Symptoms of Tennis Elbow and how to treat them.?

4 Comments

1. Tennis_Ace says:

   August 30, 2009 at

   Tennis Elbow – (lateral epicondylitis)
   Outside of Elbow – Cause & Symptoms
   The onset of pain, on the outside (lateral) of the elbow, is usually gradual with tenderness felt on or below the joint’s bony prominence. Movements such as gripping, lifting and carrying tend to be troublesome.
   Symptoms Of Tennis Elbow:
   Recurring pain on the outside of the upper forearm just below the bend of the elbow; occasionally, pain radiates down the arm toward the wrist.
   Pain caused by lifting or bending the arm or grasping even light objects such as a coffee cup.
   Difficulty extending the forearm fully (because of inflamed muscles, tendons and ligaments).
   Pain that typically lasts for 6 to 12 weeks; the discomfort can continue for as little as 3 weeks or as long as several years.
   The damage that tennis elbow incurs consists of tiny tears in a part of the tendon and in muscle coverings. After the initial injury heals, these areas often tear again, which leads to hemorrhaging and the formation of rough, granulated tissue and calcium deposits within the surrounding tissues. Collagen, a protein, leaks out from around the injured areas, causing inflammation. The resulting pressure can cut off the blood flow and pinch the radial nerve, one of the major nerves controlling muscles in the arm and hand.
   Tendons, which attach muscles to bones, do not receive the same amount of oxygen and blood that muscles do, so they heal more slowly. In fact, some cases of tennis elbow can last for years, though the inflammation usually subsides in 6 to 12 weeks.
   Many medical textbooks treat tennis elbow as a form of tendonitis, which is often the case, but if the muscles and bones of the elbow joint are also involved, then the condition is called epicondylitis. However, if you feel pain directly on the back of your elbow joint, rather than down the outside of your arm, you may have bursitis, which is caused when lubricating sacs in the joint become inflamed. If you see swelling, which is almost never a symptom of tennis elbow, you may want to investigate other possible conditions, such as arthritis, infection, gout or a tumor.
   Relief Of Tennis Elbow:
   The best way to relieve tennis elbow is to stop doing anything that irritates your arm — a simple step for the weekend tennis player, but not as easy for the manual laborer, office worker, or professional athlete.
   The most effective conventional and alternative treatments for tennis elbow have the same basic premise: Rest the arm until the pain disappears, then massage to relieve stress and tension in the muscles, and exercise to strengthen the area and prevent reinjury. If you must go back to whatever caused the problem in the first place, be sure to warm up your arm for at least 5 to 10 minutes with gentle stretching and movement before starting any activity. Take frequent breaks.
   Conventional medicine offers an assortment of treatments for tennis elbow, from drug injections to surgery, but the pain will never go away completely unless you stop stressing the joint. Re-injury is inevitable without adequate rest.
   For most mild to moderate cases of tennis elbow, aspirin or ibuprofen will help address the inflammation and the pain while you are resting the injury, and then you can follow up with exercise and massage to speed healing.
   For stubborn cases of tennis elbow your doctor may advise corticosteroid injections, which dramatically reduce inflammation, but they cannot be used long-term because of potentially damaging side effects.
   Another attractive option for many sufferers, especially those who prefer to not ingest medication orally, is the application of an appropriate and effective topical ointment. CT Cream with A.C.P. was specifically designed to reduce inflammation and does so by taking advantage of well known elements Arnica, Choline and Vitamin B6.
   If rest, anti-inflammatory medications, and a stretching routine fail to cure your tennis elbow, you may have to consider surgery, though this form of treatment is rare (fewer than 3 percent of patients). One procedure is for the tendon to be cut loose from the epicondyle, the rounded bump at the end of the bone, which eliminates stress on the tendon but renders the muscle useless. Another surgical technique involves removing so-called granulated tissue in the tendon and repairing tears.
   Even after you feel you have overcome a case of tennis elbow, be sure to continue babying your arm. Always warm up your arm for 5 to 10 minutes before starting any activity involving your elbow. And if you develop severe pain after use anyway, pack your arm in ice for 15 to 20 minutes and call your doctor.
   Prevention
   To prevent tennis elbow:
   Lift objects with your palm facing your body.
   Try strengthening exercises with hand weights. With your elbow cocked and your palm down, repeatedly bend your wrist. Stop if you feel any pain.
   Stretch relevant muscles before beginning a possibly stressful activity by grasping the top part of your fingers and gently but firmly pulling them back toward your body. Keep your arm fully extended and your palm facing outward.
   Caution! To prevent a relapse:
   Discontinue or modify the action that is causing the strain on your elbow joint. If you must continue, be sure to warm up for 10 minutes or more before any activity involving your arm, and apply ice to it afterward. Take more frequent breaks.
   Try strapping a band around your forearm just below your elbow. If the support seems to help you lift objects such as heavy books, then continue with it. Be aware that such bands can cut off circulation and impede healing, so they are best used once tennis elbow has disappeared.
   Call Your Doctor If….
   The pain persists for more than a few days; chronic inflammation of the tendons can lead to permanent disability.
   The elbow joint begins to swell; tennis elbow rarely causes swelling, so you may have another condition such as arthritis, gout, infection or even a tumor.
   HOPE YOUR FEELING BETTER VERY SOON GOOD LUCK.
2. bromothymol says:

   August 30, 2009 at

   Tennis elbow is inflammation of the joint. It’s caused by a stressful, repetitive motion on the elbow. It will be extremely painful to use the arm to do strenuous activities.
   Stop doing whatever it is that is causing the tennis elbow. If it’s from playing tennis, try changing the way you grip your racquet. The actual grip on your racquet could be too big also. You can also try adding a stabilizer to your strings.
   But first off just rest it until it’s better. Than make sure you stretch and warm up before you go back to whatever it was that is causing it. Try some aspirin too. Just make sure you let the joint heal all the way first.
3. Mikal says:

   August 30, 2009 at

   pain on the outside of your elbow (inside is called golfers elbow) – usually centered in the little hollow between the 2 large bones you can feel there. Rest and ice. After playing, and really whenever you can, take a paper cup that you filled with water and put in the freezer. Tear about an inch off the top of the cup exposing the ice, then rub that over the painful spot. Thats contact icing and it’s the most effective way to soothe the inflamation. Advil also helps, not just before playing but also in general.

   Be careful though, I tried to play through tennis elbow once and ended up off court for a year. A shot of cortisone finally got me back on the right track, but it was several years until I could play without pain killers/pain. And I was one of the lucky ones.

   Also, if you play, make sure that you are not late meeting the ball – keep everything out front. Particularly if you have a 1 handed backhand. And drop the tension on your strings and/or switch to a softer string. Natural gut helps a lot here but can be way too exspensive and becasue it costs more than syntentics and breaks much easier.

   Some people swear by accupuncture, that was the only thing that I hadn’t tried before I took the cortisone shot.

   Good luck! I hope it’s NOT tennis elbow, or at least just a mild inflamation.

   Just saw your "additonal details". The long term effects can be severe and debilatating. Think about never being able to pick up a coffe cup without severe pain in your elbow. There is no surgery that can reliably fix the problem either, mostly a 50/50 chance that it will make it even worse. Do see a docter, take it seriously, don’t be silly and think that your not vulnerable like I did.
4. Demonata says:

   August 30, 2009 at

   i dont know. play tennis often?