Have you ever noticed that when you use everyday items like rubber bands or sponges they tend to wear out over time? The rubber bands lose their elasticity and eventually become very brittle.
Sponges lose their ability to absorb liquids and begin to fall apart.
This can happen to your body as well.
The harder you are on your body the higher the risk of injury.
One of the most common forms of injury is known as Repetitive Stress Injury (or RSI).
This type of injury comes from the overuse of your joints and muscles mainly through repetitive movements that are made over an extended period of time.
An example would be typists who have swelling and pain in their hands and down their wrists from doing so much typing.
This type of RSI is known as carpel tunnel syndrome.
Two other types of Repetitive Stress Injuries are bursitis and tendinitis.
Bursitis is inflammation of the bursae (small fluid filled sacs that cushion between the bones and tendons) and tendinitis is the inflammation of a tendon.
By over stressing the body these type injuries can happen quickly or over a long period of time depending on what sort of action is being performed.
How Do I Know If This Is What I Have? It is thought that most of the people who suffer from RSI are over the age of thirty, however, there are quite a few younger people that are now showing signs of this sort of injury.
This may be in part because the use of technology has rocketed so quickly that youngsters are suffering more and more of this type of injury during the use of such technologies.
So, how do you know that you have an RSI? It is pretty simple actually.
If you have an activity that you do in a repetitive manner such as swinging a tennis racket on a regular basis or using a hydraulic screwdriver in a factory and you notice that your elbow is tender, hot, and inflamed then it is a good possibility that you have an RSI.
The area will also usually appear red and there will not be pain in the rest of the body.
While it is always best to get a doctor's opinion odds are that you do have a Repetitive Stress Injury.
What Can Be Done For It? Once you have a positive diagnosis that this is what you are suffering from the doctor will then come up with a treatment regimen for you to follow.
Designed to get your pain and swelling done this treatment usually also tries to prevent worsening of the condition.
One of the first things doctors will do is to try and get the swelling down which will help to relieve some of the pain as well.
To accomplish they normally recommend NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) which help to bring the swelling down and can reduce pain as well.
They cannot reduce the chance of further damage.
If this does not work there are other avenues available to you and your doctor to explore.
One thing is for sure though.
You will need to examine your daily routine and find out what activity it is that has caused this injury and possibly consider the need to either limit that activity or highly reduce the amount of times that you are performing it on a regular basis.
This will help to reduce your chances of the injury reoccurring to avoid a repetitive stress injury.
Sponges lose their ability to absorb liquids and begin to fall apart.
This can happen to your body as well.
The harder you are on your body the higher the risk of injury.
One of the most common forms of injury is known as Repetitive Stress Injury (or RSI).
This type of injury comes from the overuse of your joints and muscles mainly through repetitive movements that are made over an extended period of time.
An example would be typists who have swelling and pain in their hands and down their wrists from doing so much typing.
This type of RSI is known as carpel tunnel syndrome.
Two other types of Repetitive Stress Injuries are bursitis and tendinitis.
Bursitis is inflammation of the bursae (small fluid filled sacs that cushion between the bones and tendons) and tendinitis is the inflammation of a tendon.
By over stressing the body these type injuries can happen quickly or over a long period of time depending on what sort of action is being performed.
How Do I Know If This Is What I Have? It is thought that most of the people who suffer from RSI are over the age of thirty, however, there are quite a few younger people that are now showing signs of this sort of injury.
This may be in part because the use of technology has rocketed so quickly that youngsters are suffering more and more of this type of injury during the use of such technologies.
So, how do you know that you have an RSI? It is pretty simple actually.
If you have an activity that you do in a repetitive manner such as swinging a tennis racket on a regular basis or using a hydraulic screwdriver in a factory and you notice that your elbow is tender, hot, and inflamed then it is a good possibility that you have an RSI.
The area will also usually appear red and there will not be pain in the rest of the body.
While it is always best to get a doctor's opinion odds are that you do have a Repetitive Stress Injury.
What Can Be Done For It? Once you have a positive diagnosis that this is what you are suffering from the doctor will then come up with a treatment regimen for you to follow.
Designed to get your pain and swelling done this treatment usually also tries to prevent worsening of the condition.
One of the first things doctors will do is to try and get the swelling down which will help to relieve some of the pain as well.
To accomplish they normally recommend NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) which help to bring the swelling down and can reduce pain as well.
They cannot reduce the chance of further damage.
If this does not work there are other avenues available to you and your doctor to explore.
One thing is for sure though.
You will need to examine your daily routine and find out what activity it is that has caused this injury and possibly consider the need to either limit that activity or highly reduce the amount of times that you are performing it on a regular basis.
This will help to reduce your chances of the injury reoccurring to avoid a repetitive stress injury.