My goal in practice is to educate and inform people about many different conditions that can be treated without drugs and surgery. So I have decided to take one condition a month and explore it this month we are studying Tendinitis. Tendinitis is a condition that effects people from little league to golf to the factory to the gardener and everyone in between. It is a basic inflammatory process that effects the tendons of most commonly the shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, ankle and knee. This condition can be debilitating if let go and can cause serious loss of function in the joint.
The condition can be caused by repetitive stress to a specific joint and tendon. You may have heard the condition Golfer elbow and Tennis elbow a condition closely associated with tendinitis. We offer treatments that help your body reduce inflammation and restore function to the specific joint that is effected. I am going to discuss the process by which we treat the condition and what each treatment offers in the healing process.
1. Chiropractic care - chiropractic can and is done on any joint in the body not just the spine. Chiropractic care in the extremities is done for the sole purpose of realigning the joint so that it functions more efficiently ultimately reducing stress to the surrounding structures ie. Tendons.
2. Cold Laser - also called Low Level laser therapy is a process of using light to quickly and effectively heal the tissue in many cases 300 x faster than it would naturally. It works by stimulating the mitochondria of the cell which is the energy producer of the cell thus allowing more energy for healing.
3. TENS - this process uses a machine that stimulates the muscle of the affected tendon to relax the muscle and pump out the inflammation in the tendon. allowing for reduced pain and increased healing.
4. Ultrasound - this is a therapeutic ultrasound and not to be confused with the type of ultrasound used on pregnant women. This type reduces inflammation and causes a healing process to occur by stimulating blood flow to the area.
5. Nutrition - this is that old saying you are what you eat. If you eat crap you feel like crap. The western diet is full of foods that promote inflammation. The short of it is change your diet. There are also supplements that can help reduce the inflammation process these need to be specific for the patient so a consult in the office needs to be done. This consultation can be done the same day as the adjustment.
6. Kineseotape - This is a taping procedure that can be done to the joint which decreases inflammation by promotion lymph drainage and reducing muscle spasms. The process is done about every 7 days and usually only needs to be done 2-3 times.
I just presented a few of the most common non-surgical and non-prescription based protocols for reducing the pain and inflammation in the tendon. Remember that all these procedures listed above involve your own body's ability to heal which means everyone responds a little differently and the results are not immediate, but what you do get is no adverse side effects from drugs, no adhesions from surgery, and the assurance that when symptoms are reduced you truly have healed the condition and not just treated a symptom. Until next time.... Your partner in health.. Dr. Nathan
