From serious sports injuries causing tissue damage to bone issues and stiffness that comes with age, living with pain is, well, a pain. But it's more than that - it's a stressful, often upsetting way to get through your day, month, and year. Have you ever tried to get out of bed with sore, stiff knees? Most folks would rather just get back in bed. Think you might try exercising with plantar fasciitis? Don't plan on running far or doing cardio for very long. Torn rotator cuff? Without proper treatment, your life might not ever be the same.
Living with pain and the inevitable issues that come with age can seriously affect your wellbeing and happiness. Sure, you could wake up every morning and rely on addicting medications to help you move. Or, you could risk further injury and damage with invasive surgeries that require long periods of recovery and downtime. But those can't be the only two options for treatment, can they?
Fortunately, a new, natural, non-invasive treatment for pain is revolutionizing the medical industry and transforming people's lives. It's giving athletes, average folks, and people of a certain age a reason to be hopeful. It's called Softwave therapy, and unlike many fly-by-night medications and sketchy treatments, it's backed by science and provided by Elite Healthcare Physical Medicine.
If you're barely making it through the day suffering from chronic pain, this FDA-approved drug-free treatment may be for you. Softwave therapy has already been used by thousands of people around the country living with issues like shoulder pain, knee pain, and plantar fasciitis. You could be next.
Though its popularity has only grown in recent years, Softwave therapy - also known as shockwave therapy - has been around for years. In fact, the first systematic study into the benefits of shockwave therapy took place way back in 1950. So, what is Softwave therapy?
Softwave therapy is a method of treatment that works incredibly well for mobility rehab, pain relief, and full-body recovery, usually from chronic pain or injuries. Softwave therapy uses a device emitting low-energy soundwaves that target a patient's injured area. These low-intensity waves boost blood flow and kickstart your body's natural healing processes, relieving long-term pain and helping your body to heal a wide range of injuries and conditions.
The main targets in the body include bones, tendons, and other soft tissues, which are encouraged to regenerate and repair via the shockwaves. Often, shockwave therapy is used in conjunction with other non-invasive treatments like chiropractic care, which we offer at Elite Healthcare Physical Medicine. The results are often incredible, leaving patients wondering why they never tried Softwave therapy before.
Softwave therapy works especially well for:
Better Blood Flow
Collagen Stimulation
Reducing Inflammation
Kickstarting cell growth and healing factors
Breaking down build-ups of calcium
With FDA clearance, little-to-no side effects, and quick application time, Softwave therapy is a welcome alternative for people suffering from pain. Who wants to spend weeks or months recovering from a surgery that might not even work? Likewise, who would want to become dependent on over-the-counter or, even worse, prescription pain meds? Living a life of addiction is a road nobody wants to go down.
Softwave therapy represents a revolution in non-invasive pain treatment; best of all, it's highly effective. Independent studies prove that shockwave therapy helps with pain. 65-91% of patients using shockwave therapy experienced real-deal improvements in damaged muscle and bone tissue, solving their mobility problems and drastically reducing pain. It almost sounds too good to be true, but as many patients at Elite Healthcare Physical Medicine will tell you - it isn't.
Book AppointmentSome of the most common conditions that Softwave therapy treats include:
When you get up in the morning and go to the bathroom to brush your teeth, do you notice a stabbing, sharp pain near your heel? Does the pain go away once you have a chance to walk around? If so, you could have plantar fasciitis. According to the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, this painful condition is quite common. About two million people suffer from plantar fasciitis every year, and almost 10% of all people will experience the condition at least once in their life.
This common foot issue happens when the plantar fascia - a fan-shaped tissue near your heel - gets inflamed. The plantar fascia is a thick strip of connective tissue that links your toes to your heel bone, helping to preserve the arch of your foot. When this band is strained, it causes intensely sharp pain, usually in the morning when you wake up and plant your feet on the floor.
Most folks ignore plantar fasciitis because the pain eventually goes away throughout the day. However, if left untreated, plantar fasciitis can lead to weakness and chronic pain, which may affect daily walking.
Some causes of plantar fasciitis include:
The short answer to this question is not really. Patients with plantar fasciitis will ice the affected area with little-to-no relief since they spend so much time on their feet. It's hard to rest an achy heel if you've got a job that requires you to be on your feet. Anti-inflammatory meds like Advil don't work all that well, either. They may provide temporary pain relief, but in terms of a long-term solution, taking these drugs will cause major side effects.
Book AppointmentWhen more conservative treatment options like ice and over-the-counter meds don't work, most doctors turn to ultra-expensive orthotics, steroid injections, or invasive surgery. For the average person, those options fail on all fronts, as they carry risks for side effects and may even cause the issue to worsen.
Instead of going under the knife or changing their daily routines, many people suffering from plantar fasciitis are turning to Softwave therapy for relief.
During a shockwave therapy session, our expert providers use a special probe to deliver pressure waves to inflamed tissue. These waves trigger natural healing processes causing new blood vessels to form. In turn, oxygen is supplied to the affected area, reducing inflammation and causing healthy cells to regenerate. Shockwave therapy also produces collagen, which is crucial for connective tissue health.
With just a few visits, many patients find long-term relief from plantar fasciitis without relying on strange drugs or harmful surgeries.
Living with knee pain is just miserable. From knee tendonitis to osteoarthritis, knee pain can prevent you from enjoying activities and affect your day-to-day life. Your knee is a joint comprised of cartilage, bone, ligaments, and fluids. Tendons and muscles within the knee help the joint move. When one of these crucial knee structures is hurt or compromised, it results in knee pain and long-lasting knee problems. This, in turn, leads to difficulty walking at best and debilitating knee issues at worse.
If you're an active person or somebody who plays sports often, you're probably all too familiar with knee pain - especially common conditions like patellar tendinopathy. Also called "jumpers knee," this issue happens at the patellar tendon, which is found on the front of the knee just under the knee cap. When living with this condition, most patients experience pain around the kneecap or lower down on the leg around the tibia.
In addition to injuries and issues like jumper's knee, everyday wear and tear will cause knee pain over time. With time, this knee pain can develop into arthritis. If your knees are swollen, painful, or stiff, you may have arthritis in your knees. Regardless of the kind of knee pain you're experiencing, treatment options have been limited to agonizing surgeries and addicting pain medications. But that all changes with shockwave therapy for knee pain in Charleston, SC.
Though no two knee pain problems are exactly the same, shockwave therapy has been shown to be highly effective for knee pain. In fact, many patients at Elite Healthcare Physical Medicine find relief after just one session. Many times, sessions can be completed in as little as 30 minutes. So if you want to find relief for knee pain on your lunch break, that's definitely possible.
As is the case with plantar fasciitis, Softwave therapy works by sending sound wave and low-energy impulses to the affected area of your knee. These pulses stimulate your body's healing factors, which can help regenerate and repair damaged tendons and tissues. Softwave therapy for knee pain is especially promising for people who have tried other treatments - like surgery and pain meds - with disappointing results.
Benefits include:
Several studies and reviews prove that Softwave therapy can be very beneficial for people suffering from knee pain problems like jumper's knee. A study involving 66 patients with knee pain found that they enjoyed a significant improvement in their reported pain levels with Softwave therapy. In fact, knee pain was reduced by nearly 50% after a single month. When combined with other regenerative and physical therapy treatments at Elite Healthcare Physical Medicine, your days of living with knee pain are numbered.
Book AppointmentHere's a fact for you to consider: Every joint that you have in your body plays a part in your day-to-day life. But when we think of joint issues, we typically jump to knee issues. However, your knees aren't the only joints in your body to go through wear and tear. Your shoulders experience just as much, if not more, wear and tear than your knees. We put a strain on our shoulders just about every time we use or move our arms. Our shoulders play a pivotal part in living a normal life. When they begin to deteriorate over time due to age or overuse, it creates a litany of painful problems.
There are many causes of shoulder pain, like deterioration, inflammation, and trauma. Of the many painful shoulder conditions affecting Americans yearly, rotator cuff tendonitis and arthritis are very common. Also called calcific tendinitis, rotator cuff pain is caused by built-up calcium deposits on the shoulder's tendons, which connect your rotator cuff to nearby muscles and bones. This painful condition is usually linked to sports, like basketball and volleyball, or in professions requiring repetitive movements, like in the plumbing industry.
Some common symptoms of shoulder pain and rotator cuff tendinitis include:
Though strengthening exercises and some medications provide temporary relief for shoulder pain, they're not meant as long-term solutions. Luckily, Softwave therapy for rotator cuff pain in Charleston, SC, can help.
Shockwave therapy has been shown to work wonders for shoulder pain. Low-intensity shockwaves break up calcium deposits and jumpstart your body's healing processes, stimulating blood flow and healthy cell growth. Shockwave treatment is especially effective for long-term shoulder pain since it releases stem cells, sends growth factors to the affected area, and boosts capillary production. Shockwave therapy has also been shown to break down scar tissue and eliminate trigger points, all of which decrease shoulder pain. This relief is most often long-lasting, unlike other treatments like medications and injections.
Many studies support the efficacy of Softwave therapy for shoulder conditions like rotator cuff pain and calcific tendonitis of the shoulder. In a study of 84 patients living with long-term rotator cuff tendonitis, participants in the treatment group saw a significant decrease in the intensity of their shoulder pain. Another study related to shockwave therapy for calcific tendonitis found that 86.6% of patients experienced fewer calcifications.
If you're having to live with rotator cuff pain or another type of shoulder issue, choosing Softwave therapy may be your best course of action.
Book AppointmentWhether you're sick of living with intense heel pain from plantar fasciitis, the mobility issues associated with knee pain, or the day-to-day struggles of rotator cuff degeneration, you'll find hope at Elite Healthcare Physical Medicine. Unlike some medical clinics, our team of doctors and specialists focus on an integrative, multidisciplinary approach to healing. Instead of relying on addictive medications and invasive surgeries, we prefer to address the underlying causes that our patients face.
We combine several all-natural pain relief therapies so that your shoulder pain, knee pain, joint pain, and foot pain go away for good. We resolve pain by using healing treatments that restore function and improve mobility for the long term. Our state-of-the-art regenerative medicine treatments, used hand-in-hand with proven chiropractic techniques, will stimulate your body's healing power from within. If your pain is related to muscles, nerves, and bones, our doctors can help you overcome discomfort, injury, or medical conditions affecting these systems.
If you've been unable to resolve your pain or have become dependent on painkillers to cope, Softwave therapy may be the natural solution you need. It all starts with a quick call to our office, so we can begin to understand your needs. When you come for your first visit, our doctors will find the personalized treatment you need so that you can manage your pain in a non-invasive and drug-free environment manner.
Book AppointmentMOUNT PLEASANT — Downtown Charleston’s Revealed Gallery has teamed up with Mount Pleasant’s White Gallery for an upcoming rock ‘n’ roll exhibit.Scott Parsons, owner of Revealed Gallery, is one of the two artists being featured in the show, which will include portraits of famed classic rockers across a variety of media. The second participant is one of Parsons’ featured artists and friend Mauricio Sánchez Rengifo, who goes by Masáre.Both will showcase their large-scale works at W...
MOUNT PLEASANT — Downtown Charleston’s Revealed Gallery has teamed up with Mount Pleasant’s White Gallery for an upcoming rock ‘n’ roll exhibit.
Scott Parsons, owner of Revealed Gallery, is one of the two artists being featured in the show, which will include portraits of famed classic rockers across a variety of media. The second participant is one of Parsons’ featured artists and friend Mauricio Sánchez Rengifo, who goes by Masáre.
Both will showcase their large-scale works at White Gallery, 709 Coleman Blvd., for the “TripLineDrop” art show from 7-10 p.m. Aug. 25. There will be food and drink vendors, as well as music by Paul Harris, Graham Whorley and DJ Moldybrain, on-site during the show.
Parsons grew up with a brother eight years older than him who loved comic books. He experienced art from an early age and started to attempt drawing his favorite characters at age 7. In middle school, he gravitated toward graffiti and was hired for his first mural in Washington, D.C., in 1997. He moved to Charleston in 2000 and started doing murals again after a hiatus. In 2010, he transferred from spray can to brush and canvas. He also experiments with acrylic pouring.
“My subject matter isn’t easily defined,” said Parsons. “I paint images that strike me when doing figurative work. ... The pouring paintings I do are experimenting with color and are very organic. I direct the paint to a certain extent, but then it’s kind of out of my control, which is very fun for me and I hope for the viewer as well.”
Parsons said he will be bringing a “whole lot of color” to this show, as well as new pour experimentations. This is the first time he has shown at White Gallery.
Masáre studied and graduated as an architect in Colombia in 2005. He spent six months locked in his studio painting some of the works that will be on display at this exhibit, including portraits of Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin.
His portraits are created from layered textures on rigid surfaces; he uses glass, fabric, wood, beads, plastic, metal, glitter, paper, petals and more. The materials used often coalesce with the story of his subject matter.
“Any material and medium the concept of who I am painting, life and work, dictates me to use,” he said. “For instance, in the Kurt Cobain paintings, there was a shotgun. Frida Kahlo, nails; Jim Morrison, fire and soot; Amy Winehouse, wine bottles and plastic roses.”
Masáre said he loves optical illusions and rock music. So this themed show was the perfect opportunity for him.
Among featured pieces will be a reimagined “Dark Side of the Moon” cover featured 16 video laser discs; hypodermic needles embedded into one work; and paintings of David Bowie’s ascending black neon star and Gustavo Cerati’s sidereal evolution.
He has been in Charleston since February. Both Parsons and Masáre have been featured muralists at the former D.B.’s Cheesesteaks on Savannah Highway in Avondale, West Ashley. Masáre has another upcoming mural along with eight other artists in Mount Pleasant.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - An extension of a storm drainage tunnel downtown is nearing completion.Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg gave an update on the Ehrhardt Street Project, Thursday morning. The project is an extension of the larger Spring-Fishburne project. The project is a tunnel that collects water and directs it to the Ashley River.“Just a few months ago, we tied in all of the surface collection systems, so the last piece for this addition will be the surface collection system over on Ehrhardt Street, right in th...
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - An extension of a storm drainage tunnel downtown is nearing completion.
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg gave an update on the Ehrhardt Street Project, Thursday morning. The project is an extension of the larger Spring-Fishburne project. The project is a tunnel that collects water and directs it to the Ashley River.
“Just a few months ago, we tied in all of the surface collection systems, so the last piece for this addition will be the surface collection system over on Ehrhardt Street, right in the midst of the hospital district,” Tecklenburg said.
The tunnel extension was expected to cost $14 million with the other $4 million coming from the city. Tecklenburg touted the existing working portion of the tunnel as preventing flooding in commonly flood-prone areas.
“That water, when it rained heavily last night even last year, you would have had a closure of the Septima Clark Parkway just with what happened last night,” Tecklenburg said. “Guess what? The tunnel is working we didn’t have to close the parkway.”
Tecklenburg said there was one more project to be brought to city council that would add three pumps to the tunnel.
“Water will be in the whole system working and draining this part of Charleston,” he said. “It will be optimized by the final phase, which will add three pumps that will be able to pump in over a million gallons in three minutes time.
Tecklenburg said the plans for the medical district tunnel were shown to Gov. Henry McMaster during a tour of the original tunnel.
“I had the governor, and I had a little map showing that if we just extend this tunnel another few blocks, we can pick up another 35 acres of drainage basin that would serve this important part of our city,” Tecklenburg said.
McMaster was originally scheduled to attend Thursday’s tour but could not come.
South Carolina Chief Resilience Officer Benjamin Duncan said $10 million came from a mitigation grant. Duncan said the project was the highest-scoring project in their benefit-cost analysis.
“This has been the most cooperative and the most well-planned project that we’ve worked on so far even though it’s the largest,” Duncan said. “Our job is to lessen the impact of disasters or hazards to the citizens of South Carolina. This is an extremely important project that needed to happen because of the citizens that are affected in the medical district. You’re talking about workers, the economy.”
City officials have previously said one of the main goals of the project was to make sure ambulances can get to hospitals when it rains.
“That will help with the everyday and not only with our employees but help with patient access and all of the entities in the medical district,” Medical University of South Carolina Executive Vice President of Finance and Operations Rick Anderson said.
Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The local nonprofit Trident United Way is launching its Changemaker Grants program.This initiative aims to provide resources and support to local nonprofits making a difference in the community.The Changemaker Grants program will offer investments to improve and expand an organization’s mission.Trident United Way will award the grants in four cycles before June 30 of next year with a minimum pool of $100,000 dollars per cycle.Each grant cycle will have a specific focus, beginning wi...
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The local nonprofit Trident United Way is launching its Changemaker Grants program.
This initiative aims to provide resources and support to local nonprofits making a difference in the community.
The Changemaker Grants program will offer investments to improve and expand an organization’s mission.
Trident United Way will award the grants in four cycles before June 30 of next year with a minimum pool of $100,000 dollars per cycle.
Each grant cycle will have a specific focus, beginning with capacity-building grants.
This focuses on skill building for staff members, diversity and equity initiatives, leadership development, management training and strategic planning.
The total of each grant will vary based on the project and financial request from each chosen agency.
Stacy Stagliano, President of Katie’s Krops, a nonprofit that provides fresh produce to those facing food insecurities, says they will be applying for the change maker grant and shares how the nonprofit benefited from a grant earlier this year.
“This year we received a grant to host Spring Fest, which was a spring festival we held in March, and everybody got to come up to the garden and experience the garden,” Stagliano said. “We did plant giveaways. Seed giveaways. We opened our butterfly house; we gained so many new volunteers and supporters from that event.”
President and CEO of Trident United Way DJ Hampton says it all comes down to the well-being of families in the community.
“Changemaker grants will come out every quarter targeted at community needs, especially those things that are in the way of families getting ahead financially,” Hampton said. “So, the goal is to lift up families, Hampton said. This first grant is targeted at capacity building for nonprofits. What’s in the way of them financially, being able to do more of the good work we know they need to do.”
Applications will be open from Aug. 23 through Sept. 11. For Details on requirements and the application process click here.
Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.
You’re seeing The Post and Courier’s weekly real estate newsletter. Receive all the latest transactions and top development, building, and home and commercial sales news to your inbox each Saturday here.A fondue ...
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A fondue restaurant chain plans to expand into the Lowcountry.
Bob Johnston, CEO of The Melting Pot, said the Tampa, Fla.-based company is looking to add two locations in Charleston and Mount Pleasant. He cited the Palmetto State’s strong tourism industry as a key reason for the expansion plan.
The chain already has a presence in Columbia, Greenville and Myrtle Beach. It said it hopes to have 15 locations in South Carolina by 2025.
Liberty Senior Living wants to add more units to its South Bay continuing care facility, but it needs an amendment to a planned development because of Mount Pleasant’s moratorium on new multifamily buildings.
3: Number of new restaurants planning to open in the fall in an expanding Charleston-area shopping center.
65,000: Size of proposed new supermarket in a new retail development beside Freshfields Village between Kiawah and Seabrook islands.
2563: Address on Ashley River Road for a fast-food restaurant that recently turned out the lights.
+ More multifamily: A 110-unit townhome development is in the works for the Point Hope area of Charleston on the Cainhoy peninsula.
+ Doctor’s orders: A medical office building is being proposed in Point Hope.
+ Sliding sales: Charleston-area home sales slipped again in July for the 23rd consecutive month.
A social venue called Ocean Club is being proposed at the site of the former Sand Dunes Club property on Sullivan’s Island.
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A meeting this week with legislative panel overseeing the financing of a rail and cargo hub for the Port of Charleston has the State Ports Authority scrambling to adjust the project’s construction schedule.The development, called the Navy Base Intermodal Facility, was supposed to be fully completed by July 2025.Barbara Melvin, the SPA’s president and CEO, told a subcommittee of the S.C. Joint Bond Review Committee on Aug. 16 that a portion of the project won’t be finished until a year later.That didn&rs...
A meeting this week with legislative panel overseeing the financing of a rail and cargo hub for the Port of Charleston has the State Ports Authority scrambling to adjust the project’s construction schedule.
The development, called the Navy Base Intermodal Facility, was supposed to be fully completed by July 2025.
Barbara Melvin, the SPA’s president and CEO, told a subcommittee of the S.C. Joint Bond Review Committee on Aug. 16 that a portion of the project won’t be finished until a year later.
That didn’t sit well with the panel and a key senior staffer, who told Melvin to find a way to get the entire taxpayer-funded project built on time.
“Come back to us and let us know in 30 days or so whether or not you can make that commitment and, if not, give us a fully detailed explanation why you can’t,” said Rick Harmon, the committee’s director of research.
Melvin responded: “Yes sir, I’m happy to take on that challenge.”
Melvin also presented a document showing the cost has increased to $468 million, up from its original estimate of $349 million.
Taxpayers are only on the hook for the $349 million, money the General Assembly set aside from the state budget. The SPA must come up with the rest from its business operations or by borrowing.
The part of the rail yard that’s been delayed is a southern access that freight trains operated by CSX and Norfolk Southern would use to enter a building where cargo containers would be loaded onto and from rail cars. Melvin said the delay is due to “challenges of engaging with the Class 1 railroads on the southern access infrastructure.”
Norfolk Southern and CSX have long had disagreements over how their trains will access the new container transfer site, which has been in the works for more than a decade. The railroad operators did not respond to a request for comment.
Legislators gave the SPA money for the intermodal project because the maritime agency had said the lack of near-dock rail service was putting Charleston at a disadvantage to other Southeast ports, Harmon told Melvin.
“We heard your cry and the General Assembly decided to put taxpayer money ... into this project to keep the port competitive,” Harmon said, adding the money was intended to ensure the rail yard was built in a “reasonable timeframe.”
He said the state is unwilling to wait three more years for the project to be fully completed, citing the risk of inflation, a decline in cargo volume at the port and other economic uncertainties.
“I think that is unacceptable to ask the state to wait until 2026 (and) take on another three years of financial risk,” Harmon said.
“It was never envisioned that it would be ’26 before we opened and had everything fully completed and functional,” added state Sen. Nikki Setzler, chairman of the committee’s fiscal oversight group.
“Taxpayers will be without that money for that period of time,” Setzler said. “It affects economic development in this state.”
Melvin said she would meet with her staff to see if there is a way to get the southern access completed in time for the rest of the rail yard’s July 2025 opening date.
“We will work diligently to execute the (committee’s) request to shave time off the 2026 timeline for completing additional tracks to bring this in line with the July 2025 facility opening,” Melvin said in an Aug. 18 statement to The Post and Courier. “We are working alongside our rail partners to build this state-of-the-art, near-port intermodal yard, which will greatly enhance our state’s competitiveness and speed goods to market for our customers.”
The rail hub was part of a $550 million deal legislators approved to help the SPA pay for projects it otherwise could not afford. The package also included $150 million to create a barge system that would allow the SPA to transport containers by water from the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant to the two-year-old Leatherman Terminal on the Cooper River. That project is about $18.5 million under budget, Melvin said.
Another $51 million was earmarked to repay a loan from the S.C. Commerce Department to the state-owned Palmetto Railways, which had planned to build the intermodal yard before turning the project over to the ports authority.