What Does the Research Actually Say?

How to read shockwave research without getting misled

• Check the device class. Focused shockwave and radial pressure waves are physically different treatments, and reviews warn against pooling them.
• Check the diagnosis. Results for chronic plantar heel pain say nothing about a knee, and results in professional athletes may not transfer to recreational activity.
• Check what else the patients did. In several positive tendon trials, shockwave was added to an exercise program — the comparison was loading versus loading plus shockwave.
• Check the follow-up length. Many trials report 12 weeks to four months, which tells you little about a year later.
• Be wary of device-specific claims without device-specific sources. Those belong to the manufacturer's documentation, not to a clinic's marketing page.

What we exclude from this library

• Fabricated or unverifiable citations
• Marketing material presented as research
• Studies summarized without their limitations
• Claims about specific devices that we cannot source

Categories are distinguished deliberately: published research, manufacturer information, FDA and regulatory documentation, clinic information, verified ChiropracticResults outcomes, and general educational content are not the same thing and are not presented as such.