This past weekend, cheered on by Royalty, over 40,000 runners took part in the London Marathon. When that many feet pound the pavement for 26.2 miles, there are bound to be some injuries among the group.
In a posting I found on Competitor, an online running community, I stumbled upon an article debating whether to treat running injuries with cortisone injections (which are generally used to treat small areas of inflammation). The school of thought in this posting seemed to be that, while cortisone shots used to be the first line of defense against runners’ injuries, people are moving away from this temporary fix towards more permanent solutions like safe training, proper rest after an injury and, of course, rehabilitation.
Notably, some painful inflammations, like plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendinitis, still may warrant a cortisone injection, if only to manage your pain level so that you can go through rehab for the condition. But, for basic overuse injuries like those incurred by marathoners and triathletes, getting a cortisone shot shouldn’t be your first move.
In my Houston podiatrist office, I share a lot of running pain solutions with my patients. I especially focus on giving you preventative treatments, like creating custom orthotics, so that you never get to the point where a cortisone shot would even be considered. If you have experienced discomfort when you run or have concerns about running injuries, come see me at Tanglewood Foot Specialists so we can come up with treatment options that work with your life.
