why wy?

I'm spending my morning walks to work listening to health podcasts, in particular, ABC's The Health Report, most of which I downloaded ages ago but haven't listened to.

This nugget of information comes from 2006 (this is embarrassing) regarding tennis elbow. It turns out tennis elbow is more complicated than simple inflammation of the extensor tendon. It seems to involve a change in the collagen content of the tendon, increased disorganisation of the cellular matrix, blood vessels and nerves in the area, which could explain why even the smallest action like picking up a cup of tea, suddenly become painful.

The university of Queensland did a study where they divided participants into 3 groups. One group had a steroid injection, another had manual therapy, the last group did nothing. All had advice on ergonomics and correct lifting to avoid aggravating the elbow.

The first group improved very quickly, but had slower healing at the 3 month mark and a greater chance of reoccurance.
The second group improved less quickly but had the best recovery at 3 months and continued to improve after that.
And the do nothing group had roughly 80% recovery at 12 months.

The take home message is that it's okay to wait and see if you suffer from tennis elbow, but if it doesn't improve after 3 months, go for some manual therapy and steroid injections should be a last resort.

And with most muscular skeletal injuries, it is good to continue to be active but avoid painful movements, or doing an activity to the point of pain.