Adam came to the clinic complaining about tennis elbow (tendinitis in his elbow) that was extremely painful, preventing him from doing his job as a carpenter and taking care of his family–helping his wife with their newborn baby–and from doing his regular CrossFit workouts. Quite the disruption!
Using my osteopathic brain, we started looking for the root cause. No, not the elbow, but the factors contributing to this inflammation of his elbow.
The Latin word ‘inflammatio’ means the action of setting ablaze. We can recognize a pathological link to inflammation by the use of the suffix “-tis” ie. Sinusitis, colitis, arthritis, tendinitis… Those words are so commonly used nowadays it makes it sound like our body is a gigantic forest fire in California in the summer!
Inflammation is a normal reaction of the body to protect itself against infection, wounds and other similar processes in order to fight them, and to allow our tissues to heal. This emergency state progresses gradually through a complex mechanism, like a dimmer switch. When everything goes well this is a short and efficient process BUT some things can prevent the body from dimming these reactions back down after the job is done. Additionally, these same factors can cause the body keep all the lights on all the time. We call this phenomenon chronic inflammation; not only is this not energy efficient, it can actually harm the body over time.
This insidious wildfire is not due to an immune response, but to an unbalanced lifestyle, and our body is trying to tell us to take better care of ourselves.
Whereas the typical signs of inflammation are created close to the source of the problem and induce redness, swelling, heat and pain, the chronic inflammation can be imperceptible, even though the fire is spreading through the different systems of the body. Think rheumatism, some heart conditions, type II diabetes, allergies, Alzheimer’s, eczema, heart burn and stomach-aches…
Adam sure isn’t sedentary, but has been having shorter nights since the baby has arrived as well as longer days trying to relieve his wife, and missing her homemade meals. With the repetition of movement of his upper body, both at work and at the gym, what usually does not bother his elbow has now become the perfect storm to do just that.
Some people might have a hard time believing this because they think it is a tendon problem caused simply by strain and overuse, and therefore the elbow needs to be helped mechanically. But, any health care provider will always ask about the timeline leading up to these types of injuries. They will ask about what changed in your life before the injury, because the answer to this is often related to the cause.
We worked on rebalancing his whole body from head to toe, which included freeing his diaphragm, neck or upper back, connection between both shoulders, and the different joints/muscles/fascia of his right arm.
Adam’s homework involved more than just forearm stretches because the inflammation of his body was part of the problem. He had to try, in a nutshell, to get more rest and to rebalance his diet to make sure that the inconspicuous fire was not going to make its way anywhere else in his body.
Now, I would like you to think about how this raises the question of the accuracy of treatment of other illnesses in our society. Consider how we might just be able to prevent diseases from happening altogether. Remember to take care of the forest–don’t let it catch fire!
As always, you can book an Osteopathic appointment with me here.