Is Your Golfer’s Elbow Really a Pinched Nerve?
So you’re not eighteen anymore and you’re willing to live with a few aches and pains. Unfortunately, the pain in your elbow that started as an occasional ache is getting worse. Now it hurts any time you grab an object and the object you want to grab is your golf club. Any ailment that interferes with your game is immediately classified as “serious” and requires an intervention.
Maybe your first step is some home therapy. You try to do some stretches that you saw in Golfer’s Digest and pop a few Advil before your next round. Not enough, the pain persists. A visit to the GP gets you some stronger drugs and a prescription for therapy. After a few weeks of therapy, you definitely notice a difference but you still can’t go eighteen holes without that distracting ache in your arm. Now your doctor’s talking about cortisone. You’re not eager to go for injections, and with the short golf season in Alberta, you can’t afford any downtime. What else could be wrong?
Golfer’s elbow (know medically as medial epicondylitis, or medial epicondylosis, depending on who you’re talking to) is characterized by pain or tenderness over the bony attachment of the muscles at the inside of the elbow. The source of pain is linked to tiny tears near the muscle and tendon attachments to the bone. Now, if you’ve got pain on the outside of the elbow (i.e. tennis elbow) read on because the source of injury and treatments are basically the same.
Elbow pain is a common condition in golfers. There are several readily available treatments that are often very effective. Most therapists will employ a combination of rest, stretches, and anti-inflammatory medication with treatments such as Active Release, Graston manipulation, acupuncture and IMS. If you’re suffering from golfer’s elbow and haven’t gone through these therapies yet then they are a good place to start.
In most cases, the therapies mentioned above will make a significant difference. In some cases, however, you, your therapist, and your physician will be frustrated when pain persists. One source of pain that may have been overlooked involves peripheral nerve entrapment.
There are three major nerves that cross the elbow joint. All have origins in the neck and each terminates separately in the hand. As the nerves travel from the neck, around the shoulder, and across the elbow there are several spots where they can get trapped by tight muscle and tendon groups. Quite often the nerve is not compressed severely enough to cause tingling or numbness- the most obvious sign of compression. However, even light compression can cause the nerve to become irritated. The irritated nerve can result in a deep, aching sensation near the compression site. Standard treatments will not be as effective for this type of pain. In order to effectively treat this type of nerve entrapment your therapist must be specifically trained in nerve mobilization techniques. There are defined protocols for isolating nerve movement back and forth through different entrapment points. Basically, the therapist attempts to “floss” the nerve to free it from surrounding entrapments.
If you’ve had persistent elbow pain, try this simple test to see if you have nerve restrictions: Hold your arm out to your side at shoulder level. The arm should be fully extended with the wrist bent backwards and the fingers fully stretched out. While holding this position, tip your head sideways to the opposite side. If this movement creates pain or pulling near the elbow or forearm, you likely have some nerve tension through the area. Adding nerve flossing protocols to your treatment regime will likely go a long way to helping resolve your elbow pain.
By Innovative Chiropractor Dr. Chris Hankins
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Chris_Hankins
Author: Dr. Chris Hankins
Tags: Ache, Acupuncture, Advil, Ailment, Anti Inflammatory Medication, Cortisone, Elbow Pain, Elbow Tennis, Epicondylitis, Golf Season, golfer, Golfer S Elbow, golfers, Ims, Pinched Nerve, Source Of Pain, Stretches, Tendon, Tennis Elbow, Thera, Tiny Tears
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