Elbow Pain Treatment

Elbow pain treatment at Chiropractic Health and Wellness Clinic provides relief from conditions like tennis elbow without the dubious use of steroid injections.

The holistic approach to elbow therapy adopted by Dr David Liew is aimed not solely at pain relief but preventing a recurrence of the problem.

For many years, severe elbow pain was routinely treated with injections of the steroid cortisone, a powerful anti-inflammatory.

However, clinical evidence now indicates that cortisone injections can cause significant long-term damage to tendon tissue and cells.

Problems like tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow can be frustrating as well as painful, making even simple jobs extremely difficult.

Tennis and golfer’s elbow

Tennis elbow

Elbow pain is often due to tennis elbow, which affects one-third of people at some point in their lives.

Tennis elbow, which results in pain on the outer sides of the elbow, is medically known as lateral epicondylitis. It’s also referred to as tendonitis, because tendons swell and become painful after trauma.

Contrary to the condition’s popular name, you can get tennis elbow without ever picking up a racquet.

Tennis elbow can develop through any activity that puts repeated stress on the joint. It frequently happens after strenuous use of tendons and muscles in the forearm, near the elbow joint.

Thus, you can get tennis elbow from activities such as gardening or carpentry.

Symptoms indicating that tennis elbow treatment may be required include:

• Pain in the forearm, just beneath the bend of the elbow.
• Difficulty bending or lifting your arm.
• Problems with gripping small objects like a pen.
• Difficulty twisting your forearm, such as turning a door handle or opening a jar.
• Pain when you fully extend your arm.

Golfer’s elbow

Golfer’s elbow is less common than tennis elbow.

Just as you don’t have to play tennis to get tennis elbow, you can develop golfer’s elbow without ever touching a golf club.

Golfer’s elbow is technically known as medial epicondylitis, a condition caused by constant tight gripping or repeated bending of the wrist. These activities result in tendons of the forearm muscles attaching to the elbow bone.

Symptoms of golfer’s elbow include:

• Soreness on the inner side of the elbow, sometimes extending to the forearm.
• Stiffness of the elbow.
• Weakness in the wrists and hands.
• Tingling or numbness that can spread to the fingers.

Natural golfer’s and tennis elbow pain treatments

Without treatment, pain from golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow can continue for several months or even longer. This is because tendons heal slowly, making it difficult to do basic everyday tasks such as turning a key in a door.

People with elbow pain who want to avoid potentially harmful steroids are increasingly turning to alternative forms of treatment.

Natural, drug-free solutions for elbow pain relief include:

• Ice treatment
• Rest
• Exercise programmes
• Massage
• Myofascial release
• Joint manipulation

Chiropractic techniques for elbow pain relief

Dr David Liew’s chiropractic treatments for elbow pain include:

• Myofascial release. This takes the form of therapeutic massage to ease pain and restore mobility of the elbow. It uses gentle pressure with sustained strokes to separate layers of fascia – connective tissue – that have adhered to surrounding tissue. These strokes are applied in the same direction as the muscle fibre to help the muscle achieve its full range of motion.
• Trigger point therapy. Elbow pain can stem from trigger points – tight bands of muscle tissue. Trigger point therapy eases pain and restores muscles to full function with the use of special massage techniques, manual compression, and stretching.