Are you experiencing Elbow Pain?
Golfer’s Elbow (Medial Epicondylitis)
This is referring to pain in the inside aspect of the elbow. For instance if you were to hold your arm out in front of you with your palm up, the part of your elbow that is closest to your midline.
This spot on the humerus is an attachment point for many of the forearm muscles that are associated with grip. These muscles muscles also help out with elbow flexion and wrist flexion as they cross both joints.
Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylitis)
This refers to pain in the outside aspect of the elbow. Holding your arm out in front of you with the palm up, we are talking about the part of your elbow that is more to the outside.
In this position you can’t see this part of your elbow unless you turn your palm down and bend your arm slightly. This point on the elbow is the attachment point for many of the finger and wrist extensors. These muscles also aid in straightening the elbow joint.
Both of these injuries occur from excessive gripping or use of the muscles of the forearm in general. Many carpenters, mechanics, and computer workers will experience these types of injuries over their lifetime.
Majority of the time there is more than one pathology that needs to be addressed in order to gain complete resolution of the injury.
Temporarily speaking, the pain can be reduced with the aid of a strap. Placing the strap around the forearm just below the elbow will decrease symptoms. This helps one temporarily go on with their work or activity without addressing the problem. THIS IS NOT A SOLUTION, it’s simply just a Band-Aid and allows a person to ignore their problems.
The absolute best thing to do is seek advice from a specialized Elma Chiropractor so you can get a complete and accurate diagnosis. This way, you are aware of all aspects of the injury. Then you can put together the proper treatment and rehabilitation plan to fix the issue once and for all.
CORTISONE INJECTIONS ARE THE ABSOLUTE WORST THING YOU COULD DO FOR THIS INJURY. Yes, it may reduce the pain temporarily. But, what you have done is shut off the body’s healing process. So, you now have a damaged tendon that your body is no longer healing. You on the other hand don’t feel any pain. So, you continue to go about your activity that caused the problem in the first place. Your injury in turn gets worse without your knowledge. Then you flirt with possible rupture or the pain get’s so bad you lose the ability to use that part of your body all together. This leads to no other solution buy surgery.
The research shows that at one year follow up, patients that received a cortisone injection in their elbow have a worse problem than those that did not.