What is tennis elbow
Not as the name suggested, tennis elbow is not the condition that only tennis players have. It can affect anyone who constantly practices physical activities or hard movements that use wrist and arms too much. This is completely a common injury that might bring along swelling and painful feeling. It will require minor treatment with not much of medicine or doctor interfere. Tennis elbow is what known, scientifically, it has got the term as lateral epicondylitis
What causes tennis elbow?
As mentioned, tennis elbow is occurred mostly by straining your tendons and muscles within the areas of forearms and elbow joint. When you know that you are down with elbow joint, you will really notice that your elbow’s outer part is hurt and pain. Tendons are not the exception as it involved in the movements. Therefore, it can also be affected by pain and inflammation.
Playing these Sports that are likely to get tennis elbows: badminton, racquetball, fencing and especially tennis. Along with that, elderly tend to get tennis arms as well, those who are from 50 years old onward. The common thing most tennis arm patients share is probably that it will affect dominant arms.
Symptoms of tennis arms
In the beginning, there will be common symptoms such as pain within the areas of wrist and elbows, weak grasps. Over the course of time, it will follow with the troubles lifting arms as well as extending forearms, especially when bending, it can be hurt.
If you not treated, the problems can last weeks or up to a month. There are extreme cases when it takes a bloody long time to heal tendons, about one year.
How to treat tennis arms (Remedies)
When you know that you have tennis arms, it is recommended to take rest as the condition will heal itself. IF you want to fasten process, you can apply some natural home remedies to treat by yourself or in some extreme cases; you need to visit doctors. Following are some simple methods to follow without costing too much. They are pure natural so no worries about the side effects:
1 Ice Cubes
Coldness is the best solution to numb every case of pain. It will sooth the nerve and quickly reduce swelling and painful sensation. Moreover, if the pain is spreading, ice will help to cease this progress. Applying ice cubesa is utterly simple, which is a plus for instant painkiller method.
- Grab ice cubes from the fridge and wrap them up with a clean
- Apply directly to the affected areas.
- Rub them over and keep for few minutes before melting.
- For heavy pain, you can re-apply few times.
- Repeat this action few times a day.
In case you cannot find any ice cubes in your fridge, frozen pea bag is also a good choice, even better choice as it will not melt, which is way more convenient.
2. Contrast Hydrotherapy
This method is more likely to be known as a cold-heat method; you will opt for heat and cold respectively. The cold-heat method might take a bit longer to apply and more complicated. However, the result will surprise you. The rule of this way is that the heat helps improving blood circulation to alleviate pain, along with the cold helps to numb the pain as well as inflammation. You might follow the very same steps applying ice cubes, for the heat part, you can make use of the heat bag then apply contrast hydrotherapy as following.
- Apply the heat bag over affected areas for 3 mins then opt for frozen bean bags for the same period. This is counted as one time.
- After a while, opt for the heat bag, keep doing so for 5 times, around 30 minutes.
- Apply this few times a day until the pain is lifted.
It is curcumin in turmeric that makes this ingredient an excellent treatment for tennis elbow. This is regarded as the painkiller thanks to the inflammatories and antioxidants properties. Also, those who are seeking for methods to improve the healing by destroying free radicals, turmeric might also be the way. You will need to follow these steps:
- Add few teaspoons of turmeric powder into a cup of milk.
- Mix them well then add one teaspoon of honey.
- Drink this warm mixture once a day every within few weeks.
Another option when you cannot drink turmeric mixture is to take in curcumin supplement for the convenience. However, natural turmeric powder is the best to treat tennis elbow naturally.
Another powerful option you can go for is ginger. This ingredient has a high concentration of anti-inflammatory that helps relieve the pain almost instantly along with swelling pain. You can either consume ginger juice or apply ginger over the affected areas.
- To consume ginger: You can make ginger tea. The key is to add slices of ginger into a cup of boiling water. To make it easier to drink, you can add honey to the cup. The sweet taste of honey also helps your stomach.
- Apply ginger: You will need grated ginger to be wrapped in a bag. Dip that very bag into hot water for a while then take out and wait for it to cool down for a bit. Apply it to the affected areas while it is still warm. Keep it for 15 minutes, and there is no need to rinse off with water.
Massage is also on the list of first things when people are suffering from pain, It soothes your nerve and calms the pain. To get the best result, you can utilise essential oil in your house. Calendula oil and lavender oil or peppermint oils will make tennis elbow go away almost instantly.
The best time to massage is before going to bed, or whenever you are in severe pain. You can repeat massage few times a day. You can add oil when massage, however, do not apply too much oil as tennis elbow might be overheated.
Source: home remedies for tennis elbow