“This Works on Knees, Shoulders, Hips, really Anywhere in the Body.”
From Shaquille O’Neal to plantar heel, Podiatrist Tony Avakian has seen a lot of foot pain patients over the years. Known in some quarters as the “Foot Doctor to the Stars,” Dr. Avakian says he’s doing a couple of cutting-edge treatments right now that could be commonplace in the near future for people suffering from different kinds of pain.
The first kind of treatment is platelet injections. You may have heard of well-known athletes like Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods using them to address their knee issues. Platelet injections is a process where they take a sample of your blood, separate the plasma from the platelets -- which are basically immature cells -- and then inject the platelets into areas of chronic pain.
“Then the immature cells form into the tissue and they replace the damaged tissue with brand new tissue” Dr. Avakian says. “I have probably a 95% success rate with that and I’ve used it on the feet. I’ve used it on the legs, calves. This works on knees, shoulders, hips, really anywhere in the body”.
You can see a full interview with Dr. Tony Avakian right now in this 3 part video courtesy of Pure Wave and Dr. Tony Avakian:
“I’m Really Impressed with This Product”
The second kind of treatment is good, old-fashioned massage. Dr. Avakian recommends his patients use the Pure Wave Massager to get deep into a common foot pain called Plantar Fasciitis.
“If you wake up and you take your first steps out of bed and you can feel a type of tightness, a soreness on your heel or your arch then pretty much you’re mimicking the symptoms of plantar fasciitis,” Dr. Avakian says.
He says the Pure Wave helps his patients cure Plantar Fasciitis.
“And really you don’t need to do it for a long time because the muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia on the feet are small compared to other parts of the body,” he says. “The results from using the Pure Wave is breaking down adhesions, breaking up scar tissue, increasing blood flow. I’m really impressed with this product.”
Other Recommendations from Dr. Avakian
If you can’t get your hands on a Pure Wave, Dr. Avakian suggests you use a tennis ball, golf ball or a frozen water bottle to roll on the arch of your foot to ease the pain of Plantar Fasciitis. He also says anti-inflammatories like Aleve, Advil or Motrin might help.
“Some people will come in and say, ‘Oh, I took Tylenol but it didn’t work.’ Well, Tylenol is not an anti-inflammatory. It’s just a pain-reliever,” Dr. Avakian says.
And don’t forget good shoes! Dr. Avakian recommends you invest in a good pair of running shoes like those from Asics, Brooks, Saucony or New Balance.
“And really you got to look at what foot type are you? There’s generally three different foot types,” he says. “There’s those people who pronate or flatten out. And then there’s people who are neutral so they don’t pronate and they don’t what we call supinate. And then we have the supinators who their feet are more rolled out as they walk. So you want to get something that works well with your foot type.”
Finally, Dr. Avakian says be aware of feelings in your foot called Neuromas: “And they’ll feel like this sharp shooting pain or someone’s sticking them with a needle or they feel like, ‘Hey, you know, it feels like my socks are bunched up in my shoe all the time’ or ‘I feel like I’m walking on a pebble.’” Watch full video interview above.