What is Tendonitis?
You Got It.
You Don't Want It.

Ahhhh, TENDONITIS.

What is Tendonitis?, you ask?

You know Tendonitis hurts, and that it won't go away like you want it to.

You know it is keeping you from doing what you want to do. You know it’s not going away all by itself. You wish it would.

But that's just not how tendonitis works, and for an effective tendonitis treatment you need to know what tendonitis -really- is, how it works, why the pain stays, etc.

What you don’t know is how to get rid of it. Or you would have already.




What is Tendonitis? Let's Define It.

Ahhhh, TENDONITIS.

Well, first off, spelling-wise it's the same thing as TENDINITIS. Same thing, different spelling.  Fun trivia fact:  People google the search term 'tendonitis' more than 'tendinitis' by a factor of about 3 to 1.


So what is Tendonitis?

Dictionaries, including the American Heritage Dictionary, define tendonitis as:

Tendonitis: (těn'də-nī'tĭs) n. Inflammation of a tendon.

That certainly is short, succinct, and to the point. But not really helpful to you.

What is Tendonitis? - Here's another way of defining tendinitis that actually contains some useful information.

Tendonitis: (ten done nigh tiss) n. 1. A pain causing condition that does not get better on its own.

2. Caused by a combination of wear-and-tear, inflammation, and the human body's slightly misguided healing mechanism.

3. Everybody gets it to some degree or other.

Those are all important things to know.

But what is REALLY helpful for you to know is that the causes of Tendinitis are simple, and the solutions are simple. You just need to discover what they are.


As you'll see farther down the page, the official dictionary definition, while technically true, is only telling a tiny fraction of the whole story. 



What is Tendonitis?
Are There Different Types of Tendonitis?

Another important concept to understand is that the only -real- difference in the Types of Tendinitis is the location that you hurt.

There are no 'types' of Tendonitis, there is only Tendonitis found in different locations.

For instance, Golfers Elbow, Tennis Elbow, Plantar Fasciitis, and Rotator Cuff Tendonitis are all the exact same Tendinitis dynamic, just in different locations.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome may or may not be Tendinitis depending on how you look at it.

The root cause of Tendinitis, the dynamic, is the same. That's why it doesn't so much matter whether you have acute or Chronic Tendonitis.

The tendonitis dynamic also results in other pain and problem, including Bone Spur formation.


-----Watch This Video With The Quick Answer to the question:   What Is Tendonitis? -----


It is important for you to know that all 'types' of Tendinitis share the same Pain Causing Dynamic.


Did you also know that the following problems are nothing but tendinitis dynamic, pure and simple?

* Shin Splints

* Whiplash Neck Injury

* Tennis Elbow

* Dequervain's

* Tenosynovitis

* Chronic pain months and years after injury

*  The chronic pain and tightness after surgery

* Bone on bone hip and knee pain

What is Tendonitis? All of the above, and more. It's a dynamic, not an injury that showed up out of the blue.


It is valuable to know that regardless of the 'type' of Tendonitis you are experiencing, giving your painful hotspot(s) a period of Rest may temporarily lessen the pain, but it will neither cure you, fix your Tendonitis, nor make the problem go away.

By the time you hurt, the Pain Causing Dynamic is already firmly in place.

Tendonitis does not show up on xray

There are many instigating causes of Tendonitis. A relatively new danger to tendon tissue are the antibiotics Levaquin and Cipro.

For a list and a brief conversation about causes, see Tendonitis Causes For a more indepth conversation from a slightly different angle, see the What Causes Tendonitis page.

And of course, having just said that there are no actual 'types' of Tendonitis, I am now going to say that there -are- two distinct categories of Tendonitis pain, two different Tendonitis Types, which consist of pain with tendon damage, and pain -without- any tendon damage.


Tendonitis DOES NOT show up on an x-ray.

Not in your shoulder, not in your wrist, not at your elbow, knee, or ankle.

If a doctor tells you he's going to do an xray, regardless of what he says, it's really just to rule out a fracture or break of the bone, or to look for bone spurs..  




What is Tendonitis?
This Is Tendonitis!

What is Tendonitis? Tendonitis can be a structural injury, or it can be a structural dynamic of chronic tightness that causes all the symptoms of an injury.

For the most part we're just going to talk about the wear and tear injury kind of Tendonitis. And, the treatment is the same.


Much more than just Inflammation of a tendon, here is an explanation that more accurately defines Tendonitis.

1. All the fibers of a strong structure (Tendon) run the same direction.

2. When injured, either through trauma or wear-and-tear, some of these fibers break/rip/tear.

3. The body kicks in a Process of Inflammation, which traps fluid in the area and releases chemicals which make you extra-sensitive to pain -and- has the body tighten muscles.

4. Scar Tissue is the same kind of protein fiber as the original tissue but it lays down in a variety of directions to heal 'fast'.

5. These 'non-aligned' fibers make the structure less strong than it was pre-injury.

6. Then it takes less and less to re-injure the structure. The nervous system get more reactive and tries more and more to protect you by making muscles tighter and tighter. This puts more torque/strain on the structurally weakened structure.

7. Every time one of those non-aligned fibers tears or breaks off, the body reads that as an injury and kicks in more inflammation process.

8. Return to #2 and repeat over and over as the days, weeks, and months pass.

If the only problem with Tendinitis was 'inflammation', it wouldn't be the national epidemic that it is. Inflammation is easy to deal with.

Are you ready to heal your Tendonitis?


There is an all too familiar story of the usual history of this injury.

It sounds something like "I first had some pain in my wrist from (insert activity here) so I took a couple ibuprofen and took a day off.

The pain was gone, I didn't think anything about it, then a few days later it was back. Then continued for several months, and now I am in considerable pain and it won't go away. As soon as I start to (activity) it hurts even more and can even become so intense that nothing helps it.

Then I decided that I might have a real problem and I should see somebody about it."

Sound familiar?


If I haven't made it totally clear yet, the real answer to the What Is Tendonitis question is: "Tendonitis is something that can reliably taken care of -IF- you take the RIGHT measures."


If you have any questions about what you find on this site and how it relates to your specific situation feel free to Ask The Tendonitis Expert.


Another factor to take into account when dealing with Tendonitis is Tendonosis.

And, BAD Tendonitis can lead to Torn Tendons, and vice versa.


Want a FREE, natural, effective (and tasty) way to have strong, healthy, injury resistant tendons?

Go to the Best Natural Tendon Supplement page.






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Go to the main Tendonitis page.

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