Pain-Free and Fit with Dr. Ric Alexander

The Cure for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

ricalexander — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:24:56 +0000

Common Treatments for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Most treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome involve physical therapy machines like ultrasound and muscle stimulation that help reduce inflammation. Stretches and exercises are also usually recommended. These treatments can temporarily reduce the inflammation and pain but do nothing to eliminate what is causing the inflammation. Sometimes, stretching the tight muscles and strengthening the opposing muscles will help take some pressure off the median nerve but the cause is still there. If this is done long enough it will eventually create other tight muscles that compensate for the problem. An illusion of being cured occurs but, as the condition worsens, the carpal tunnel syndrome usually returns. Treating the problem this way requires ongoing stretching, exercise or treatment; but as the problem progresses, more time is required to treat the symptoms and eventually these methods stop working.

Some doctors prescribe pain killers, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants and even anti-depressant drugs for carpal tunnel syndrome and numerous other problems. These also just treat the symptoms while doing nothing to eliminate the cause. Many of these drugs have negative side-effects and some (cortisone injections) may even weaken your tendons or ligaments leading to even worse problems. These doctors are attempting to mask the problem until the body uses other muscles to compensate. This sometimes works in mild cases, but as the problem progresses the body finally runs out of things to compensate with and the pain returns. At this point, some doctors tell people to train for a new job that puts less stress on the wrists and to just live with the remaining pain. Not a great option if you ask me.

Surgery for CTS usually involves cutting the flexor retinaculum in half and allowing it to heal with scar tissue in the gap. This makes the ligament longer, and the carpal tunnel larger so there is less pressure on the median nerve. This may help for a while but, once again, as the problem progresses, the condition worsens until the pressure in the larger tunnel becomes high enough to cause the pain to return. Every person I have met who had the surgery and continued with the same job had their problem return. Most of those who quit doing the job that caused the muscle damage had relief. In these cases, however, it will just be a matter of time before normal daily activities will cause the problem to progress into pain again. As you can see, none of the typical treatments for CTS do anything to eliminate the cause.

The Natural Cure for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is difficult to treat if you do not understand the progression of this unique condition or how to eliminate the cause. This is why conventional therapies rarely help much. You now understand the cause and there is a way to eliminate it. I have filmed a carpal tunnel syndrome self-treatment video that teaches how to eliminate the cause of cts naturally. No drugs, no injections – just natural relief at the heart of the problem. I also teach you how to stop the chronic tendinitis-neuritis cycle and how to eliminate what I call the “cause of the cause”, or what you may be doing that over-stresses your wrist and forearm muscles. This 118-minute two-video set comes with a free illustrated 68-page booklet. Together, they teach you how to restore your damaged muscles back to their normal lengths. Your wrist and hand will then be essentially as good as new. There will not be a need for expensive treatments or time-consuming activities to constantly treat your symptoms. The video also teaches you how to prevent the problem from returning.

If you have a neck imbalance that is putting pressure on the nerves that enervate the forearm muscles, you may build up more adhesions over time. This would probably take months or years. If this should happen, the new damage can easily be eliminated with the treatment you have learned. You will also learn how to put less stress on your neck, wrists and hands. The video also teaches how to resolve almost any tendinitis condition of the wrist, hand or fingers. When patients come to me with CTS and other wrist and hand problems, I generally teach them how to fix it themselves and I restore their necks, shoulders or other related areas back to normal.

If you have a chronic neck, lower back, hip, knee or other problem, you could come to my office for treatments and have the cause eliminated and the problem permanently resolved. You can read about my PMBT therapy as well. I have used this therapy to successfully treat thousands of problems including those of numerous actors, stunt performers and professional athletes.

The Cause of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

The Cause of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

ricalexander — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:09:53 +0000

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a cumulative trauma disorder (CTD), which is also called a repetitive strain or repetitive stress injury (RSI). Cumulative trauma disorders are currently the number one job related ailments in the United States. They cause almost all lower back and neck problems, as well as the majority of shoulder, knee, foot, and other joint pains. The wrist is the most common injury with the hand being second. By 1995, Carpal tunnel syndrome had increased to 50 percent of all reported job-related injuries. Symptoms include pain, numbness, tingling or weakness in the forearms or hands. Pain is often felt in the wrist, thumb and first two fingers. This is the area of the hand supplied by the median nerve. No matter what your job or how you developed it, carpal tunnel syndrome can be very debilitating.

There are eight bones in your wrist known as carpal bones. They form a U-shape that has a wide band-like ligament across the top (palm side) known as the flexor retinaculum (a.k.a. transverse carpal ligament). Together they form what is known as the carpal tunnel. When someone uses their hands and wrists excessively, the wrist flexor, forearm pronator and numerous finger muscles receive repetitive stress. This causes a build-up of fibrotic adhesions or scar tissue that makes the muscles shorter and tighter. It is sort of like adding straw to a camel’s back until his back eventually breaks. Of course, a severe injury to the muscles can add a lot of scar tissue at one time. When the tightness in the muscles reaches a certain level it leads to misalignments of the wrist, hand and forearm bones. The tightness also causes tendinitis of the wrist and finger flexor muscles. The increased stress causes the muscles to build up more scar tissue at an ever-increasing rate.

As the tendinitis progresses and the misalignments worsen, there is eventually enough inflammation and swelling to put pressure on the median nerve that goes through the carpal tunnel. This pressure causes neuritis (nerve inflammation) and neuralgia (nerve pain) in the palm side of the wrist and hand. It also affects normal nerve flow to the muscles that the median nerve innervates (controls). These key muscles involved in carpal tunnel syndrome are now weaker and more easily over-stressed. As they accumulate more damage and become tighter, the CTS progresses more rapidly.

Many of my patients were misdiagnosed with CTS prior to coming to my office. Most of them had only a simple tendinitis of the wrist, hand, thumb or finger muscles. If a problem is musculoskeletal, when you move the joint or use it, the pain is generally worse. Whether you have minor or acute carpal tunnel syndrome, please check out my instructional video – Treat Your Own Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. My patients who use my instruction experience major to full relief of their CTS symproms, so now I invite you to take your condition into your own hands. Feel free to comment and a response will be made!

The Cure for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Cause of Neuritis

ricalexander — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:44:00 +0000

Manifestation of neuritis occurs the exact same way in which acute and chronic tendinitis begins.

This scar tissue formation as a result of an injury causes muscle to become shorter and tighter than normal. The increased tension and stress on the muscle then makes it more susceptible to strain during future physical work, recreational activities, or even activities of daily living. If the muscle is over-stressed or re-injured further, enough scar tissue will form, which results in a muscle shortening to the degree that it can pull the bone it is attached to out of normal alignment. The result is a joint misalignment, which causes a chronic condition to develop over time. If a tendon receives most of the stress from the joint misalignment, then chronic tendinitis develops. If the bursae around the joint receives excess pressure and stress from the misalignment, then a chronic bursitis develops. If the cartilage of a joint is receiving abnormally high pressure on it from the joint misalignment, then a chronic arthritis condition will develop. Now, last but not least, if a nerve is stretched or has excess pressure on it from abnormal swelling caused by joint misalignment, then a chronic neuritis condition will develop. This happens most often when the spinal vertebrae are pulled out of their normal alignment, which is also known as spinal subluxation.

Learn more about the treatment of neuritis as well if you are having trouble with it.

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The Five Factors Affecting Severity of Neuritis

ricalexander — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:55:56 +0000

You can now read the cause of neuritis, but there are five primary factors that determine the severity of the condition.

The first is simply the degree of misalignment in the joint. Obviously, the worse the misalignment the greater the stress or pressure on the nerve and subsequently the more inflammation and pain normally created.

The second factor is time. Usually, the longer a misalignment is present the more stress and increased scar tissue the muscle and tendon accumulates. This is why neuritis often gets progressively worse. As people live, work and play they accumulate muscle damage leading to joint misalignments. As time passes, more damage accumulates. Since many of these imbalances are minor the person doesn’t notice a problem until they are 40 or 50 years old. At that time, they begin to have pain in whatever joints have been misaligned. Most just assume that it’s a natural part of aging and are unaware that a successful treatment exists, so they just live with the pain or use drugs or other treatments that just cover up their symptoms. Unfortunately, as the condition progressively worsens, stronger drugs and more radical treatments are required to deal with the pain.

A third factor influencing the severity of neuritis is the amount of use the affected joint receives. If someone is physically active in their job, sports, exercising or other activities, more inflammation and pain will be created than if they are physically inactive.

The fourth factor is weight. It should be easy to see that weight-bearing joints such as feet, ankles, knees, hips and spine are going to receive more stress in a 250 pound person than in a 125 pound person. Reducing and maintaining a more normal body weight could reduce the pain of a neuritis condition.

The fifth factor comes from the bodies power of adaptation. When a joint is imbalanced the body actually creates other joint imbalances to compensate and reduce stress to the original imbalanced joint. This can often result in pain relief in the original injured area and explains why a lot of therapies appear to have resolved a problem when they really haven’t. Unfortunately, the compensating area will usually develop a problem of its own after a period of time because of the excessive stress it then receives.

Relief of Bursitis

ricalexander — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:48:35 +0000

The symptoms of bursitis can be treated in various ways. Some relieve the pressure on a bursa temporarily while others help reduce the inflammation caused by the joint imbalance. In my experience, none of these treatments remove the primary cause as PMBT treatments do, but they are helpful to varying degrees.

Stretching can also be helpful. It is most effective when the tight damaged muscles causing the misalignments are stretched. However, stretching the muscles will only help relieve the pressure temporarily. If done once or more every day this could help quite a bit. Again, specific stretches would be designed for a patient who could not receive enough treatments to get their damaged muscles restored to normal length. A balanced stretching program would be taught to those who were able to get enough treatments to restore their joints back into total alignment. Stretching also helps prevent more muscle damage from accumulating.

A lot of bursitis therapies use heat in some form. Applying heat to short, damaged muscles causes them to lengthen temporarily, thereby relieving some of the pressure on the bursa. This provides some relief, however heat also increases inflammation and makes the problem worse. Using heat to treat bursitis is a two-edged sword. It helps a little in one way but hurts in another. Whatever you do, never apply dry heat to your muscles. Since muscles are around 70 percent water, the dry heat dehydrates them causing them to become shorter. This creates a greater imbalance in the joint making your problem worse. I believe that massaging and stretching your tight muscles will relieve the pressure and pain as much as moist heat without the negative effect of increasing the inflammation.

Nutrition doesn’t remove the cause of bursitis, but can be very helpful at treating the inflammation and pain. It is one important part of treating any inflammatory condition.

A great deal has been written about treating inflammatory conditions with nutrition so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here. The best foundation is to increase your intake of fruits and vegetables and decrease your intake of fats, grain products and meats. Since most fruits and vegetables leave an alkaline ash after being digested they have an anti-inflammatory effect. They also help reduce excess body fat so you should also become leaner and therefore place less stress on any weight-bearing joint affected with bursitis. There are also many other health benefits from eating more fruits and vegetables, so explore and enjoy the many varieties available. This detailed much more extensively in victory over fat.

A number of nutritional supplements have an anti-inflammatory effect. Bromelain, an enzyme from pineapples, and curcumin herb are both good natural anti-inflammatories but must be taken between meals instead of with meals as usually stated on the label. These should be safe for anyone to use 2-3 times a day. Consult a good herb book or nutritionist for other good natural products that decrease inflammation. Even though herbs are natural products and can be used quite a bit without any side effects, I feel it is best to cycle their use. In other words, get three or four products and use one on Monday, another on Tuesday, the next on Wednesday, and the last one on Thursday. Then begin again with the first one on Friday. This should prevent any negative effects that may occur using herbs to excess. Some herbs are quite powerful and should only be used long enough to re-establish balance when an imbalanced situation is present. Always consult a physician knowledgeable in nutrition before starting any supplementation program. This is especially important if you are taking any medication.

Cause of Bursitis

ricalexander — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:46:12 +0000

When someone does a physical activity to excess, they strain the muscle which was overused. This can happen to a well-trained athlete who is striving to excel, or a retired person who overdoes it working in their garden. This scenario is often seen in the “weekend warrior” athlete who sits at a desk all week, and then goes all out during the weekend with a physical activity like softball or tennis. The resultant muscle strain (mild tear) creates inflammation and pain. This strain usually occurs near the end of the muscle where it attaches to a bone or blends into its tendon. This creates a condition known as acute tendinitis. This condition could also be created if the muscle is strained from trauma. The usual treatment for acute tendinitis is to rest the area, apply ice periodically for the first 24 hours, and then to use moist heat. Rest prevents further muscle injury, the ice reduces the initial inflammation and swelling. and the moist heat circulates blood through the area to speed the healing process. Now, if you added gentle massage and stretching to this treatment plan the muscle would probably heal totally back to normal.

However, this is not what the average person usually does! They may ice once or twice and rest a bit, but most often just take an over-the-counter pain medication and continue on with their normal activities. If the strain was minor, their body may be able to heal the muscle fibers normally. Unfortunately, this is not the usual result because the injured muscle is being used instead of rested. Because of the stress on the muscle, their body heals the injured muscle fibers by binding them together with fibrotic adhesions, or scar tissue. This is done in an attempt to prevent further damage to the injured area. It is a normal protective response of their body.

Formation of scar tissue in an injured muscle causes it to become shorter and tighter than normal. This places more tension and stress on the muscle, making it easier to strain during future physical activities. If the muscle is over-stressed or re-injured further, eventually enough scar tissue will form to shorten the muscle to the degree that it can pull its attached bone out of normal alignment. The result is a joint misalignment which causes a chronic condition to develop. If a tendon receives most of the stress from the joint misalignment then chronic tendinitis develops. If a nerve is stretched or has excess pressure on it from abnormal swelling caused by the joint misalignment then a chronic neuritis condition will develop. This happens most often when the spinal vertebrae are pulled out of their normal alignment (subluxated). If the cartilage of a joint is receiving abnormally high pressure on it because of the joint misalignment, then a chronic arthritis condition will develop. Now, last but not least, if the bursae around the joint receives excess pressure and stress because of the misalignment then a chronic bursitis develops.

The Five Factors Affecting the Severity of Osteoarthritis

ricalexander — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:38:37 +0000

You now know the cause of osteoarthritis, but there are five primary factors that determine the severity of the condition.

The first is simply the degree of misalignment in the joint. Just like our tire example, the worse the misalignment the greater the stress on the cartilage and the faster it will degenerate. If someone has a severe hip misalignment created at age 15, they could have severe arthritic degeneration by age 25.

The second factor is time. Obviously, the longer a misalignment is present the more wear and tear there will be on the cartilage. This is why arthritis gets progressively worse. This also explains why so many people get arthritis in one area or another. As people live, work and play they accumulate muscle damage leading to joint misalignments. As time passes, more damage accumulates. Since many of these imbalances are minor the person doesn’t notice a problem until they are 50 or 60 years old. At that time, they begin to have stiffness and pain in their knee, hip, fingers or whatever joints have been misaligned. Most just assume that it’s a natural part of aging and are unaware that a successful treatment exists, so they just live with the pain or use drugs or other treatments that just cover up their symptoms. Unfortunately, as the condition progressively worsens, stronger drugs and more radical treatments are required to deal with the pain.

A third factor influencing the severity of arthritis is the amount of use the affected joint receives. If someone is physically active in their job, sports, exercise, or other activities their misaligned joint is going to wear out faster than if they are physically inactive. If you rarely drive your car with the misaligned wheel, the tire will last a lot longer.

The fourth factor is weight. It should be easy to see that weight-bearing joints (those most commonly affected with arthritis) such as feet, ankles, knees, hips and spine are going to receive more stress in a 250 pound person than in a 125 pound person. Reducing and maintaining a more normal body weight will not only reduce the pain of arthritis but will slow the progression of cartilage degeneration.

The fifth factor comes from the body’s power of adaptation. When a joint is imbalanced the body actually creates other joint imbalances to compensate and reduce stress to the original imbalanced joint. This can often result in pain relief in the original injured area and explains why a lot of therapies appear to have resolved a problem when they really haven’t. Unfortunately, the compensating area will usually develop a problem of its own after a period of time because of the excessive stress it then receives.

Feel free to comment!

Cause of Osteoarthritis

ricalexander — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:35:11 +0000

When someone does a physical activity to excess they strain the muscle that was overused. This can happen to a well-trained athlete who is striving to excel, or a retired person who overdoes it working in their garden. This scenario is also often seen in”weekend warrior” athletes who sit at desk all week, and then over-exert themselves with a physical activity such as playing softball or tennis all day. The resultant muscle strain (mild tear) creates inflammation and pain. This strain usually occurs near the end of the muscle where it attaches to a bone or blends into its tendon. This creates a condition known as acute tendinitis. This condition could also be created if the muscle is strained from trauma such as a fall. Keep reading, this really is about osteoarthritis.

The usual treatment for acute tendinitis is to rest the area, apply ice periodically for the first 24 hours and then to use moist heat. Rest prevents further muscle injury, the ice reduces the initial inflammation and swelling and the moist heat circulates blood through the area to speed the healing process. Now, if you added gentle massage and stretching to this treatment plan the muscle would probably heal totally back to normal.

However, this is not what the average person usually does! They may ice once or twice and rest a bit, but most often just take an over-the-counter pain medication and continue on with their normal activities. If the strain was minor, their body may be able to heal the muscle fibers normally. Unfortunately, this is not the usual result because the injured muscle is being used instead of rested. Because of the stress on the muscle, their body heals the injured muscle fibers by binding them together with fibrotic adhesions or scar tissue. This is done in an attempt to prevent further damage to the injured area. It is a normal protective response of their body.

Formation of scar tissue in an injured muscle causes it to become shorter and tighter than normal. This places more tension and stress on the muscle making it easier to strain during future physical activities. If the muscle is over-stressed or re-injured further, eventually enough scar tissue will form to shorten the muscle to the degree that it can pull the bone it is attached to out of normal alignment. The result is a joint misalignment which causes a chronic condition to develop. If a tendon receives most of the stress from the joint misalignment then chronic tendinitis develops. If the bursae around the joint receives excess pressure and stress because of the misalignment then a chronic bursitis develops. If a nerve is stretched or has excess pressure on it from abnormal swelling caused by the joint misalignment then a chronic neuritis condition will develop. This happens most often when the spinal vertebrae are pulled out of their normal alignment (subluxated). Now, last but not least, if the cartilage of a joint is receiving abnormally high pressure on it because of the joint misalignment then a chronic arthritis condition will develop.

A lot of people seem to believe that osteoarthritis is something that just happens naturally when they get “old”. The truth is, osteoarthritis is totally preventable and usually curable! Let me tell you a story to illustrate.

A man 80 years of age goes to see his doctor because his right knee is hurting. After the doctor takes X-rays and examines him, he informs the man that he has osteoarthritis in his right knee. The man then asks the doctor what causes osteoarthritis and he replies, “old age”. The man then says, “But doctor, my left knee is 80 years old too and it’s just fine” – an intelligent and logical response. The point is that age has nothing to do with whether you get osteoarthritis or not. An acquaintance of mine had a hip replaced at age 33. He had injured that same hip while playing football years earlier. This injury created muscular scar tissue that led to a hip misalignment, which then caused the cartilage in his hip socket to wear out by age 33.

Consider an automobile with the front wheels properly aligned and new tires designed to last 50,000 miles. Let’s say that the right wheel hits enough ruts and potholes to throw off its alignment to a slight degree. Now, what will happen? Right! That tire will begin to wear out too quickly because the misalignment places excessive stress on certain areas of the tire. The weight of the car is no longer evenly distributed over the entire width of the tire. After 25,000 miles the left tire will still be in very good condition while the right tire could be totally worn out. This is essentially how arthritis of the hip or knee develops.

Now, consider a woman who injures her right hip in an auto accident or from falls taken while learning to ice skate, or even from accumulated stress of sitting with one leg under the other for many years. Any of these things could injure the muscles of her hip area and cause the muscles to heal with fibrotic adhesions or scar tissue. This causes the muscles to become shorter than normal and to pull her pelvic or thigh bones out of their normal positions. This creates a misalignment of her hip joint. Now, just like the tire, the weight is not evenly distributed on the cartilage of that hip socket. This will cause her right hip socket cartilage to wear out faster than the left. She may occasionally notice a tightness in her right hip during certain activities, but will probably think nothing of it, or falsely assume that it is a natural part of getting old. By age 50 she will start having right hip pain which will progressively worsen as the joint continues to wear out. By age 60 or 65 an X-ray will show that the left hip is still in good shape while the right one is totally worn out. It’s ready for a hip replacement which could have easily been prevented.

Now, let’s go back to our tire example. What if you notice around 10,000 miles that the right front tire on your car is wearing out abnormally fast. You will take the car in and have the wheel realigned. This will stop the excessive wear and tear. The tire will now probably last for 40-45,000 miles instead of being totally worn out at 25,000 miles.

The hip joint is quite similar. What will happen if you notice around age 40 or 45 that your right hip feels tighter than the left and occasionally hurts a little. You could get your hip joint realigned with PMBT treatments, thereby stopping the excessive wear and tear. Your right hip socket cartilage will now probably last well over 100 years instead of being totally worn out by age 60 or 65.

I have studied the human body for over 30 years and believe that our hip cartilage was designed to last 150 or more years. In other words, it should last well over a lifetime.

Relief of Tendinitis

ricalexander — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:30:27 +0000

The symptoms of tendinitis can be treated in various ways. Some relieve the pressure on a tendon temporarily while others help reduce the inflammation caused by the joint imbalance. In my experience, none of these treatments remove the primary cause as PMBT treatments do, but they are helpful to varying degrees.

Exercise to strengthen certain muscles can sometimes create a counter pull against the tight, damaged muscle. This can help realign the joint in some cases, thereby relieving some of the stress on the inflamed tendon. However, if not done properly it could cause increased pressure on the tendon instead. Unfortunately, since most joint imbalances vary, a generic exercise program can’t be designed for most tendinitis conditions. Specific exercises would be designed for someone who received some PMBT treatments but could not stay long enough to get their joint totally realigned. Those who get their joints realigned totally would be taught exercises to keep their muscles strong and more resistant to over-stress. This helps preveStretching can also be helpful. It is most effective when the tight damaged muscles causing the misalignments are stretched. However, stretching all muscles will help relieve the pressure temporarily. If done once or more every day this could help quite a bit. Again, specific stretches would be designed for a patient who could not receive enough treatments to get their damaged muscles restored to normal length. A balanced stretching program would be taught to those who were able to get enough treatments to restore their joints back into total alignment. Stretching also helps prevent more muscle damage from accumulating.

A lot of tendinitis therapies use heat in some form. Applying heat to short, damaged muscles causes them to lengthen temporarily, thereby relieving some of the pressure on the tendon. This provides some relief, however heat also increases inflammation and makes the problem worse. Using heat to treat tendinitis is a two-edged sword. It helps a little in one way but hurts in another. Whatever you do, never apply dry heat to your muscles. Since muscles are around 70 percent water, the dry heat dehydrates them causing them to become shorter. This creates a greater imbalance in the joint making your problem worse. I believe that massaging and stretching your tight muscles will relieve the pressure and pain as much as moist heat without the negative effect of increasing the inflammation.

Nutrition doesn’t remove the cause of tendinitis, but can be very helpful with treating the inflammation and pain. It is one important part of treating any inflammatory condition. Remember – what you put in your body is eventually exposed to your entire body!

A great deal has been written about treating inflammatory conditions with nutrition so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here. The best foundation is to increase your intake of fruits and vegetables and decrease your intake of fats, grain products and meats. Since most fruits and vegetables leave an alkaline ash after being digested they have an anti-inflammatory effect. They also help reduce excess body fat so you should also become leaner and therefore place less stress on any weight-bearing joint affected with tendinitis. There are also many other health benefits from eating more fruits and vegetables, so explore and enjoy the many varieties available.

Feel free to comment, and I wish you luck with your relief of tendinitis.

The Five Factors Affecting the Severity of Tendinitis

ricalexander — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:27:47 +0000

You now know the cause of tendinitis, but there are five primary factors that determine the severity of the condition.

The first is simply the degree of misalignment in the joint. Obviously, the worse the misalignment the greater the stress on the tendon and the more inflammation and pain normally created.

The second factor is time. Usually, the longer a misalignment is present the more stress and increased scar tissue the muscle and tendon accumulates. This is why tendinitis will often get progressively worse. As people live, work and play they accumulate muscle damage leading to joint misalignments. As time passes, more damage accumulates. Since many of these imbalances are minor the person may not notice a problem until they are 40 or 50 years old. At that time, they begin to have inflammation and pain in whatever joints have been misaligned. Most just assume that it’s a natural part of aging and are unaware that a successful treatment exists, so they just live with the pain or use drugs or other treatments that just cover up their symptoms. Unfortunately, as the condition progressively worsens, stronger drugs and more radical treatments are required to deal with the pain.

A third factor influencing the severity of tendinitis is the amount of use the affected joint receives. If someone is physically active in their job, sports, exercising or other activities, more inflammation and pain in the tendon will be created than if they are physically inactive.