Submitted by Kelly Golob for Tumwater Chiropractic Center
“Tennis Elbow”, or more technically, Lateral Epicondylitis, is inflammation and damage of the tendons in your arm that you are using right now to scroll down this page with your mouse, or navigate the web on your touchscreen.
This injury is commonly seen in racquet-sport athletes, but is also common in “office athletes”, people who spend a lot of time using smart phones, or others who overuse those small muscles their arms some other way. Initially this injury starts out as inflammation of a normal tendon, but over time this can become a chronic injury that actually changes the structure of the tendons involved (tendinosis).
Some established techniques to treat chronic tennis elbow include eccentric exercises and soft-tissue mobilization. But more recently many people are beginning to see good results using Low-Level Laser therapy to treat chronic tennis elbow.
A new study was recently published in the journal Lasers in Surgery and Medicine (one of the coolest journal names out there) looking at treatment of tennis elbow with low-level Laser therapy. In this study they treated 16 patients with the real Laser or a fake laser for 8 sessions over the course of three weeks. At the beginning of the study all patients had severe pain and significant weakness in their elbows. These patients were then re-evaluated after the initial treatment, and again 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after the treatments ended.
The results of this study found no significant differences between the two groups at the end of the treatments. However, at the 3, 6 and 12 month follow ups the group treated with the real Lasers had significant improvements in their pain and strength, while the group treated with the fake laser had no significant improvements even a year later!
Therefore the authors of this study concluded that Laser therapy is an effective treatment for chronic tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis).
Our office is one of a few clinics in town offering Laser therapy, and in combination with other treatments we provide (i.e. adjustments, massage, traction, exercise) we see greater results than with treatment from any one of those alone.
We have found Laser therapy to be particularly helpful in speeding up the recovery process for chronic injuries or slow healing injuries, such as fractures, cartilage injuries, chronic tendinitis, and many others.
So if you have chronic pain, or want to speed up your recovery, call our office today to set up an exam to see if Laser treatment might be right for you.
Kelly Golob, D.C. is a chiropractor at Tumwater Chiropractic Center at 128 D St SW in Tumwater. Their clinic offers a variety of conservative and alternative treatments for musculoskeletal injuries and preventative wellness. They can be contacted at 360-570-9580 or online or find them on Facebook.
