Monday, March 30, 2009

Relief of tennis elbow ( Tennis Elbow Brace )

( Tennis Elbow Brace )

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 re-injury. 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. Wear your tennis elbow brace if possible.

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.
Some exercise may help you relief your pain. We will cover the correct arm exercise in the next post.
( Tennis Elbow Brace )

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Tennis Elbow, Golfer's Elbow and Bursitis ( Tennis Elbow Brace )

( Tennis Elbow Brace )

Before we go deeper about Tennis Elbow, let's look at the distinguishing characteristic of each of these 3 ailments in term of cause and symptoms;

Tennis Elbow(lateral epicondylitis)
- 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 te to be troublesome.

Golfer's Elbow(medial epicondylitis)
- The causes of golfers elbow are similar to tennis elbow but pain and tenderness are felt on the inside (medial) of the elbow, on or around the joint's bony prominence.

Bursitis
- Often due to excessive leaning of the joint of a direct blow or fall onto the tip of the elbow. A lump can often be seen and the elbow is painful at the back of the joint.

Here some more details symptoms related to 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
  • Pain tha typically lasts for 6 to 12 weeks ; the discomfort can continue for as little as 3 weeks or as long as several years.

Lateral epicondylitis injury may also result in weakness in movements involving the wrist. A medical doctor or therapist will usually test for tennis elbow by squeezing the elbow near the epicondyle. A second test is to provide resistance while the patient bends the wrist back.

( Tennis Elbow Brace )

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Tennis Elbow Brace - Introduction

( Tennis Elbow Brace )

Tennis Elbow, also known as lateral epicondylitisis an extremely common injury that originally got its name because it is a frequent tennis injury, appearing in a large proportion of tennis players. Nevertheless it commonly manifests in a vast proportion of people who do not play tennis at all. Lateral epicondylitis occurs most commonly in the tendon of the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle at approximately 2cm below the outer edge of the elbow joint or lateral epicondyle of the humerus bone.

Specific inflammation is rarely present in the tendon but there is an increase in pain receptors in the area making the region extremely tender.

Signs and symptoms of tennis elbow / lateral epicondylitis

* Pain about 1-2 cm down from bony area at the outside of the elbow (lateral epicondyle)
* Weakness in the wrist with difficulty doing simple tasks such as opening a door handle or shaking hands with someone.
* Pain on the outside of the elbow when the hand is bent back (extended) at the wrist against resistance.
* Pain on the outside of the elbow when trying to straighten the fingers against resistance.
* Pain when pressing (palpating) just below the lateral epicondyle on the outside of the elbow
Actually there are 2 additional strain related which always mistaken for Tennis Elbow. They are Golfer's Elbow and Bursitis. So, what are the differents? We will cover this story in the next post..
( Tennis Elbow Brace )

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