A 63 year old man came to our office struggling with tennis elbow on the right arm. He was retired and devoted his time to playing competitive tennis – he was currently state champion in his age group. This elbow pain acupuncture case study describes how his pain was resolved in just 4 treatments.
The Problem
Elbow pain is all too common for Americans. There are a number of different types of elbow pain. Imagine standing with your arms by your sides, palms facing forward. Tennis elbow is pain affecting the lateral (outside) part of the elbow. It is commonly triggered when playing tennis, lifting weights or doing repetitive movement with the elbow.
Another common elbow pain is golf elbow, affecting the medial (inside) part of the elbow. The classic trigger for this type of pain is playing golf too much golf for too long. I had a patient once say “After 27 holes of golf my elbow was killing me!”
Both of these types of elbow pain involve inflammation of the tendons. That’s why they are referred to as tendinitis of the elbow.
The Solution
Acupuncture eases elbow pain by reducing inflammation along the affected tendons. The sterile, single-use, hair thin needles that we use during treatment draw off inflammation, and increase blood circulation to heal. The combination of reducing inflammation and increasing blood circulation not only reduce pain, but heal the injury long-term.
Elbow Pain Acupuncture Case Study
In this elbow pain acupuncture case study, our patient had tennis elbow. It was triggered by playing too much tennis. He had no choice, as he was playing tournaments competitively. This 63 year old was state champion! He HAD to play tennis. But he also had to get rid of this pain, because is was starting to affect his game.
His treatment included using local acupuncture points on the lateral side of the elbow and arm. Points included the following: Li11, Li10, LU5, Si8, TW10 and Li4. These points were used on the right elbow (where the pain was located).
We also used a technique called “Dong Qi”, where we needle the opposite elbow. As odd as it sounds, treating the other elbow sometimes helps heal the affected side.
Our patient responded well. After the first treatment he had 30% less pain in his elbow. By the fourth treatment his pain was completely gone.
All the while he was still playing tennis. There are some types of injuries that require rest while recovering. One such injury is sciatica. Other injuries, like plantar fasciitis, do not require rest while recovering.
Tennis and golf elbow heal faster if the patient can rest. But in this case rest was not an option. For this patient as least, healing occurred even though he continued to play tennis.
Next Steps
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What our Clients are Saying
My whole arm went numb from my shoulder down to the fingers. It was a burning, numb pain that was terrible. I couldn’t sleep. The doctor told me to take pain meds, which didn’t help. They said I was stressed. My son has been helped at Raleigh Acupuncture so I booked an appointment. They treated my neck to take pressure off the nerves to my arm. After the first treatment my pain went down by half. And after six treatments the pain was gone. I was so relieved and thankful.
I’m a cook and work at a hospital kitchen. I developed terrible pain in my elbow, arm and hand, so bad that I had to take a leave of absence from work. I got 4 acupuncture treatments and my pain was gone. I was able to go back to work. I highly recommend Raleigh Acupuncture for elbow pain.
I developed tennis elbow and suffered for eight months. I was told to take ibuprofen 3 times a day for a month. Well, that didn’t help. After just 3 treatments my elbow pain was completely gone. Why did I wait so long??? Raleigh Acupuncture really did the job.
