Also called tendonitis, tendinitis is an irritation and inflammation of the thick fibrous cords attaching a muscle to the bone. These thick fibrous cords are known as tendons. When you have tendinitis Portland, you will experience pain, discomfort, and tenderness adjacent to your joint. Although the condition can attack almost any tendon, it is more common in tendons found in your elbows, wrists, shoulders, heels, and knees.
The tendinitis symptoms are often visible where a tendon is attached to a bone. Symptoms of tendinitis may include mild inflammation, tenderness, and a dull ache when moving the affected limb or joint.
Consult your doctor immediately if tendinitis symptoms do not disappear or become less pronounced within a couple of days.
Subsequently, below are a few things you need to know about tendonitis.
Causes of tendinitis
An injury or trauma can cause tendinitis. But, you may also have tendinitis because you subject your joint to repeated, straining movements over a long time.
Thus, you may be susceptible to tendinitis because your job involves repetitive motions and forced movements that strain your tendons. Activities that put you at risk of tendinitis are gardening, carpentry, tennis, golf, scrubbing, painting, and manual labor.
Other factors that put you at high risk of tendinitis may include poor posture, aging, conditions that make your muscles weaker, inadequate recovery time from injury, and performing difficult training suddenly.
For instance, some common conditions that may weaken muscles are blood disorders, gout, and Rheumatoid arthritis. Also, as you get older, the elasticity of your tendons reduces, making them prone to straining and injuries. Your tendons may easily tear if you are aged 40 and above.
Types of tendinitis
The most common tendinitis types include golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, Achilles tendinitis, jumper’s knee, swimmer’s shoulder, and De Quervain’s tenosynovitis.
For example, De Quervain’s tenosynovitis is a painful condition affecting the tendons on your wrist’s thumb. On the other hand, a golfer’s elbow is a condition involving sore tendons on the inner side of your elbow.
Tendinitis treatment
You can treat the condition yourself by resting and avoiding certain activities that aggravate tendonitis, applying an ice pack to the affected area, and compressing the area with tendonitis using an elastic bandage.
If the first-line treatments do not provide relief against tendinitis within a few weeks, your doctor may recommend advanced treatment solutions such as physical therapy, steroid injections, and surgery.
Other potential treatments include platelet-rich plasma injections (PRP) and shockwave therapy. PRP therapy can be a solution for treating damaged tendons because it often stimulates the growth of new blood vessels, increases tendon cell proliferation, and reduces scarring and inflammation.
Although it is rare, you may need surgery if you have a completely torn tendon, which often results from not getting early treatment for tendinitis.
Prevention of tendinitis
You can prevent tendinitis by maintaining a good posture, avoiding too much stress on your tendons, gradually building up your activity or exercise level, wearing supportive shoes during exercises, and taking regular breaks from straining motions.
Contact Sports Health Northwest, Inc today to schedule an appointment with a tendinitis specialist.