side effects, with the FDA finding no red flags or adverse effects, other than just needing to avert your eyes from the infrared light of the laser. This makes it the perfect option for those that are health conscious.
Unfortunately, cortisone does come with a long list of harmful side effects. These range from weakening the tendons and cartilage in the injected area, to “cortisone flares” in 2% of patients, to infections at the injection site. Cortisone also impairs healing, encourages more scar tissue formation, inhibits growth hormone release, impairs calcium uptake in bone, to name a few.
5. Laser has shown superior results to cortisone in clinical studies
Research into various tendinopathies and conditions conclude that while cortisone provides pain-relief in the short-term, their effectiveness has not been demonstrated long-term. Laser has repeatedly shown positive clinical results and efficacy in the short, medium and long-term. It is described as a “promising and consistent treatment for tendinopathies”. It has shown to boost the effectiveness of strengthening exercises and other treatment modalities.
In our clinical experience at Sole Motion Podiatry, we find laser therapy to be superior to cortisone in producing the best long-term outcomes for our patients. Our focus is on delivering the most effective, safe and pain-free results for our patients, and laser therapy achieves all of this and more. We love the results that laser therapy achieves and have seen countless patients back on their feet and out of pain much faster than expected. We successfully manage a range of conditions including tendinopathies, ligament strains and even arthritic pain.
For more information about the laser or to book an appointment, give us a call on 1300-FX-FEET!
References:
Clin Orthop Relat Res 2008 Jul 466(7) 1539-54
Photomed Laser Surg 2014 May 15
J Pain Res 2015 8 247-52
J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 2013 Sep 9 29C 272-285
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