2014-03-10
Tennis Elbow Prevention and Treatment
“Tennis elbow" is also known as “housewife’s elbow." The official medical name is Lateral Epicondylitis", a type of tendonitis. Tennis elbow is caused by chronic strain. It can happen when playing tennis backhand, or when women hold a child for too long and use too much forearm to do housework, which causes too much muscle load on the elbow and wrist joints, resulting in muscle fatigue.
The wrist extension muscles are connected to the elbow joints. When the wrist joints are moved excessively or improperly, the force of the elbow muscles will increase and exceed the pressure that can withstand the elbow pain.
Treatment
In the acute phase, ice should be used to relieve pain. Do not use hot compress or some hot ointment (such as Deep Heat) to relieve pain, because these ointments will increase the inflammation, and trigger more pain.
The chiropractor will do some electrotherapy and ultrasound for the patient to reduce inflammation and pain, and will also do some elbow mobilization to relieve the patient’s affected area.
Tennis elbow prevention
Do more exercises to train the muscles and flexibility of the elbow.