How To Get Rid Of Shin Splints

I'm here today to talk to you about shin splints and how to get rid of them. There are two types of shin splints, although symptom-wise they feel about the same, they culminate in sharp, shooting pain, intermittent, occurring in the shin area.

The first type of shin splint is where you get a feeling of pain more towards the inner side of your shin, in the front and that can be caused by one of your shin muscles getting inflamed and the connection between that muscle and the lining of the bone next to that muscle gets inflamed as well and that gives you the pain. The things that can cause it, usually, are ill fitting shoes, running on hard surfaces too much or running on camber or running on different types of surfaces such as track and then concrete. Also, inherited inpointing of the toes when you're running, so those are things that can predispose to it.

Initially, you start getting pain just after running, then you start getting pain during running and then you can even start getting pain even going up and down stairs. The main thing is when you get that pain, rest, ice, compression, elevation and anti-inflammatories to reduce that inflammation, so something like ibuprofen tablets or diclofenac tablets prescribed by a GP or you can, if it's very mild, you can use lotion versions of the ibuprofen and the diclofenac as well. You can also use MSM aloe vera anti-inflammatory gel which is a more natural anti-inflammatory, you can just put on as much as you like and there's no side effects and Forever does a good version of that.

And then, once the pain subsides, then you need to look out why you got the shin splint in the first place so if it's because of inpointing of the toes, then if you go to the podiatrist, they can give you orthotics to try and realign the position of the feet when you're running. The second type of shin splint is more towards the outer side of your shin area and you get that from hill running, from wearing shoes that are too loose for you. When you get the pain, it's because you get an inflammation of the shin muscle on the outside of your shin and that basically expands and there's just sheets around that muscle and that reduces the blood supply to that muscle.

That causes even more expansion of the muscle and that makes the pain worse. That's a slightly more serious version of shin splint where you do have to stop what you're doing and again, it's rest, ice, compression, elevation and anti-inflammatories, but when it's very severe, it can actually cause a lot of problems with the blood supply and you might need surgery to relieve that pressure. I hope that's been useful in helping you prevent and to minimize the symptoms from shin splints and thank you for listening.