In every part of the body where there are muscles connected to bones, the connecting tissues that join them are referred to as tendons. When something occurs that causes irritation to those tendons, the medical condition known as tendonitis can occur. It can happen for a variety of reasons and can be very painful to endure.
What Causes Tendonitis?
As we said, it can be caused by a variety of reasons but the one that happens most often is overuse. The condition has long been a part of sports medicine, because overuse of muscles during certain types of athletics can cause the tendons to become irritated. It can also happen because of an injury to a specific area, and when the injury causes pain during movement, the body will try to compensate for that pain by moving slightly off, putting more stress on the surrounding tendons and muscles than necessary and irritating the connecting tissues.
If an injury occurs to the lower back for example, the body will tend to move at a slightly different pace, so as to avoid irritating the injured area. This causes undue stress on the tendons connecting the hip and leg muscles and the tendons will become irritated by the erratic movement. Simple aging can also lead to this condition developing, due to bone pain or joint pain throughout the body.
Tendonitis Treatment
The treatment for this condition will depend primarily on what caused it to develop. The pain and swelling associated with it can be treated with anti-inflammatory medicine and analgesics but will not completely remove the pain, or accelerate the healing process for the tendons. Topical ointments that contain menthol can help, because they ease any joint pain and the menthol will increase the flow of blood to the injured tissues, accelerating the healing process.
Other treatments that may help the body begin to heal itself will involve physical therapy, or even chiropractic treatments. A pinched nerve in the back can be very painful and cause irritation to the surrounding tendons. The best way to treat that is through chiropractic manipulation of the spine, relieving the pressure on the nerve and increasing the blood flow to the affected areas. Physical therapy practices will alternate hot pack treatments to ease pain and increase blood flow with physical exercises to ease the tension within the muscles and tendons and begin to restore flexibility once more.
Other Measures That Can Be Taken
Sports injuries and repetitive motion injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome can be effectively treated by immobilizing the injured muscles and tendons until healing has begun. As a treatment for tendonitis, this can be very effective, and can improve the overall healing time because further injury is being prevented at the same time. The key to recovery from this condition, as with all injuries of this type are rest, reducing the inflammation and alleviating the pain.