TWO FREQUENT FALL COMPLAINTS

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HOME HEALTH REMEDIES

By sid Kirchheimer

Doctors share more of their practical home remedies.

TENDINITIS

After spending a few hours hacking away at a pile of fuelwood, your knees, elbows, and wrists may feel slightly... overextended. Of course, a little discomfort should be expected under those circumstances, but soreness could be attributed to tendinitis as much as to harmless muscle pain. So how do you tell the difference?

Tendinitis is an inflammation of the tendon — the cord that attaches muscle to bone. "So that is where you would feel the pain," says Robert E. Leach, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Boston University Medical Center and chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee on Sports Medicine and Sports Science. A pulled muscle, on the other hand, occurs in the "belly" of the muscle and hurts only when you stretch it. Although avoiding overexercising and overtraining by listening carefully to your body and ceasing painful activity immediately is the first step in dealing with painful muscles and joints, there are many therapeutic steps to take in the event of an injury.

Put on an ice pack

"Ice decreases inflammation by decreasing blood flow to the injured area," says Steven F. Habusta, D.O., of Parkwood Orthopedics in Toledo. "There's no such thing as too much ice."

You can buy an ice pack made of gel, or you can make a pack by putting ice in a sealed plastic bag. Another alternative is to use a bag of frozen vegetables. Dr. Habusta suggests placing a terry cloth towel between your skin and the ice pack to prevent burns or blisters.

Once the swelling of the immediate injury has gone down, applying heat in the form of pads, liniments, or warm compresses can help keep the affected tendons from stiffening as well as ease your pain. Do not use a heating pad with liniments though, as this may result in an extremely painful burn.

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