Tendonitis

The body depends on a good blood supply to heal any kind of injury. Unfortunately, tendons do not have very good vascular flow. In fact the Achilles tendon, particularly the lower third, has just about the worst blood supply in the body. So it is not surprising that injuries to the Achilles heal slowly. It can take a couple of weeks (or longer) for enough collagen tissues to gather to begin repairing the tears.

Tendons are fibrous bands of elastin tissue that connect muscles to bones. Without them, muscles could not do their job of moving different part of the body. They transmit the power of the muscle contraction to just the right spot on a bone so that the muscle may do its work properly. Different circumstances cause tendons to become inflamed or irritated, a condition that is classified as tendonitis.

A person suffering form tendonitis may experience discomfort and tenderness over the area where the affected tendon is located. Movement of the area may be extremely painful. Since tendons usually cross over a joint before connecting to a bone, the most common areas affected are shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles.

What causes tendonitis? Overuse or misuse of a muscle may place extreme tension on a tendon and cause it injury. Trauma also can bring it on, getting sat on by a horse for example! Chronic or frequent bouts of tendonitis can result when scar tissue or calcium coats the tendon, causing a loss of elasticity and painful movement after the original damage is healed. Walking or exercising incorrectly can trigger the condition. Signs and symptoms primarily are swelling and pain when moving the shoulder, elbow, knee, or ankle, or increased warmth over the areas involved.

One of the paradoxes of sports podiatry is that even though the Achilles tendon is the strongest, thickest tendon in the body. It is also the site of frequent overuse injuries. Achilles tendonitis flares up when you overuse or injure the tendon that joins your calf muscles to your heel bone. It does not act like other exercise injuries, often hurting most in the morning, and then letting up as the day wears on and natural stretching warms it up. Activities involving running especially jogging, racquetball or tennis are most likely to set it off. It occurs most often in people who overpronate – roll their feet too far inward – or who bounce when they walk, which is sometimes the sign of an unusually short tendon. Check the wear of your shoes to see how you walk. When walking, running or exercising, always roll from the heel to the toe to avoid putting full impact on the heel.