This Is a Degenerative Injury

Long before you felt your first pain, your elbow was deteriorating. Every time you used it, the damage got worse and worse. Once you started feeling the pain, it was probably hard to miss the increasing severity.

Epicondylitis is a degenerative injury. This means it will get worse unless it is treated. There was a time when you could have prevented the damage and never have required surgery.

At that time, you could have focused on strengthening your muscles and making your arm more agile. This would have kept your arm healthy throughout all of your movement. The damage would have healed for good.

Since that did not happen, your pain got worse because your damage got severe. If your doctor is recommending surgery, that is serious. It is always a good idea to get a second opinion and find a diagnosis you trust.

However, if the consensus is to have surgery you should do so right away before the degeneration becomes permanent.

Do Not Get Frustrated By the Slow Healing Process

The biggest complaint most lateral or medial epicondylitis patients who need surgery have is the loss of mobility. You never really know how much you use your arm until you have limited mobility.

Immediately after your surgery, you will have no mobility but that will gradually change. It is the gradual nature of the healing process that can frustrate you.

It is important that your frustration not lead to you taking on too much movement before you are ready. If you do this, you can undo the entire repair from the surgery. Because of the nature and location of your medial epicondyle, or elbow, there is restricted blood flow to the area.

The muscles are fed by smaller vessels because the main blood circulation is being directed to your lower arm and hand. Swelling from the injury limits the blood supply further. If you do too much too soon, you will have more swelling.

Your tendons have virtually no blood supply. The thick, interwoven protein fibers of collagen and elastin which make up your tendons are too dense for veins.

Instead, they are nourished by synovial fluid, which the body produces to keep the joint lubricated. Healing nutrients are in this fluid, but not at the same potency as would be in your blood.

All of this means that the healing nutrients are not as freely available in your tendons and surrounding muscles as they may be in other parts of your body. Therefore, healing is going to take longer in this area. A longer healing period means it will take you longer to feel the results.

To accelerate healing, after your medial epicondylitis surgery you will probably be encouraged to eat very nutritiously. Additionally, you should take a vitamin supplement that is full of nutrients like vitamin C and the vitamin B complex.

A good diet with added nutrients will make sure that the healing blood and fluid pumped into the area is as potent as possible.

Making a Full Recovery

During your recovery period, you will probably see your doctor frequently. Each week he or she will want to check your progress, to make sure you are healing appropriately. As you heal, you will be allowed increasing activity and mobility.

At this point, you will be facing a critical decision that can affect the rest of your life with regard to your elbow pain. If you do not change the circumstances that led to your surgery for medial epicondylitis you are doomed to repeat the injury. Now is the time for you to decide to finally cure your problem.

The root problem is that your elbow muscles and tendons are weak and rigid. This leaves them prone to overuse injuries from your activities. If permanently giving up your activity is not an answer, then you might want to try the e-book Tennis Elbow Secrets Revealed.

Tennis Elbow Secrets Revealed is written for anyone suffering from the pain of tennis elbow, whether or not they have needed surgery. The program will teach you a series of stretches and strengthening movements that will keep your tissue healthy and agile to prevent injury.

It will also show you how to get started right away, by balancing downtime for rest and repair, with moderate activity to promote healing.

If your condition has not progressed so much that surgery is still an option and not a requirement, you need to start correcting the root problem right now. If you do need surgery for your elbow, do not give up hope. You can make a full recovery and ensure the injury will never happen again.

What Not To Eat

This is the first topic because it may be the most important. If you put bad food in you, you are going to get bad results. Some bad foods you already know about, but some may greatly surprise you.

Stay away from all processed foods, especially those rich in chemicals, preservatives, and dyes. These foods cause multiple problems. First, the chemicals and other artificial ingredients are toxins to your bodies.

Even worse, these toxins are often stored in the same muscular tissue that is injured, making repairs even more difficult.

Second, they are difficult to digest. This means the nutrients that you do consume are not absorbed because your body must spend too much time on the bad foods. The same goes for foods that have a very high fat content, because fat is difficult to digest.

These processed foods are also very innutritious. Any nutrients that were in the food have been dyed, flavored, heated, and otherwise removed.

If you are suffering from a tennis elbow injury, your body needs all the nutrients it can get to heal your wound. If you are not getting enough of what your body needs to live, your body will not be able to devote enough energy to healing your wound.

Foods That Might Actually Cause Your Injury

The most surprising foods that you should not eat are those that may have attributed to your injury. For example, scientific research has shown that food with a high acid content or which causes your body to produce acid can cause tendons to swell to the point of tearing.

Fried foods, liver, rich cheeses, and deli meat and other acid prone foods must be avoided to prevent tennis elbow injuries as well as other tendonitis.

You should also avoid sodium, or salt, in your diet. Salt has an unusual ability to cause great swelling throughout your body. When you consume sodium, your body begins to pool liquid, or swell, even though you may not know it.

While you perform your normal activities, like playing tennis, your arm must deal with excess and unstable weight from this swelling. You are not aware of the risk, and continue to use your arm as normal but you are actually causing damage from overuse.

If you have an injury to your muscles and tendons, there is already going to be swelling. Lymph fluid and other water is seeping out of your town elbow tissue. The swelling is causing pain and impacting your body’s ability to heal.

If you eat salt at this critical time, you are going to increase your swelling which can have bad consequences and possibly lasting damage.

What You Should Eat

Just as there are foods you must avoid with your tennis elbow, there are other foods you must make sure you get plenty of. Some of these foods are simply nutrient rich, giving your body an abundance of what it needs to heal itself and thrive.

Other foods have specific qualities to help relieve the pain, swelling, and other symptoms of your injury.

In general, fresh and raw foods are always rich in the vitamins, minerals, and other nourishment that you need. Vegetables and fruits when eaten raw will provide you with the maximum amount of nutrition.

Low fat proteins, such as chicken or fish, will help you build new tendon material, or collagen and elastin, without producing the negative acid.

There are specific foods that will help you with your specific condition. For example, pineapple is high in vitamin C which builds collagen but it also has high bromelain content. Bromelain is a naturally occurring anti-inflammatory that will reduce the swelling from your tendonitis, relieving your pain.

Barley is also known for its natural anti-inflammatory attributes, as well as its ability to neutralize acids in your system. Spinach is high in a form of iron that is easily absorbed by your body. High iron content makes your blood richer and better able to transport healing cells and hormones to your injured elbow.

If You Are Eating Right, You Are Ready For the Next Step

Diet is so critical to healing your tennis elbow, but diet will not heal you alone. You need to give your elbow rest. However, you also need to rehabilitate your arm to make yourself injury proof.

The e-book Tennis Elbow Secrets Revealed can teach you how to achieve both of these goals. This program teaches you tried and true rest and recovery techniques. However, it will also introduce you to a new program of at-home rehabilitation exercises which gradually increase your strength and flexibility.

As your strength increases and you continue to eat right, you will need less and less recovery time until one day you find you are no longer plagued with the pain you once suffered.

Natural Medicines

While it is a good idea to not pollute your system or diminish your body’s healing capacity with oral and prescription pain relievers, there are some fantastic natural alternatives.

The best natural tennis elbow remedies are those that can be used topically. These are applied directly to the skin around your elbow, providing quick relief without the dangers of pills.

Oil of wintergreen, or methyl salicylate, is a fantastic topical remedy for your tendonitis. When absorbed by your skin, wintergreen is converted to salicylic acid which is also known as aspirin. As you know, aspirin is a great pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, but it also thins your blood.

Thinned blood is better able to reach all the areas of your elbow where swelling may have limited the blood supply. Traditionally, aspirin will agitate the stomach and interfere with the digestion of nutrients, but when absorbed through the skin it skips the digestion process and goes straight into the bloodstream.

Menthol, derived from peppermint, is also a great anti-inflammatory to reduce swelling with no harmful side effects. However, it’s pain relieving affects are also important.

When menthol touches your skin, it triggers your nerves to feel a cooling sensation. This cooling sense is very powerful. The nerves are consumed with this sensation and are not able to transmit the normal pain indicators from before.

Short and Long Stretch Compression Bandages

Compression is a very effective tennis elbow remedy. Compression is the method of applying pressure to the injury to eliminate swelling and increase blood flow. Compression is typically achieved using wrap bandages or braces.

There are two different types of compression bandages and it is important that you understand both so you can use the right kind at the right time.

Long stretch bandages have a great stretching ability. When you feel them, they are typically stiff and less flexible. They are woven tightly and in a way that does not draw back to its original shape quickly. When they are wrapped around your arm, they do not immediately contract. They continue to contract throughout the day as you move.

This gives the bandages very high compression ability, applying a lot of pressure as long as you wear it. This extreme pressure means that they cannot be worn for long periods of time, especially overnight, or they could eventually cut off circulation. However, long stretch bandages are fantastic at relieving extreme or acute swelling and pain.

On the other hand, short stretch bandages can be worn all day and all night if needed. They contract immediately after application. This means the tightness after application will remain the tightness throughout the rest of the day.

This will not be enough compression for extreme swelling, but should be enough to provide tennis elbow pain relief throughout normal activities and for lingering swelling.

Finding Lasting Relief

With so many different therapy remedies for tennis elbow out there, it can be difficult to determine which will give you the best results. The wrong choices can end up doing more damage than good. If you are not using techniques designed to cure your tennis elbow, then you are only treating the pain and the injury will recur.

The fact is that most techniques for tennis elbow pain relief were not created by someone who ever suffered from tennis elbow. While they have probably been officially trained, they are still confined to the theories of traditional medicine and this is the fundamental reason why so many techniques fail.

The main problem with traditional medicine is that is will only try to stop your pain. If necessary, your doctor may decide to operate on your elbow. However, this is only to correct immediate damage. You may feel tennis elbow relief, but if you do not correct the issues that caused the problem in the first place you are going to be injured again.

The question is how do you stay injury free for good? You can find the answer in the e-book Tennis Elbow Secrets Revealed. There is a lot of valuable information you can learn in this book to help you stay injury free.

Of this information, a very important lesson you will learn is the R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) method of pain relief and healing. This will help you better understand the techniques you have learned in this article.

Secondly, and most important of all the information in the book, you will learn a series of exercises and stretches to keep your muscles and tendons strong and flexible. It is difficult to injure an arm that is strong and agile. These exercises, in combination with proper healing techniques, will be your permanent solution.

You do not need to suffer any longer. Relieve your pain using these healthy techniques you have learned. However, do not let your pain stop you from doing what it takes to cure problem. The sooner you start on the path to making your arm stronger, the sooner you will begin to feel better.

Now that you have this tendonitis, it is time to start getting better. The longer the problem goes without treatment and healing, the worse it will get. One of the most important steps to healing from your tendonitis is to give your body the nourishment it needs to do the necessary growth and repairs quickly and correctly.

The Different Components of Your Elbow

It is important that you understand the structure of the joint if you are going to nourish your tendonitis in elbow. Your injury affects every part of your elbow and every part must heal. However, they each need different nourishment and therapeutic efforts to fully heal and become injury proof.

Obviously, bone is an essential part of your joint. Your skeletal structure is what supports all of your movement. Of course, your injury is not in your bone, but your bone still plays an important role in curing tendonitis of the elbow.

Remember everything you ever heard about the importance of lifting with good posture or you will hurt your back? Your other joints are no different. You must always be sure that you use the correct posture in all of your activities, from lifting to sports. If your bones are in alignment, it will put less strain on your muscles and tendons.

Lying on top of your bone and directing movement are your muscles. It is moving your arm muscles that typically increases your elbow tendonitis symptoms. They are composed of mainly from strands of protein.

Muscles are defined as the contracting tissue that gives you the ability to move and produce force. In plain language, this means you cannot move, lift, or perform any other activity without your muscles. All day long your use your arm and forearm muscles, but they can still easily be compromised if not cared for properly.

Muscles, especially the type in your arms, are very unique to most other parts of your body. The strength and size of a muscle is entirely determined by you. If you nourish your muscle, it will be stronger and more fortified and if you abuse your muscle, you are going to be weak and injury prone.

Attaching the muscle to the bone and running the length of the muscle, essentially making all supported movement possible, are your tendons. As you may have guessed, this is the primary body part affected when you suffer from tendonitis in the elbow.

Tendons are like nature’s rubber bands, holding muscles in place but still allowing your body to bend, stretch, contract, and remain flexible. These “bands” are composed of the proteins called collagen and elastin.

Collagen, next to bone, is one of the strongest substances in your body. While the exact structure varies throughout your body, in your elbow collagen is very dense.

However, it maintains a fibrous structure that allows you to move. Using the rubber band explanation, collagen is the material that holds the rubber band together.

Elastin is like the elastic in the rubber band that allows it to stretch great distances and then retract to its original shape. Elastin is also made from protein, but lighter protein molecules that are arranged in a coil like structure. As you may guess, it is this coil structure that gives elastin its flexibility and strength.

Now you know how your elbow is constructed. When you are healing from tennis elbow tendonitis, it is always important that keep this in mind. When you are injured, you will know now exactly what nutrients your body needs to rebuild.

Giving Your Elbow the Nourishment It Needs To Rebuild

During that lesson on elbow structure, what word did you read over and over again? If you answered protein, you are right. Protein is responsible for more than 45% of your dry body mass. It is one of the most essential elements in your body. Without enough protein, you simply could not live.

Your body creates the specific proteins and protein based amino-acids that comprise your muscles and tendons. However, you still have to provide the ingredients for these proteins. Put simply, this means you have to consume what your body needs.

Because it takes protein to build protein, the first ingredient is to eat more protein. Since most of your body is comprised of protein and needs it to thrive, you have to eat more protein than normal if you are healing from tendonitis tennis elbow.

Unfortunately, not all protein was created equal and consuming the wrong kind of protein can do more harm than good. Plant based proteins, like those made from soy beans, are difficult for your body to digest. When your body has trouble digesting a food, more of the nutrients are removed as waste instead of absorbed.

Animal protein is the most superior form of protein, supplying the most nutrients your body needs to rebuild. In fact, many patients recovering from elbow tendonitis surgery are given an animal protein rich diet for recovery. However, many animal based proteins can also be bad for you because of their high fat content.

Beef, pork, lamb, and protein from milk are loaded with fat. This fat is easy for your body to absorb, almost instantly increasing your body fat and weight and decreasing your health and strength. Always remember, anything that compromises your body will make your elbow tendonitis treatment less effective.

Although some animal based proteins are not recommended for healing, some are quite excellent. Lean proteins, such as chicken and fish, should be an important part of your diet while you are healing. These will give you the highest concentration of proteins without the fat to degrade you.

In addition to eating plenty of protein, make sure you drink plenty of water. Your body, especially your tendons and muscles, is made from mostly water. Your body does not produce water. This means all of the water in your body comes from what you consume. While you can get water from your food, it is a safe bet to drink at least 80 ounces of water every day.

You should also take a regular vitamin and mineral supplement each day. Your body uses vitamins and minerals in all of its processes. Different supplements provide different nourishment. For example, vitamin C helps your body build collagen but vitamin B helps your body absorb protein. A good daily supplement with multiple vitamins and minerals should be all you need to adequately nourish your healing elbow.

Become Injury Proof

Now that you have learned how to promote healing from your injury, you need to learn how to remain injury free. If you do not make an effort to correct your problems that lead to your elbow tendonitis symptoms you are bound to have a repeated injury. The next time, the injury could be far worse and more debilitating.

Tendonitis of elbow tissue has occurred because the muscles were used beyond their strength and the tendons were stretched beyond their ability. This is good news. As you read earlier about muscles, you are entirely in charge of how strong and big your muscle is. Likewise, it is up to you to make sure that your tendons remain flexible and able to stretch adequately without damage.

You need to perform physical strength and flexibility training to achieve the results you need to stay injury free. Fortunately for you, there is a program available that will teach you everything you know to achieve this goal.

The e-book Tennis Elbow Secrets Revealed was developed by Geoff Hunt to give you this instruction. Hunt’s program will teach you a series of elbow tendonitis exercises that build muscle, but keep the tendons as flexible as possible. Many tennis elbow sufferers who used this program were often amazed at how quickly their pain went away and stayed away.

No matter how you nourish your injured elbow, it will remain at risk unless you make a sincere effort to remain injury free. It is not difficult to exercise, stretch, and flex your muscles but you will have to be diligent about sticking to the program. If you do, your diligence will be well rewarded because you will remain pain free for the rest of your life.

Fortunately, this is not true when it comes to treating your tennis elbow or tendinitis. In this case, you can actually achieve far better results if you decide to be your own therapist.

Skip the Expensive Therapy, Do It Yourself

Many medical “experts” have one line of defense they stick to when treating tennis elbow, physical therapy. Every year, physical therapists and the related physical therapy industry generate millions of dollars in profits by treating tennis elbow.

However, all of the money you spend on physical therapy is not needed and is likely not to cure your problem.

For many injuries, especially acute problems like those from an accident, traditional therapy is an excellent way to rehabilitate and make a full recovery. The difference is that the exercises for tennis elbow are solely aimed at relieving your pain.

They do not focus on strengthening and improving the elbow beyond what is required to stop the pain and resume activity. In fact, often therapy sessions stop as soon as the pain stops leaving you open to future injury because you have not learned how to sustain a healthy arm.

Another problem with going to physical therapy sessions is that the equipment you are using is expensive. Most people only have access to that type of equipment at the therapy office.

This equipment is very effective at exercising the arm at the right angle, with the right weight, and with the right movement that will strengthen it and increase its flexibility.

The drawback comes, once again, when the pain stops. At this point you will typically stop your therapy sessions and no longer have access to these machines. You will not have learned how to continue caring for your arm at home without the machines. This will leave you vulnerable to injury again.

Finally, therapy is expensive. Many insurance plans do not cover it and those that do still leave you with hefty co-pays. Most therapy will require several visits a week for many months. These bills can rack up, especially since you can achieve the same results at home.

The Cheaper, Less Complex Equipment Will Help You The Most

If you search long enough, you are going to find a whole host of gadgets that can be used to treat. They are more than likely expensive and may even require multiple purchases before you get the full affect.

The fact of the matter is that you do not need to spend a lot of money on fancy gadgets in order to heal your tennis elbow. The simpler and inexpensive tools work best.

Most equipment for tendonitis has one focus. It is used in conjunction with tennis elbow exercises. Really expensive equipment strives to keep you in the absolute best position or posture during your exercise.

If you think about it though, what are you really learning using this equipment? You are not learning how to do the task correctly without help. You will remain at risk for injury whenever you do not use the equipment.

Essentially, you will either have to use the equipment for the rest of your life or learn how to do it right without the gadgets.

Instead of buying expensive gadgets, you can probably find everything you need at your local store. A good wrap bandage, also known as an Ace bandage, will give you compression to reduce swelling and possibly relieve pain.

However, it will not restrict your movement so much as to keep your arm in a certain position. You will have to learn the proper form.

A simple set of hand or free weights will also be very effective and very inexpensive. These will enable you to perform a wide range of tennis elbow exercise movements and techniques.

These free weights are a fantastic way to gradually build up strength in your arm. Make sure you do not take on too much load, start with the smaller weights first. These weights are also quite effective during flexibility exercises. When you have rested your elbow, you will be able to increasingly stretch your tendons to prevent future tendonitis.

Learn the Right Moves From the Right Person

As you read earlier, you do not need to spend a lot of money seeing a physical therapist to relieve your tennis elbow pain. Any exercise for tennis elbow will be just as effective done at home. However, you will still need instruction on which exercises are best and how to perform them properly.

The author of Tennis Elbow Secrets Revealed, Geoff Hunt, will provide you with all of the instruction you need to start healing your tendonitis. Hunt, a former elbow tendonitis sufferer, designed his program based on all of the knowledge he gained on his quest to heal himself.

He was tired of simply treating his recurring injury only to have it happen again. He realized that the focus of exercise for tennis elbow should be on strengthening the elbow and making it more agile to prevent future injury.

In his book, Hunt shares the series of exercises which cured his own condition. If you follow this program correctly, you should also be able to permanently cure and prevent your tennis elbow. Hunt will show you how to use common household items to heal and strengthen your arm.

Hunt will also teach you the R.I.C.E. method of healing which includes using basic bandage wraps to support and compress the arm during exercise and while resting.

Do not get fooled into spending a lot of money on physical therapy or miracle gadgets to cure your elbow tendonitis. The exercises you need to do are not complicated and do not require a big investment to see results. With good direction and advice, you should be able to heal yourself in

As with any injury, it is a smart move to see a doctor as soon as you can. Only a doctor can verify that you have tennis elbow. He will need to do a thorough exam of your lateral epicondyle, or elbow, which may include imaging such as X-rays or a CAT scan.

This will ensure that there is not a severe rupture or dislocation that will require lateral epicondylitis surgery.

Once your doctor has confirmed that you have tennis elbow, you will be ready to start healing yourself. Your doctor will likely prescribe pain killers or other prescriptions to treat your pain. If at all possible, do not take these medicines or use them very sparingly.

While your body is metabolizing and processing them, it is not able to take full advantage of the other nutrients you consume.

If you do not have enough nutrients in your body, you will not be able to grow new tissue. Since you focusing should be the growth of new, strong tissue, your best bet is to skip the meds.

The Main Ingredient Is Water

You often think of your tendons as solid and strong “straps” that help you move your arms. When you feel a tendon through your skin it feels solid. This is why it may surprise you to learn your tendons are composed of nearly 70% water.

In addition to being primarily made from water, your body needs water for every function. You cannot move or think without being properly hydrated.

It is the water in your blood that helps nutrients and growth hormones reach every part of your body. New tissue cannot be created if you are not properly hydrated.

Logically, if the main ingredient in your lateral epicondyle is water and it takes water to grow new tissue, then you need to consume a lot of water. While you can get water from your food, the best way to know you are getting enough is to drink a lot throughout the day.

A healthy person needs at least 64 ounces of water, in addition to other beverages, throughout the day. If you are healing an injury, you should try to consume at least 80 ounces of water a day to promote the most growth.

Vitamins to Regrow Tissue

Patients who are recovering from surgery for lateral epicondylitis are typically put on a healthy diet filled that will promote tissue growth. They are also often prescribed vitamin and mineral supplements to ensure they are getting the nutrients they need to heal. Using the same strategy will help you grow new tissue, even if you have not had surgery.

In addition to water, your tendons are made from collagen and elastin. These fibrous materials help the tendon stay strong, but flexible. When a tennis elbow occurs, the strain and friction causes micro tears within the tissue fibers.

The body must immediately begin filling in the micro tears with new tissue. If it does not have the nutrients it needs to do so correctly, it will begin filling in the tears with whatever is available.

Since your body is often high in calcium, your body may mistakenly build calcium rich tissue within the tears. Unfortunately, these calcium deposits will be stiff, limiting movement and easily causing painful friction.

If you do not want this to happen to you, make sure you have the nutrients your body needs to produce elastin and collagen. Vitamin-C is one of the most essential vitamins. It is the main ingredient to both elastin and collagen and you will not be able to grow new tissue without it.

Vitamin-B complexes trigger the production of growth hormone which instructs your body to build new tissue. The more vitamin-B you have, the more your body will be in “growth mode”.

In addition to these two vitamins, you should probably take a generic vitamin and mineral supplement to ensure that none of your other body processes are limited.

Keep the New Tissue Strong

It is absolutely vital that you keep the new tissue as strong and as flexible as possible. Resting is important for making repairs. However, you will also want to perform exercises to keep the tissue healthy during and after the growth process.

The e-book Tennis Elbow Secrets Revealed will give you the training you need to stay healthy. The program will instruct you on a series of flexes, stretches, and exercises that will not only keep the new tissue in peak condition, but will prevent injury in the future.

Furthermore, the e-book will teach you when and how to rest your elbow in conjunction with exercise to make sure you are healing properly.

Just remember, your body is going to repair your tennis elbow the best it can. It can fill in the wound with healthy new cells or it can create tissue that will be forever prone to pain and damage. You are the only one who can provide what it needs to build strong, flexible elbow tissue. The choice to be forever pain free is yours.