If you are experiencing chronic pain in your elbow that is making it difficult for you to attend to your duties, you might be suffering from a tennis elbow. This condition causes swelling of the tendons, leading to pain in your elbow and arm. Tennis elbow can heal on its own. All you need to do is give your elbow a break. Of course, there are a couple of things that you can do to speed up the healing process. Here are some of the best ways that can help:
Tennis elbow has little or nothing to do with playing tennis. Any repetitive gripping activity that involves the use of the thumb and the first two fingers can cause tennis elbow. Although it can pop up at any age, it is very common with people who are in their 40s.
Causes of Tennis Elbow
Tennis elbow doesn’t happen overnight. It develops due to repetitive motions over time. For instance, if you grip your racket while swinging, it can cause too much stress on your tendons and strain your muscles. With constant tugging, you can even experience microscopic tears in your tissues. Tennis elbow is often very common with people who participate in tennis, squash, racquetball, weight lifting, and fencing. It can affect you if you have a job or hobby that involves gripping or repetitive arm movements, as in carpentry, typing, raking, painting, or knitting.
You can find many chiropractors who can treat tennis elbow in Rockville. You may select any depending on factors such as experience, price, reliability, and locality. Nevertheless, it is important that you recognize the symptoms first.
Symptoms of Tennis Elbow
Any pain or tenderness in the knob outside your elbow can indicate a tennis elbow. This is the knob that connects your injured tendons to your bone. You might experience pain radiating into your upper or lower arm. If the condition is severe you might find it difficult to do anything using your hands. You will experience maximum pain with your tennis elbow, when you lift something, raise your hand, straighten your wrist, shake hands, open a door, make a fist, or grip an object. While tennis elbow affects the tendons on the outside of your elbow, there is a condition called golfer’s elbow that affects the tendons on the inside of your elbow.
A thorough examination may be necessary to diagnose a tennis elbow. Your doctor might ask you to flex your wrist, elbow, and arm, to find out where it hurts. He might also order a few imaging tests including MRI and an X-ray, to rule out any other problems associated with tennis elbow. Make sure you consult the right specialist and take the right steps to alleviate the pain caused due to tennis elbow.
