Getting Past Elbow Pain

Vancouver Holistic Health - Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Is elbow pain keeping you from working comfortably everyday or engaging in your favourite activities like golf, tennis or gardening?

If you spend too much time working on your computer, using hand tools like hammers or wrenches, gardening, playing musical instruments, or numerous other activities, you may end up with a painful case of epicondylitis.  That’s the medical term for pain that radiates from the outside or inside of your elbow into your forearm and wrist. Other key symptoms include:

• Pain when you touch the inside/outside of your elbow
• Pain when you extend your wrist
• A weak or painful grip when shaking hands or turning a doorknob

Tips for Preventing Elbow Pain

If you have Tennis Elbow, the pain is felt on the outside of the elbow, whereas Golfer’s Elbow is felt on the inside. These conditions can be prevented by doing the following:

1. Avoid repetitive stress to the forearm
2. Strengthen weaker muscles with a hand weight by flexing and extending your wrists. Let the weight down slowly after extending your wrist.
3. Keep your wrist straight during any lifting activity. Let the bigger, more powerful muscles of your upper arm do more of the work than your smaller forearm muscles do.
4. Warm up properly. Gently stretch the forearm muscles at your wrist before and after use.
5. Use ice to reduce inflammation in the area and to provide relief

The RICE method is a good place to start and something that you can do at home or at work.

• Rest your elbow as much as you can without avoiding all activity
• Ice is beneficial not only for prevention, but for treatment as well
• Compression wraps may be purchased at many pharmacies and home health care stores.
• Elevate your arm whenever possible.  Keep your elbow above heart level to help reduce inflammation.

Treating Elbow Pain with Laser Therapy

Laser therapy is an excellent treatment for Tennis and Golfer’s Elbow. It kick starts healing by providing more energy to the cells. Rather than suppressing inflammation, it speeds the body through the inflammation stage, allowing important growth factors to be secreted. Laser therapy encourages the growth of normal, healthy tissue rather than inferior scar tissue that complicates the healing process. Usually, the sooner you start laser therapy, the fewer treatments you’ll need.

If you're interested in learning more about how laser therapy treatment, contact us to book an appointment today!

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