Tennis players are not the only people who experience
the painful disorder called "tennis elbow." People with
tennis elbow, including golfers, baseball players and
even gardeners, may complain of pain due to damaged
tendons, which are the strong bands of tissue that
connect muscles to bones. Tennis elbow causes extreme
tenderness on the outer side of the elbow. Tennis
players, interestingly enough, account for less than
five percent of all reported cases of tennis elbow.
Discover Natural Tennis Elbow Remidies
Some of the symptoms of tennis elbow include pain caused
by lifting or bending the arm or grasping objects,
difficulty extending the forearm and recurring pain on
the outside of the upper forearm just below the elbow.
Your doctor may give you corticosteroid injections to
reduce inflammation, but they cannot be used long-term
due to harmful side effects. Your doctor may prescribe
an anti-inflammatory medication, such as aspirin or
ibuprofen, to alleviate the pain of tennis elbow. As a
last resort your doctor may have you wear an arm brace
or suggest surgery for your tennis elbow although it’s
rare to need surgery for tennis elbow.
If
you think you have tennis elbow, be careful about the
way you reach, twist and grip items to avoid
exacerbating your tennis elbow. In fact, you may have
developed tennis elbow after making jerky movements such
as throwing, lifting or gripping.
Doctors first identified tennis elbow more than 100
years ago. Your doctor may suggest your tennis elbow is
the result of the way you used your forearm muscles that
control your movements of the hands and wrist. When
tendons near the hand and forearm get overloaded, it may
result in tennis elbow.
Although your doctor will not be able to tell you
exactly what causes the pain associated with tennis
elbow, he or she will be able to tell you the technical
name for the elbow disorder is lateral epicondylitis.
Another term, that is not commonly used for tennis elbow
is lateral elbow pain syndrome. In short, tennis elbow
is a specific type of tendonitis.
Tendons are rope-like structures made of smooth, strong
fibers that do not stretch when pulled. Therefore,
sudden impacts can tear the fibers of the tendons
leading to tennis elbow. Without proper treatment of
your tennis elbow and adequate rest, you may end up with
scar tissue and permanently weakened tendons.
Tennis elbow can develop over time or it may occur in
one instance when too much force is exerted on the
tendons near the elbow. People who hold down jobs that
involve making forceful movements of the forearms,
wrists or fingers are at particularly high risk for
developing tennis elbow.
Some of the movements that might lead to tennis elbow
include: making quick, jerky movements to hit or throw
objects, gripping an object while moving the forearm,
rotating the forearm while bending the wrist and
rotating, gripping and bending while the arms are
extended forward.
Other movements you should avoid to prevent tennis elbow
include bending the wrist while straightening the elbow,
bending the hand back against resistance while
straightening the elbow and straightening the fingers
against resistance.
Get Rid of
Pain for Good with Tennis Elbow Home Cures
Try the following tips if you have tennis elbow:
_ Rest from the sports or activities that caused your
tennis elbow.
_ Lift objects with your palm facing your body.
_ Apply ice packs to your tennis elbow.
_ Exercise with hand weights under the guidance of a
physical therapist.
_ Avoid tasks that place excessive force, stress, or
strain on muscles of the forearm.
_ Massage to relieve stress and tension in the muscles.
_ Warm up for 10 minutes first if you have to return to
the activity that caused tennis elbow.
_ Take frequent breaks to rest elbow inflicting with
tennis elbow.
_ In the workplace, use smooth movements rather than
jerky ones and work without bending the wrist.
Finally, in order to treat your tennis elbow, you will
need to assess what workplace activities might be
causing tennis elbow. You may not need to quit your job
since oftentimes employers may make accommodations so
your tennis elbow does not become a chronic condition.
You may miss time from work because treatment for tennis
elbow may last for a few weeks or a few months depending
on the severity of your case.
Employers may want to educate themselves on how to
prevent tennis elbow to improve productivity. Employers
may use machines instead of people for repetitive work
if at all possible to prevent tennis elbow. Another
solution to prevent tennis elbow is job rotation, which
is similar to cross training exercises to get in shape.
Workers should be able to alternate between tasks that
use different muscles in their body while on the job to
decrease risk of tennis elbow.
By
having a sense of teamwork, creating a workplace to fit
the worker, designing tools and equipment to decrease
high impact tasks employers can prevent tennis elbow
while still meeting their objectives.
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