Treating Tendonitis and Broken Bones at Home

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Effective methods of treating tendonitis at home are especially valuable to those who have to chop or sawing their own wood.
Effective methods of treating tendonitis at home are especially valuable to those who have to chop or sawing their own wood.
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Always see a doctor if you have broken bones, or if your tendonitis is bad enough.
Always see a doctor if you have broken bones, or if your tendonitis is bad enough.

Modern medicine has achieved so much that people often look to it for instant cures. But for some maladies the cure is something no pill can duplicate: time and rest. The best you can hope to do is ease the course nature must follow. When recovering from tendonitis or broken bones, you can help yourself by following these recommendations.

Treating Tendonitis

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

  • Published on Oct 1, 1994
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