Originally posted by cyberdoc:
Tennis elbow is an inflammatory condition. Stress causes micro-tears at the junction between the muscle and bone.
That is an accurate description of tennis elbow. Despite it being an inflammatory condition, it is also one that will not go away if the injury causing it persists.
Ibuprofen is not only a pain reliever it is also an ANTI-INFLAMMATORY agent. So if you reduce the abnormal inflammation it not only reduces pain but aids in your bodies attempt to heal.
But, of course, you and I both know what really happens. Patient takes ibuprofen, feels less pain, and works as hard if not harder than they did before. This causes increased stress to the joint which results in worse pain, more ibuprofen, etc etc. Most patients will not stop the activity causing the injury in the first place, and so the anti-inflammatory aspect of ibuprofen is minimized. If you were to stop/limit the activity and take ibuprofen if necessary, then that's one thing, but to mask the pain so you can keep doing the activity causing the pain is only going to make it worse.
But if nothing else works, surgery has a GREAT success rate (95% excellent results in the medical literature). And surgical techniques improve every year.
I guess the folks I've talked to have all been on the short end of the stick, then. I suppose the results of studies could be skewed by when the post-op follow-up was conducted. A lot of patients experience good results at first, maybe even for a couple years, but then the complaints start up again. Of course, your typical MD won't say that there are alternatives to the standard medical procedures, too, but I guess one comments on what they have experience with.
Thanks for the input...of course, we both are assuming that this is tennis elbow, which is quite a stretch (no pun intended) since neither of us have examined the guy!
Anyway, my advice is always to go from least invasive to most invasive. Also, I'll reiterate my original point: if you are going to take the ibuprofen so that it reduces your pain and you can continue to work (in other words, puch that elbow past its limit), then you are doing yourself a big disservice. The best way to get rid of an overuse injury like yours is to limit the activity as much as possible. Otherwise you may eventually find yourself unable to make knives or do much else with that elbow. It's tough to do when it's your hobby or way of life, but also your tools may be set up all wrong and a lot of the problem could be corrected with an ergonomic setup. Just my 2 cents.
Steve Agocs
Doctor of Chiropractic
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Steve Agocs, D.C.
http://www.geocities.com/Chiro75/frames.html
agocs_s@hotmail.com
