Tennis Elbow D.I.Y.- Help Yourself in 5 minutes

(Newswire.net — May 21, 2014) Darien, CT —  Hello from sunny Darien, CT. My name is Brian McKay. I am a chiropractor and my greatest joy is helping other people feel their best. I have found that people can help themselves if given the proper instructions. Today I want to focus on the condition known as tennis elbow.

 If you have elbow pain and play tennis it is safe to say that you have Tennis Elbow or Lateral Epicondylitis, the fancier synonym. You probably ice it after a match and more then likely you will medicate with Aleve or Advil. After all that is what they say to do on TV right? These treatments will not hurt and can offer relief. 

 The tendons in your forearm get wound tightly as the force of the raquet increases as you swing causing the tendon to wind even tighter. Like a rubber band the tendon only has so much “give”. When the elastic properties of the tendon are stretched beyond their limit you will experience pain. The more you push it the more pain you will feel.

 At this point you may be advised to rest it and in some cases consider a cortisone shot. I have a different suggestion. It comes from oriental medicine and originally it was called coining.

  Want to try it?

Get a coin, lets say a quarter and some lotion or vaseline to rub all around the painful area. Now take the quarter and start to rub it all over the lubricated area. You should start to feel a bit of pain if you are doing correctly. Do not let up. Keep going for about 4 minutes. You will want to rub above and below the pain site. You will probably find more pain spots then you originally thought.

 The tissue will become red. This is normal do not worry. You will want to stop or at the very least ease up if you start to abrade the skin. When you are done you will want to ice the area down.Take an ice cube running over the reddened skin for several minutes. 

 After the numbing effect of the ice wears off you should feel an immediate decrease in the pain and more mobility. You can repeat this in a few days. Expect less and less pain everytime you do this. It may require 8- 10 treatments.

 Now for the explanation. The tendons are covered in connective tissue called fascia. The fascia becomes thickened with overuse. The fascia which is supposed to be smooth develops what we call adhesions. They will feel like little bumps in the roadd as you scrape the coin against them. The adhesions change the way the tissue works increasing pain and friction while reducing mobility. This process is aimed at reversing the process.

 The coin irritates the adhesions and abrades them. New cells will replace the old  tissue and will function normally. It should take about 8- 10 visits to get lasting results.

 This is very similiar to what I do for my patients in my office when they seek care for Tennis Elbow. There are more things we do to treat to speed healing.

 I would make sure that the relationship between the hunerus, radius and ulna was in proper order. If there is a dys-relationship between these bones it can make matters worse.

Lastly I use Class IV Cold Laser to stimulte cellular activity fter the adhesions have been broken up.

 Cold Laser acts like photosynthesis. Photons of light are penetrated into the tissue to stimulate healing and cellular re-growth. I feel it is a valuable addition to the over all treatment of Tennis Elbow. However this is not somethiing you can do on your own.

 The self treatment outlined in this article is enough to help make a huge difference with the pain you are in. If you have any questions feel free to conact me at the numbers provided below. I hope you have this helpful as well as easy to follow.