Tendons are thick cords that attach muscles to bones. When tendons become inflamed and irritated, you have tendonitis. You likely have pain and tenderness around the affected joint. It can worsen without treatment.
The expert team at Dr. Louis Keppler & Associates has treated tendonitis in patients who play sports, in people whose jobs require repetitive motion, and in adults over the age of 40 who aren’t sure why their joints hurt. We offer a new type of treatment, called stem cell therapy, that is quite successful in speeding the healing of tendonitis.
Tendonitis has lots of names. Tennis elbow is one kind of tendonitis. So are swimmer’s shoulder, golfer’s elbow, and jumper’s knee. The reason tendonitis has so many names is that it can occur in any tendon in your body. However, it happens most often in the wrist, elbow, shoulder, knee, and heel.
Regardless of where tendonitis occurs, the symptoms are similar. You feel pain, which some people describe as a dull ache, when you move the affected joint. Your joint also feels tender, and you may have slight swelling.
Tendonitis is usually due to overuse, and it’s often associated with sports. For example, a baseball pitcher who throws hundreds of balls a week is at risk for tendonitis in the shoulder.
Athletes are at risk for tendonitis, but they’re not the only ones. If your job requires you to perform the same motion again and again, you have a higher risk of overuse injury. Sudden injury can also cause tendonitis, but that’s rarer.
If you’re over 40, you have a higher risk, as well. That’s because over time your tendons become less flexible and more vulnerable.
The goal of treatment is to relieve your symptoms and return to full mobility without pain. Treatment always begins with rest. Your tendon needs time to begin healing, and if you continue to perform the action that caused the injury, it won’t heal.
After adequate rest, we may recommend you perform certain exercises to strengthen the muscles that support your tendon, and others to improve your flexibility.
One of the most effective treatments we’ve found is stem cell therapy.
Your body contains multitudes of cells of different types. Among those types is stem cells, which are quite amazing. They are “undifferentiated,” which means they don’t have a specific purpose. Instead, they can become whatever kind of cell your body happens to need, and they can replicate as that type of cell.
Imagine you’ve gotten a paper cut on your finger. Your body leaps into healing action and immediately sends stem cells to the site. Once they arrive, they transform into whatever is necessary, such as skin cells to mend the cut in your skin.
Stem cells are located in various places throughout your body. When you have stem cell therapy for tendonitis, your doctor extracts them and then injects them directly into your injured tendon, where they can transform and speed up healing.
If you have tendonitis, or suspect that you do, schedule an appointment at Dr. Louis Keppler & Associates today. We can provide an evaluation and suggest the most effective and appropriate treatment approach for you. To schedule, simply call our office in Independence, Ohio, at 234-430-0079.
