Tendonitis is described as inflammation, swelling, and irritation of a tendon. It is a painful condition that is most often felt at the tendon insertion site. Tendons are bands of fibrous material that attach muscle to the bone.
Tendonitis usually occurs in middle or old age and develops when people have used the same motion over and over again for an extended period of time. When tendonitis occurs in younger people, it is usually caused by performing the same motion very frequently over a short period of time. The most common areas which tendonitis occurs is in the tendons of the hands, tendons of the upper arm that connect with the shoulder, and the tendons that run across the top of the foot and the Achilles tendon.
Alternative medicine professionals offer tendonitis pain sufferers the option of natural pain management and relief therapies without the risk of surgery and pharmaceutical approaches. Besides being more conservative than the medical establishments methods of tendonitis pain relief, they are just as effective, (sometimes more so).
A disadvantage of using medications for tendonitis pain relief and management is the risk of addiction over an extended period of time. Medications are unable to cure tendonitis pain and are prescribed for the management of inflammation, muscle spasms, nerve pain, and the side effects which may include insomnia. Continuous use of pain medications can not only lead to addiction, but are also known to lead to serious problems to the digestive system and liver damage.
On occasion, a corticosteroid is injected directly into the affected area of tendonitis pain. This therapy should only be administered once or twice a year due to the high risk of serious side effects. Conventional medical treatments may help relieve the symptoms of tendonitis, but they do not address the root of the problem. By encouraging the natural healing process of the body, including inflammation, as natural medicine treatments do, pain associated with tendonitis may be alleviated permanently.
The typical treatment for tendonitis, such as rotator cuff tendonitis, knee tendonitis, or patellar tendonitis, includes ice, rest, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cortisone injections, and physical therapy.
There are several problems with these approaches as they do nothing to help strengthen the weakened tendon and therefore, do not alleviate the chronic pain that people with tendonitis experience.
While ice, anti-inflammatory drugs, and cortisone shots have been shown to produce short term pain relief, they also result on long term loss of function and more chronic pain by actually inhibiting the healing process of soft issues. In addition, the long term use of these drugs can lead to other sources of chronic pain, and allergies.
Other modern medical treatment options include cryotherapy and massage.
When all else fails, patients who experience tendonitis may be referred to a surgeon. However, surgery can make the problem worse. Surgeons use x-ray technology as a diagnostic tool, which does not always diagnose the pain source properly. This may mean incorrect surgery being used.
