Natural Ways to Treat Wrist and Elbow Pain

Link to Flex Bar used in this routine: https://amzn.to/2uahWAn

When looking to overcome wrist and elbow pain, a good first step is to identify its root cause.

Overuse is arguably the most common cause of pain and stiffness in the wrist joint. When the wrist is asked to do more work than it is suited for without adequate rest, the ligaments, tendons, muscles, and even the bones that make up the wrist and elbow can become inflamed.

Wrist and elbow pain can also be the result of inflammation caused by intake of food that your body treats as an antigen. For a number of reasons, your immune system may identify a component of food that you regularly eat as being a threat to your well-being. The ensuing immune system response can lead to antigen-antibody complexes being deposited into your joints, creating inflammation and pain.

Incomplete or suboptimal healing of a previous injury in the area can also be a root cause of wrist or elbow pain, whereby bones or joints are suboptimally aligned or scar tissue gets in the way of proper mechanics of the joint.

Sometimes, wrist or elbow pain can be referred nociception from a distal region, or even the manifestation of a hypersensitive nervous system that is creating a self-perpetuating cycle of pain and muscular hypertonicity in the wrist and elbow regions - reflex sympathetic dystrophy is an example of this type of chronic pain.

Regardless of the root cause of wrist or elbow pain, in the vast majority of cases, lasting improvement requires restoration of proper movement and stability of the many joints that make up the wrist complex. The video above demonstrates a simple progression of exercises that I find helpful for promoting optimal movement and stability of said joints, and for ensuring that the muscles and tendons that feed into the wrist from the elbow region are not contributing to wrist pain and dysfunction.

If you have any questions about the material in this video, please feel free to write to me directly at benkim@drbenkim.com. As is always the case, it's prudent to consult with your personal physician before you try any exercises that are new to you. I hope this video proves to be useful in helping you create healthier wrists and elbows for the long term.

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