Elbow Tendonitis

Are you positive it is tendonitis? If indeed it is:

- nitroglycerin cream/patches can be applied
- Since you have tried resting you can start extremely light and work your way back up
- physical therapy w/ shockwave/ultrasound therapy
- stretching
- short duration icing
- prolotherapy
- platelet rich plasma
- deep tissue massage
- active release therapy
- some people say cissus quadrangularis is helpful

No sure thing treatment for tendonitis

 

I have the exact same problem with my left elbow.

I got such great relief with cold laser therapy from my chiropractor that I bought my own device and use it regularly for the elbow and any other inflammatory problem I get. It literally keeps me pain free.

 

Could you direct me to such a device? I have read about them in the past but I can't find any good ones online. I heard you can bulid your own relatively cheap (if you know what you are doing).

 

I know exactly what you are talking about.I had that shut me down for over 1 year.To answer some of your questions : If you continue to do any exercise that hurts it you WILL prolong the recovery.And yes it can get worse.What I did was find out which exercise hurt it and stopped that exercise for a long period of time.Brain crushers are how I destroyed mine,reverse bi curls also hurt them.In short "If it hurts dont do it".Concentrate on other body parts.I also got several cortisone injects into the inflamed areas..this just masked the pain and prolonged the recovery.

 

Yeah cortisone shots into tendons are a bad idea, as corticosteroids further deteriorate tendons.

 

EBay, look for Soft,Cold Low Level Laser Therapy, 80mW+80mW Red & IR sold by a guy named hedlab. I take about 10 minutes to treat the elbow or other problem area. He sells a really high quality laser, it's a little on the lower power side so it takes longer than the much more powerful one my chiropractor uses.

 

Can you explain how you use it? How long did it take to heal your tendonitis?

Thank you so much for the ebay description..I have been looking for one of these.

 

A more typical tendonitis in the elbow is usually on the outside. What you have is probably worse from guys I have seen. The last person I knew with it could not cure it without surgery. Glucos is worthless... You can try muscle relaxr's for a couple of weeks, or better yet, Baclofen which will have minimal sides. Those really need to be rested...

But your question was "if you start lifting"... So then you did not injure it lifting weights.?? I would say you could prob do many weight lifting exercises that would help and not hurt (bench for example). This kind of secondary action may actually help. Bi/tri exercises may be out. You can tell warming up which ones will work....

 

bump. Super interested in the efficacy of this device.

 

How often do you use this?

 

I am impatient as fuck and just ordered one. We'll see how well it works. I plan on using it 10 minutes per day, 3 times per day, on the effected areas.

I plan on also using my GF as a tester as she always has sore shoulders.

 

Sounds like quackery to me.

 

Sounds like it, but it is not:

A randomised, placebo controlled trial of low leve... [Br J Sports Med. 2006] - PubMed result

Low power laser therapy of shoulder tendonitis. [Scand J Rheumatol. 1989] - PubMed result

A study of the effects of lasering on chronic bowe... [Lasers Surg Med. 1983] - PubMed result

 

It's not quackery, at least not for me!

Sorry for being away a couple of days and not answering your questions. Good to see you bought one anyway. I always leave it set to both laser diodes "on".

Here's what I do: I hold it tightly against my skin and move it around various points on my elbow every 10-15 seconds or so and keep doing that for about 10 minutes. It works best if you do it every day too. I felt the beneficial effects almost immediately. It only took a couple of weeks to basically resolve the tendonitis. I'm still susceptible to inflammation in that elbow, especially after I finish my free weight workouts, so I try to always laze that elbow again after each workout to keep it from flaring up. I've been doing that for nearly a year now and it's been working great.

Here's a real life story of how effective cold laser therapy is on me. A couple of months ago my chiropractor basically induced a small muscle tear in the middle of my back that hurt like hell when it happened. Basically, she was adjusting my spine and I resisted the motion since I felt I was about to roll off the table. I'm familiar with this kind of injury since my weight training has caused similar injuries. The normal cycle of healing is about 3 days of really sharp pain followed by a dull ache which slowly fades over 2 weeks as long as I stay careful and don't re-aggravate it while it's healing. This time, she gave me a free cold laser treatment over that area of my injury, apologized profusely for the injury but it was okay as it was just an accident. I wasn't upset with her just regretful it happened. Later that evening I noticed the sharp pain had dulled significantly as if it had been healing for 3 days or so. The next morning when I woke up I noticed it didn't hurt at all! Okay, if I flexed the muscles in my back just the wrong way i could feel some pain. I went to work and forgot about it. By the time i got home I was unable to cause any pain no matter how I flexed and I performed a free weight workout with no pain or twinges at all. It sure seemed like I healed in one day!

 

Yeah, I am excited to give it a shot. Not expecting miracles, but if it helps even a little bi tit will be a good tool to add to my arsenal. How long have you had yours? I am just hoping it is not a POS that breaks in 2 weeks.

 

chiropractor = quack
laser therapy = quack quack

But if you're convinced it works and you feel better, go ahead. Sugar pills work for a lot of people too.

 

Did you even look at some of the studies I posted? There are many more out there, but you can find them for yourselves.

Also, I agree with you that some chiros are quacks, but alot of them nowadays focus on stretching and active release techniques, which can be very helpful.

 

I'm actually an electronics design engineer in real life, so I largely disassembled the laser after I received it and verified both laser diodes were working correctly. It is custom/hand made but to near-industrial grade quality with proper solder techniques, right sizing of conductors, staking of parts, and thermal epoxy potting of the laser diodes so that they can be run continuously without any periodic thermal cool down required. I even sent Hedlab an email congratulating him on the build quality. I tend to agree with his claim that to buy a unit like this on the open commercial market would cost nearly $1,000.

I expect it to last many years, barring any unfortunate "infant mortality" faults of the components. I don't know if Hedlab does any burn-in testing of the lasers to shake out any infant mortality faults prior to shipping the units. I've had mine about 10 months now.

Quack Quack? Well maybe so but if the power of my mind can heal a small muscle tear in a day then I'm willing to walk and talk like a duck!

Cubbieblue, please post back in a couple of weeks after you start the laser therapy and let us know what results you're getting.

 

Please keep us posted on the use of this machine.