You've Never Heard of an Enthesopathy?

Tuesday November 30, -0001 comments

The word enthesopathy may be unfamiliar to you, but many of the conditions included under that family of disorders are probably very familiar:

• tennis elbow       • rotator cuff syndrome     • plantar fasciitis

• shin splints          • high hamstring pull        • Achilles tendinitis

• frozen shoulder    • runner’s knee                • DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis

 Simply put, an enthesopathy is a disorder of the muscular or tendinous attachment to bone.  Regular muscle overuse / strain injuries tend to heal faster than enthesopathies because muscle tissue has a good blood supply and is more elastic, whereas connective tissues like ligaments and tendons are less vascular and much stiffer.  Therefore, these injuries can be very chronic and recurrent.

 We have found a combination of therapies with a good success rate for these stubborn cases.  These therapies include:

Active Release Techniques® (ART) myofascial therapy

√ far red/near infrared LED light therapy

√ Kinesio® taping

√ eccentric lowering exercises

√ foam roller stretching

√ nutritional recommendations for reducing systemic inflammation

 Now that you know what an enthesopathy is and what some conservative therapy options are, don’t let yourself get sidelined by one of these common conditions. A delay in treatment may lead to worsening of the condition which sometimes will necessitate a surgical intervention.