Can Chiropractic Care Help with Tendonitis?
When you experience pain from tendonitis, even the simplest activities can become a serious burden! Lifting objects, getting up from your chair, and sometimes even walking in general can aggravate your affected tendons. If you’re feeling desperate and traditional solutions just aren’t working, stick with us! Chiropractic care may be the solution you’ve been looking for.
What is Tendonitis?
Tendonitis is caused when tendons (the thick cords that join your muscles to your bones) become irritated or inflamed. This is often a result of injury but sometimes can seemingly happen out of “nowhere”. Did you know that any tendon can develop tendonitis? Although this is true, more often than not, tendonitis occurs in the shoulders, elbows, heels and wrists.
Common tendonitis injuries include:
- Jumpers Knee
- Golfer’s Elbow
- Swimmer’s Shoulder
- Pitcher’s shoulder
- Tennis Elbow
What are the Symptoms of Tendonitis?
- Tenderness in the affected joint making movement difficult
- Concentrated dull aches around the inflamed joint
- Swelling
Common Causes of Tendinitis
Tendinitis can be caused by a severe injury but is often caused by repetitive movement or overuse. This is why many athletes, especially (golfers, tennis players, and baseball players) experience tendinitis due to the repetitive movements involved in their sport. Other causes include aging and disease such as arthritis.
Those that work jobs that require physical exertion and repetitive movements are also at a higher risk of developing tendinitis.
It’s important to seek treatment for tendonitis immediately as prolonged treatment can lead to a tendon rupture!
Prevention
There are many things you can do to prevent tendonitis. Some include:
- Stretching—make sure that you are stretching daily, especially after physical activity. Stretching can help minimize the impact of exercising and repetitive movement on your joints.
- Preparing your body—it’s so important to warm up and cool down before and after physical activity. Additionally, strength training will help your muscles get stronger and help prepare them for any stress they may endure.
- Avoid overuse—try not to stay in the same position for too long and take frequent breaks.
- Prioritize cross training—if you do a movement often make sure that you strengthen the area in different ways with proper strength and functional training.
- Use proper form—always ensure that you perform any movement and look for better ways to enhance your technique.
How Chiropractic Care Can Help
If you’re looking for tendonitis relief options, have your tendonitis checked by a chiropractor! Chiropractic adjustments can help with tendonitis as tendon problems can be caused by joint dysfunction and even spinal misalignments. How? Joints are able to move because of the innervation that they get from the spine. It is, after all, the neuro-musculoskelettal system. If a spinal misalignment is causing interference on nerves innervating the joint—affecting function, tendonitis and pain can result. On top of that, if the tendonitis was caused by a direct injury or repetitive motion, misalignments can worsen the condition.
Once you’ve met with your chiropractor, a customized care plan will be developed for you with the goal of dealing with the cause, not just the symptoms. Care plan lengths vary and your personalized care plan will help you heal tendonitis for good so that you can get back to doing the activities you love the most!
Chiropractic Adjustments And The Brain
Also another added benefit of chiropractic adjustment, brain scientists have determined that proper movement of the spine is extremely important for the brain and particularly for how it knows where all your body parts are in space—therefore, your joints. Brain scientists have also determined that spinal adjustments actually change the way that the cerebellum (the part of the brain responsible for tasks such as walking, reading, and writing) communicates with the movement centres in the brain.
Even if you are not in pain, if your spine is not working well, this can impact the way your brain, including the way your cerebellum perceives how you are sitting or standing and where your arms and legs are and how they move. Your spinal function can also impact how coordinated you are and how well and how accurately you move your body. One more reason to seek help from a chiropractor, for better brain-body communication.
Schedule an appointment today!
General References
- Lelic D, Niazi IK, Holt K, et al. Manipulation of Dysfunctional Spinal Joints Affects Sensorimotor Integration in the Prefrontal Cortex: A Brain Source Localization Study. Neural plasticity 2016, 2016:3704964.
- Holt KR, Haavik H, Lee AC, et al. Effectiveness of Chiropractic Care to Improve Sensorimotor Function Associated With Falls Risk in Older People: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2016.
- Haavik H, Murphy B. Subclinical neck pain and the effects of cervical manipulation on elbow joint position sense. Journal of Manipulative & Physiological Therapeutics 2011;34:88-97.
- Haavil H, Murphy B. The role of spinal manipulation in addressing disordered sensorimotor integration and altered motor control. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 2012;22(5):768-76.
- Christiansen TL, Niazi IK, Holt K, Nedergaard RW, Duehr J, Allen K, Marshall P, Türker KS, Hartvigsen J, Haavik H. The effects of a single session of spinal manipulation on strength and cortal drive in athletes. European journal of applied [hysiology. 2018 Apr 1;118(4):737-49.