A 54-year-old woman came to our clinic complaining of severe elbow pain. She attributed the condition to playing golf four days a week. She had retired the previous year and devoted all of her energy to improving her game, which had been developing nicely until the elbow pain started. This golf elbow acupuncture case describes how we helped resolve her pain and got her back on course. First, let’s start with some background.
Golf Elbow Vs. Tennis Elbow
People always talk about having tennis elbow or golf elbow – but what’s the difference? The distinction between golf and tennis elbow is as simple as “inside-outside .” Golf elbow is tendinosis of the medial epicondyle of the humerus (forearm bone), while tennis elbow involves the lateral epicondyle.
Elbows have three bony protrusions – the pointy tip that we consider the “elbow” is the olecranon. The two other bumps are the medial and lateral epicondyles. The key to understanding medial versus lateral is knowing anatomical position – standing erect with arms by your side and palms facing forward. In this position, the medial epicondyle is closer to your body – this is where golf elbow strikes. The lateral epicondyles face out – the location of tennis elbow.
Now that you have a clear picture of the location of golf elbow, let’s see what causes it to hurt. Tendinosis (a.k.a. tendinitis) is the culprit source of pain in this golf elbow acupuncture case.
Understanding Tendinosis
The anterior forearm contains several muscles to flex the fingers and pronate the wrist. These muscle tendons combine into a tendinous sheath, originating from the medial epicondyle of the humerus at the elbow joint. Overuse and repetitive movements cause the point of insertion to become inflamed, causing pain.
Golf Elbow Acupuncture Case
Our patient experienced constant right elbow pain that was sharp and stabbing when grabbing objects and swinging her golf club. She also encountered a dull, achy sensation radiating from her elbow, down the arm, and into the wrist and hand. After swinging her golf clubs, icing gave her some relief, but it was only temporary. If anything, the pain was getting worse, even though she was hardly playing any golf at all.
Acupuncture Treatment Strategy
One of the reasons acupuncture works well to relieve golf elbow is because the treatments dramatically increase blood circulation around the area of injury. Tendon inflammation has a tendency to linger, but applying needles around the damaged area draws off heat.
If you’ve ever used a pressure cooker to prepare food, you cool off the pot by running cold water over the cover. This action prompts steam to release until the pressure is low enough to remove the lid safely. Acupuncture works similarly, encouraging blood to circulate around the inflamed area, releasing heat, and promoting deep healing to the injured tendons.
In this golf elbow acupuncture case, our treatment included local points around the elbow and distal points on the body that promote blood circulation. Within four sessions, acupuncture had entirely resolved our patient’s elbow pain. A six-month follow-up revealed that the pain never returned. She happily returned to playing golf, never looking back.
Acupuncture Relieves Golf Elbow
Try acupuncture if you or a loved one struggles with elbow pain, either golf or tennis elbow. Treatments are safe – all needles are sterile, single-use, and hair-thin. Most patients feel relief within the first four sessions.
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Photo by Martin Magnemyr: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-wearing-a-sweater-playing-golf-5044296/
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.
