Brian Kwon Acupuncture People often injure their elbow when they stay active. In the next few posts, I will go into common elbow injuries I have treated.
Elbow pain can be caused by several reasons; thus, accurate diagnosis is required for proper treatment and fast recovery. For example, if you treat radial tunnel syndrome with a tennis elbow treatment, the patient can feel worse.
Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, involves damage to the muscles and tendons of the forearm. The forearm muscles extend the wrist and fingers, which are used repetitively when you do the groundstroke of tennis, or other similar non-tennis activities. The main tendon associated with tennis elbow is attached to the lateral epicondyle.
Various options, such as medication, physical therapy, acupuncture, PRP and steroid injection can be used for tennis elbow. Steroids are highly effective for reducing pain and inflammation, but it can weaken and damage the tendon; thus, it is recommended that you avoid the repeated injections. Radial Shock Wave Therapy can also be an effective treatment, but some women find it painful.
Here is one of the studies that shows the effectiveness of acupuncture for the condition: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11476196_Acupuncture_in_chronic_epicondylitis_A_randomized_controlled_trial. This research shows that individuals who received acupuncture treatments seem to alleviate not only pain but also improve the function of the arm.
