marylou Posted October 17, 2003 Share Posted October 17, 2003 Actually, more like stagehand's elbow. I know all the basic things about treating tendon problems, ice compression, elevation. Wondering if a brace (neoprene?) is a good idea, especially when I know it's going to be a very long or heavy work day? I'm generally anti-brace, as I am of the school that braces weaken in the long run, but on those long days I wonder if you think it might help. It's developing in my dominant hand, and I am trying to use the other one for pulling and lifting whenever possible. I'm already doing the Glucosamine thing for my arthritis, wonder if, given my line of work, there are any vits or mins that might bear consideration. TIA Courtenay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuMR Posted October 17, 2003 Share Posted October 17, 2003 Drink pineapple juice...no kidding, recent lit is showing a link between tendon health and something in pineapples! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuMR Posted October 17, 2003 Share Posted October 17, 2003 Push ME There was also an article in ScienceWeekly a month or so ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mtguide Posted October 17, 2003 Share Posted October 17, 2003 managed to nurse myself through a 5 mo.episode of tendinitis last winter.( I work as a carpenter,so it was hard to avoid using that arm;took a looong time to improve.)).Ice is essential after work in the evenings,1 lb.bag of frozen peas for 25 min.,remove,allow area to warm up on its own,repeat.I also used Glucosamine chondroitin,MSM,and Aleve(over-counter form of Naprosyn/naproxen sodium.)Pineapple juice ingredient is bromelain,and it's much more effective to take this as a supplement,you'd have to drink gallons to get the same amount contained in verified amounts in capsule form,and actually less expensive in the long run than buying cases of juice.Cross-tissue massage at site of inflammation can be very helpful for warmup prior to any use involving the affected area-BUT the very best thing you can do is to stay off of that area as much as possible until definite improvement takes hold,and that takes time.My orthopedist was accurate to estimate from 10 weeks to 5 or 6 mos. depending on your age,severity of inflammation,and how disciplined you are in helping your own recovery.Do nothing that causes pain; light,controlled usage such as ultra light resistance grip exercises 2 or 3 times a week can aid in recovery once the initial acute stage inflammation is over with;light=1 or 2 sets of 10-15 reps.And ice,ice,ice-----.Best of luck.And on this one,'no pain ,no gain'is the worst approach.Do NOT climb,lift weights,use the brake on your bike ,etc.,with that hand.No pain=Gain in this case.I can't stress strongly enough how important it is to avoid aggravating it;otherwise it can become chronic,leading to osteophytes(bone spurs)which can require pricey surgery to remove,and subsequent rehab of up to two years.I learned this the hard way ,in my late 30's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted October 17, 2003 Share Posted October 17, 2003 Bromelain is a protein. Proteins under normal circumstances cannot cross from the digestive tract to the bloodstream without first being digested. It may be that Pineapple helps tendonitis, but it is unlikely that the mechanism is it's proteolytic activity at the site of inflammation. More likely some other mechanism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bird Posted October 17, 2003 Share Posted October 17, 2003 Check out Allen Iverson's remedy. It looks cool too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courtenay Posted October 18, 2003 Share Posted October 18, 2003 MT Guide has some good points, and I'll respond to your original question about a neoprene sleeve; if it's not too tight (as in a brace, per se) it can actually help by keeping the joint warm, esp. as we're getting into colder weather. I don't see anything wrong with wearing a loose one for heat benefits, so long as you're remembering to wear it regularly during healing. As Mt Guide points out, ice will be your first line of defense against acute injuries in the first 72 hours, but after that there may be some benefit in alternating between ice and heat (I put hot tub jets on any recurring soreness spots, works like a charm) to increase blood flow and help speed healing. All depends on what you've tried and what seems to help. I know bromelain helped me when I broke my foot 5 weeks before climbing Kilimanjaro, so I swear by pineapple (juice, chunks, or dried while on a climb) for its anti-inflammatory properties. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bDubyaH Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 after suffering elbow pain bad enough to make my face pale and send me home early from a climbing trip. i decided that i needed to balance out my muscles a bit. with climbing your biceps get quite strong, while you triceps are a bit neglected (unless you are topping out on lots of boulders!) anyway i took a couple of months off climbing and just lifted tricep and chest exercises (push-ups are great) that along with the dicovery of yoga in recent years has kept the pain from returning full bore. just something to keep in mind that doesn't involve taking pills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Pineapple users -- what yer gettin' out of the stuff is Bromelain, as mentioned by Mr. Catbird. Bromelain's an enzyme that, when taken with food, helps you digest things (much like the papaya enzymes they sell for the same purpose). Taken about 30 min. before a meal or at least 2 hrs. after, though, and the enzymes go to work on inflammation and scar tissue. Catbird's got it sorta wrong, at least according to studies that've been done on the Brom', which indicate that unlike most enzymes, it CAN make it through your stomach, and get absorbed thru the small intestine, and thus gets circulated all over the place. It's also been shown to help you uptake glucosamine, which is an added bonus (in fact, it has been shown to increase blood concentration of a lot of different drugs, and you should exercise caution or talk to your doc if you're taking anything else. And on that note, it should absolutely NOT be taken in conjunction with any NSAIDS, as that can cause stomach bleeding, which is bad). Check out http://www.pdrhealth.com/index.html for more information (use the "search" function). Bottom line is the stuff works great, and unlike most NSAIDS, it doesn't screw up the healing process. DFA's been on it a few times, and is quite happy with it. Best to read up on it to get all the info on how it works and why so you can make an informed choice on which kind to buy, as it's not super obvious otherwise. As for the tennis elbow brace, by all means use it! The Doctor went through a bout with the TE a few years ago (in both elbows), and found the brace, along with some anti-inflammatories, to be very helpful. Do some pushups or other triceps exercises, too, as this is supposed to help balance out the way the tendon in question is getting pulled on, and should help to minimize recurrences in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marylou Posted October 21, 2003 Author Share Posted October 21, 2003 I strongly suspect that my tennis elbow is due to years of abuse and wear and tear. My muscles are pretty well balanced, though I am not very strong at the moment. I'm wondering if anyone else has had good results from painful massage treatments, and if so, how long did it relieve the symptoms? I get a massage roughly every three months just for maintenance. It is brutally painful, but a couple of days later I feel so much better, and have so much more flexibility I wonder why I don't get it done more often. So if lining the soft tissue fibers up in the elbows is a good fix for tennis elbow, I might be inclined to go that route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted October 21, 2003 Share Posted October 21, 2003 Do the bromelain; you won't be disappointed. 1,000 GDU, 2x/day (between meals). Tendonitis definitely feeds on itself; the more inflammation you get, the more your tendons are abrading against surrounding tissues, causing more inflammation, etc. It's a vicious cycle, and some kind of anti-inf's will help arrest that. If it's work-related, maybe you can get put on a different task for awhile? You've got a union job, right? They should be good with that (at least they were at UPS). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marylou Posted October 22, 2003 Author Share Posted October 22, 2003 I'm switching to a new NSAID for my arfritis. This may help. I've been off the other one for a month or so. Time to start the new one. Also going back on the glucosamin, doing a little compare/contrast I can see at least marginal improvement with the joints from it. I think I'll try the bromelain, it can't hurt. As far as switching tasks, well, as a stagehand, I perform so many different physical tasks in any day that it would be impossible to do a different task. If I knew of one particular motion that exacerbated the tendonitis, I could try to avoid that, but otherwise, well, we don't do light duty. There is heavy, heavier, and really really heavy. Oh, and opera. That's the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmberBuxom Posted October 22, 2003 Share Posted October 22, 2003 for arthritis try fish oil capsules. start with a pretty big dose to get things going fast. that shit works for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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