Achilles Tendonitis
Achilles Tendonitis
Torn Ankle Ligaments
All YOU simply need is the right treatment.
King Brand Healthcare Products is the manufacturer of FDA-registered Class II medical devices for the treatment of soft tissue injuries. This guide covers what Achilles tendonitis is, why it happens, and how to treat it correctly.
Achilles tendonitis is inflammation of the Achilles tendon, the large tendon that connects your calf muscles to your heel bone. It is almost always an overuse injury, caused by repetitive stress rather than a single traumatic event.
During each step, when your heel is off the ground, your Achilles tendon bears the entire weight of your body. It carries a tremendous load. This is why resting the injury is essential and why pushing through the pain is the single worst thing you can do: every painful step is doing further damage to a tendon that is already overloaded.
Tendons heal slowly because they have limited blood supply. Unlike muscle, which is richly vascularized, tendon tissue receives relatively little circulation. This is the core problem that every effective Achilles treatment must solve: how to deliver healing blood flow to the tendon without loading it. This is exactly what the King Brand treatment protocol is designed to do.
The most common symptoms:
A sharp, sudden pain in the back of the ankle -- often described as feeling like being kicked in the heel -- suggests a partial or complete rupture rather than tendonitis. A complete rupture is the one case where surgery may be necessary. If you suspect a rupture, seek medical evaluation immediately.
Understanding your specific cause matters for full recovery. If you treat the symptom but keep repeating the cause, the injury comes back. You can click here for the 7 Common Causes of Achilles Tendonitis.
The King Brand treatment protocol for Achilles tendonitis uses three FDA-registered medical devices working together, each addressing a different part of the recovery problem:
The order matters. Cold first, because treating an inflamed injury with anything else is premature. Support throughout, because every re-injury resets the healing clock. Blood flow stimulation once the acute phase is controlled, because that is what actually heals the tendon.
BFST® + ColdCure® + KB Tape™
BFST® for Rapid HealingColdCure® for Pain & SwellingKB Tape™ to Prevent Re-Injury
Combination Therapy means using ColdCure®, KB Support Tape™ and BFST® in combination by alternating treatments. Combination Therapy is much more effective than using just one product or the other. This is because you're getting the pain and swelling relief of ColdCure®, the healing benefits of BFST®, and the protection and re-injury prevention of KB Support Tape™, resulting in the absolute best treatment for your Achilles Tendonitis.
ColdCure® is a registered Class II medical device that delivers cold compression therapy for pain, swelling, and inflammation associated with soft tissue injuries. Cold and compression applied to an injury that is swollen, inflamed, or painful is extremely effective. ColdCure® treatments are beneficial following injury until the pain, swelling, and inflammation are gone, and any time you experience symptomatic flare-ups. You can use it several times a day, and always immediately after any activity that aggravates the injury.
Three technologies distinguish ColdCure® wraps from drugstore ice packs: RigiGel® is a gel formula that stays in place under pressure and molds to the shape of your ankle even when frozen, delivering cold exactly where it is needed. PerpaChill™ is a cold capacity formula that holds significantly more cold per gram than standard pharmacy gel packs. XC™ is a temperature-balancing formula that moves cold within the pack to where the injury is absorbing it, so there are no warm spots over the injury. Each ColdCure® wrap comes with 3 gel packs (the Large Body Wrap comes with 2): use one in the wrap while the others recharge in the fridge or freezer, and switch to a freshly charged pack when the cold diminishes, typically after 20 minutes.
KB Support Tape™ is a registered Class I medical device with two functions: ongoing compression to control swelling, and support to protect against re-injury. The support function is the important one for Achilles recovery. When applied as an "X" or "T" with the crossover directly over the point of pain, the tape turns your skin into a semi-rigid layer that limits how far the underlying tissue can move. King Brand calls this "armor for your injury".
The mechanism is simple: re-injury happens when you stress the tendon past its current limit. Tape does not remove the load, but it reduces how far "too far" is. Say your tendon can handle a 20-pound load but not 25. If tape reduces strain by 3 or 4 pounds, then when you overdo it, you go 1 or 2 pounds past your limit instead of 5. Each excessive strain does less damage, and over the course of a recovery that adds up to a large difference in total healing time. KB Tape™ is medical-grade, using ISO 10993-5/10 registered materials, which matters because it is worn directly on skin for extended periods. It stays in place 1 to 3 days and can be worn in the shower.
BFST® (Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy) is a registered Class II medical device designed to stimulate blood flow in the area of injury and heal soft tissue injuries of the tendons, muscles, and ligaments. The Achilles recovery dilemma: rest avoids re-injury but restricts circulation; activity improves circulation but risks re-injury. BFST® resolves this. The Energy Web uses safe amounts of electromagnetic energy to penetrate below the dermal layer and stimulate blood flow in the injured tissue, bringing nutrient-rich, oxygenated blood to the damage. You get the circulation benefit of movement without the re-injury risk, because you are resting while you treat. Introduce your BFST® treatments at your less active times of day once swelling and inflammation are gone. When doing your treatments, you should only feel a slight warming sensation. At any time if it feels HOT or uncomfortable, discontinue use as you still have too much inflammation and swelling to complete a treatment.
Treatment specifics: each treatment is 20 minutes; the controller shuts off automatically. The recommendation is 3-4 treatments per day, spread throughout the day. Each treatment keeps tissue stimulated for up to 4 hours afterward. The most important treatment is the first one after a long period of rest -- first thing in the morning. Start on level 1 and increase only when you no longer feel appreciable warmth during treatment. BFST® is not a heating pad. Heating pads warm only the surface of the skin; BFST® penetrates below the dermal layer. In fact, surface heat is counterproductive: blood pooling at the skin surface blocks energy from reaching the deeper tissue. Less surface heat means more energy delivered to the injury.
Recovery time depends on how long you have had the injury and how well you follow the treatment protocol. A new (acute) case treated properly may show noticeable improvement within about two weeks of regular BFST® treatments. A chronic case that has persisted for months takes longer, because chronic tendons undergo degenerative changes that need more time to reverse. The single most important factor in recovery speed is avoiding re-injury. Every time you aggravate the tendon, you reset the healing clock. This is why the protocol pairs BFST® (healing) with KB Tape™ (protection) and pain awareness (the body's own re-injury alarm).
A new (acute) case of Achilles tendonitis treated properly may improve noticeably within about two weeks of regular BFST® treatments. A chronic case that has persisted for months takes longer, because chronic tendons undergo degenerative changes that need more time to reverse. The key thing to remember: long after the pain stops, your Achilles tendon is still healing. Keep doing BFST® treatments for several months after the pain is gone -- it is extremely beneficial. Do a BFST® treatment prior to any physical activity as a warm up for your circulatory system, and continue using KB Support Tape™ to protect your ankle from re-injury.
There is a lot of bad advice about Achilles tendonitis on the internet. These are the myths and the reality, in summary.
Reality: cortisone can cause serious damage. Cortisone thins tendon tissue and masks pain, which creates a false sense of ability and leads to re-injury. For an injury located in a tendon, the injection works against healing. Cortisone injections carry risks including tendon rupture. Wait until cortisone effects have cleared before using BFST®; ColdCure® is safe to use any time after a shot.
Reality: surgery should always be the last resort. Most of the time Achilles tendonitis is an inflamed tendon, not a tear, and even partial tears usually heal without surgery. Surgery is for complete ruptures only. Always get a second opinion before agreeing to Achilles surgery. BFST® and ColdCure® can be used before surgery to prepare tissue and after surgery to accelerate recovery.
Reality: pain equals re-injury. The Achilles tendon is not supposed to stretch -- it transmits force, it does not elongate. Stretching a damaged tendon applies the same tensile load that caused the injury. Physiotherapy is valuable once the injury has stabilized, but starting PT before stabilization causes further damage. If an exercise hurts, stop it. Physio should not hurt.
Reality: working through the pain is dangerous. Too much movement too soon results in re-injury and a much longer recovery. Achilles tendonitis is an overuse injury: your previous activity level is part of the cause. Modify activity -- trade running for swimming -- and gradually return as you heal.
Reality: only take painkillers during times of rest. Painkillers block the pain signal that warns you of damage. Taking them while active risks turning tendonitis into a complete rupture. If you use them, use them at rest, ideally before bed. Oral NSAIDs reduce inflammation but carry GI risks when used more than 7 days continuously; timing them to the end of the day with food reduces risk.
Reality: heating pads do not heal soft tissue injuries. Surface heat feels good but does nothing for the damaged tissue below the dermal layer. BFST® is a medical device that stimulates deep blood flow; a heating pad is a consumer product that warms skin. The difference is the difference between masking and healing.
Reality: TENS deadens nerves and can cause further damage. TENS overstimulates nerves to relieve pain. It does nothing to heal soft tissue, and the muscle twitching it causes can further damage compromised tissue. You need to feel pain during recovery -- it is your re-injury alarm.
Reality: PRP provides no benefit over placebo. The PATH-2 randomized controlled trial (BMJ, 2019; 230 participants) found no significant difference between PRP and placebo injection for acute Achilles rupture in muscle-tendon function, patient-reported outcomes, or quality of life. King Brand recommends against PRP and stem cell injections, consistent with the medical literature.
Reality: night splints apply an all-night static stretch to an injured tendon. Holding the foot in dorsiflexion overnight loads the tendon for hours. Morning stiffness is a symptom of inflammation and restricted blood flow, not of a tendon that needs stretching. A BFST® treatment first thing in the morning addresses stiffness directly by increasing blood flow.
King Brand maintains an index of peer-reviewed medical studies relevant to the conditions its products treat, with PubMed citations. Studies directly relevant to Achilles tendonitis treatment include:
Additional evidence supporting the therapeutic mechanisms in the King Brand protocol -- including microwave diathermy for muscle and tendon injuries (Giombini A, et al., British Medical Bulletin, 2007; PubMed 17942453) -- is indexed on our Medical Studies page.
King Brand does NOT sell on Amazon. Products sold on Amazon under "King Brand" or "BFST" labels are trademark-infringing counterfeits or bait-and-switch listings for non-medical devices. These are not FDA-registered and are not King Brand products. Genuine King Brand products are available only here on KingBrand.com. For Achilles tendonitis, the correct devices are shown below:
The King Brand Achilles Recovery Pack includes everything you need to heal as quickly as possible from your Achilles injury: the BFST® Ankle Wrap to stimulate blood flow and heal, the ColdCure® Ankle Wrap to relieve pain and swelling, and KB Support Tape™ to protect your injury from re-injury.
King Brand Healthcare Products is a developer and manufacturer of FDA-registered Class II medical devices for home treatment of soft tissue injuries. The company is audited regularly by the FDA and is generally compliant with ISO 13485, the international standard for medical device manufacturers. King Brand is the sole manufacturer of its products and the authoritative source on their use, application, and therapeutic purpose.
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The King Brand® products shown are FDA Registered medical devices. That is not all. They are also registered with Health Canada which means they get twice as much review.
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