Achilles Tendon Help
Posted by veganhippie on Apr 24, 2010 · Member since May 2008 · 5810 posts
Hey guys! my dad's Achilles tendon has been hurting him for YEARS and no matter what medicine he uses, he's always in constant pain. And a lot of the medicines he tries have really weird side effects and make him seem crazy and my mom cant handle it. It's really tearing apart my family. are there any homeopathic remedies that can help ease his pain?
thanks!
I have chronic pain in my Achilles too, though likely not as bad as your dad's.
If it is tendonitis then it is particularly troublesome in the Achilles because just use of the tendon mean chronic inflammation.
He needs to knock down the inflammation so it stops feeding itself to let it heal. Here are the only things that really work. . .
Anti-inflamatories
Ice
Immobilization
Cortisone
If you can do all the first three for a few weeks that will get results. Just one time overusing the tendon or causing it pain can set you back to day one. Ice really helps but it is the last thing people try (myself included).
Cortisone is the most effective along with taking care to immobilize or pamper the tendon. A few weeks on crutches would do wonders.
Of course cortisone is not vegan.
He might try tart cherry juice which is anti-inflammatory and good for pain. It's sold in stores, but make sure it's "tart cherry juice". Curcumin which comes in pill form, but is also found in tumeric. When I had a flareup of plantar fascitis the a mixed a teaspoon of tumeric in water twice a day and it seemed to help.
I'm sure at this point the doc has tried the non-homeopathic treatment of steriods, like prednisone?
thanks guys!
tweety- im not sure exactly what he's taken. but i do know he's taken EVERYTHING. i asked him about it today and he said it's not tendinitis, it's that the little strands are popping one by one. and they cant do surgery on it until more of it pops.
He could try massaging it with tea tree oil, that helped me a lot when I had badly sprained my foot. But if he's had this pain for years I'm not sure how helpful it could be.
I've read articles about using mirrors to heal pain by fooling the mirror neurons in your brain (it's helped with inflammation in experiments so it works even if the pain doesn't seem completely mental.) Maybe you could look more into that if nothing else works.
Sounds like he needs either a new poditrist and/or a pain management doctor. No one should be in that much pain that it's making their life and the life of their family that unbearable.
Sounds like he needs either a new poditrist and/or a pain management doctor. No one should be in that much pain that it's making their life and the life of their family that unbearable.
i agree. *sigh* thanks for the support!!
what about an osteopath who does osteopathic manipulation? i don't know about all plans, but my insurance (not the best) covers DOs the same as MDs (they can be your primary care physician).
Besides taking an anti-inflammatory, he may also want to make sure his shoes aren't causing his achilles tendon pain. I know I have weird feet and certain shoes don't support me well enough which causes my achilles tendon to become inflamed. There might be some type of topical treatment that may help.-Vega Sinclair, Medical Insurance Advisor