Even more warnings about the dangers of cortisone injections

Here is an example of the damage that can happen from a single cortisone
injection for "Tennis Elbow" several months later.  This woman
is left with very thin de-pigmented skin over a diffuse area
and loss of protective fat.

I have written more than a few articles about the dangers of injecting cortisone into body parts, like tendons, ligaments, joints and muscles.  Have a read here of one of my earlier warnings about these harmful injections.  The photos look very similar to the ones in this article don't they?

And here is the search string for a whole lot of articles I have written about cortisone injections.

These injections can leave their victims suffering from visible deformities and ongoing structural weakness, including catastrophic rupture of muscles and tendons.  These are not theoretical or rare - these are common side-effects of a surgical procedure that is enthusiastically promoted as the "quick-fix" panacea of all musculo-skeletal aches and pains.

Give me a shot doc

The protective fat of the elbow has been lost, exposing the
bone, tendons, nerves and ligaments to injury from
bumping.  It is visibly unsightly.  This skin damage and loss
of protective cover will become more and more of a
problems as she gets older.

 How come?  Here is my speculation as to why (excuse me if the following comes across as being a bit cynical):

• It is a surgical procedure that wannabe surgeons who never quite made the grade can employ.
• It is cheap, quick and easy to perform with a very good rate of financial return for the administering doctor.
• It fits with the criteria for most medical procedures of today - Fast Medicine!

The adverse reactions to these injections are grossly understated.  Why?

The site of the "tennis elbow" that was injected was the wrong spot!
So, several months later, she still had elbow pain which has now
resolved with some firm deep tissue massage.

• Because the adverse effects such as deformity and tendon rupture may not be obvious, or happen until several months later.  By which time the injury may not be linked with the cortisone injection.
• The doctor who caused the harm may be reluctant to acknowledge the link and even less reluctant to report it to officials (Less than 10% of all adverse medical reactions ever get reported: Some cynics believe the true figure to be less than 1%).
• The drugs company that supplied the cortisone may dispute any attempts to link the procedure with cases of harm.
• Accident Compensation is the master at wiggling out of injury claims.  It does this by hiring medical experts who are expert at turning real injuries into fictional degenerative processes.
• The patient usually does not have the nous, the time, nor the energy to take a case through to acceptance.

This woman needs a skin graft and fat injections.  She
is hoping for a successful ACC claim to cover
these procedures.  My advice to her is not to hold
her breath!  It will be interesting to see how she gets on.

My advice if offered a cortisone injection is this:

Say "No!"

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

I am a massage therapist with overuse injuries affecting my wrists and arms

Hi Gary,
I was just doing some research online about the risks of cortisone injections and came across your web page. I was wondering if you could give me your opinion about my wrist problems?

I'm a 26 yr. old female massage therapist. I've been working as a massage therapist for the past 3 years. I have been having a lot of pain on the ulnar side of my wrist next to the carpal bones.

 Ulnar deviation is very painful while I'm working and just doing everyday activities. I just took three months off to rest my wrist to see if the pain would go away. It did a little... but not too much. I have been receiving ultrasound treatments, but they don't seem to do too much. I had nerve conduction testing done because I was having some numbness, but the doctor said my nerves were fine. I'm extremely flexible so the doctor thinks the extreme range of motion in my wrists leaves me vulnerable to injury when I'm massaging. I need to build strength, but I also have tennis elbow from doing massage. Every time I try to use bands to do light strength training, the tennis elbow is aggravated. I feel like I'm stuck in a big catch-22. I just went back to work this week and the pain is right back to what it used to be. My doctor said the next thing we could do is cortisone injections. I'm going back to school to get into a different career because I know I won't be able to do massage for much longer. I wanted to be able to work my way through school by doing massage just part time. Even if I can't do that, I want the pain to go away so i can at least do everyday activities pain

 free.

I wanted to know if there are any other options other than cortisone injections to help relieve my pain? I massage it and stretch it. Warm up before doing massage and ice after. Wear a wrist brace to bed at night. Wear a magnetic bracelet during the day. I would really appreciate any advice you could offer.

Thank you,
Lisa
___________________________________________
Gary:

Lisa, I usually massage several clients daily, so I can identify with the problems you have.

  Massage can be a tough workout; especially when working on gristly male athletes who have run themselves into the dirt!  I do not do relaxing massages - they are hard work designed to restore diseased muscles, tendons and ligaments to a healthy state.  To answer your questions, let me explain how I manage to cope....

I recall it taking the best part of 6-8 months to get my arms up to scratch and this was on top of a background of decades of competitive sport, including kayaking and constant gym work.  there were times that I struggled with tendonitis in the wrists and even now the finger joints are not 100%.  Massaging full-time is repetitive, exhausting and every bit as tough on the upper body as, say doing an all day paddle down a river.

Here is how I cope:

• I try to limit massages to no more than 4-6 hours per day
• I try to space the males out so that I do not get too many of them in a row
• I have a quick snack between clients just as I would if I was competing in an all day multisports event
• I am a stickler for good nutrition, including tissue salts and the occasional dose of joint food, otherwise how can my body recover and heal?  You can find heaps of information on this website about nutrition
• My partner, Alofa, is very strong and very good at massage.  Twice or more a week, she gets stuck into my arms and shoulders to work out the knotts and inflammation that builds.  Without this ongoing maintenance massage work, I would be disabled with tendonitis and arthritic joints
• If I take a break from doing massage, the longest has been about 10 days - any longer and the body deconditions and the risk of injury is high if one then dives back into it full-time

Lisa, if you look at the arms and hands of an experienced professional massage therapist, you will see strong, well defined muscles, tendons and ligaments and huge, profuse blood vessels.  It

 takes years to build these.  I will make the observation that many, if not the majority of young women and men nowadays are fragile as compared to what I recall of my 20's.   Young people generally do not eat well due to low fat diets.  Lack of sunshine ensures general fragility including weak bones and sinews.

  These young people are consequently not well suited for hard manual labour.  You may very well be one of these young people with the extreme range of

 motion being an indicator that this may be the case.  

Picture: Moller family portrait, with the strongest legs belonging to the teenage daughter - Point is strong muscles, sinews and bones like these are less common nowadays

I am not about to tell you to give up.  Better still; train and eat like an athlete preparing for Olympic competition:  Get onto a nutrient rich diet, get regular massages on your upper body and arms and pace yourself.  Restrict massage to every second day with 2 days complete break during a week.  I would not bother about trying to do additional strenghtening exercises.  Use the massage sessions as your workouts and concentrate on recovery and growth between sessions (workouts).

Cortisone is not an option unless you want to become a long term client of mine!   Read my articles about cortisone injections.

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What can I do for chronic tennis elbow?

I have a chronic case of tennis elbow for which I was treated about 18 months ago with a cortisone shot into the elbow area. The pain resolved but returned about 9 months later due to repetive motions (mostly golf but I must admit also playing video games). About 4 months ago I had a second shot but the pain did not completely resolve, I would say it was about 80% better, though the pain was bad enough before the shot that it would wake me at night.

Over the last month the pain has steadily increased and I thought about seeing my sports doctor again, but I was getting nervous about the side effects of these shots. I found your site and was more than a bit shocked that I did not know about these dangers caused by deterioration of the bones, tissue, etc.

My question is, so far, only the shots have seemed to help. I do the stretches, wear a band on my arm when I play golf and I generally try to go easy on it but I also work at a desk and type all day which also seems to aggravate it. What can I do, in terms of stretches, supplements, etc. that I haven't been doing, or need to do more of, in order to relieve the pain?

_____________________________________

Gary replies:

The flexor and extensor muscles of the forearm are most likely to be very tight and probably have sore knotts in them.  The point of pain at the elbow may be inflamed and probably thickened with some gristle.

The best treatment is some form of deep tissue massage of the obvoius area sof pain, lumpiness and thickening, as well as the whole of the lower and upper arm.  Those areas affected and not affected.  This shoudl include the wrist, hands and fingers even if there is no discomfort.

Some areas may be acutely painful at first but should ease as the massage proceeds.  It would take about an hour to have both arms completed.

This should be repeated every week for 4-8 weeks by which time significant relief should be obvious.  Continue with this therapy untill 100% and have followup sessions every now and then.

I believe that adequate nutrition is essential to ensure the healing processes are up to the job between each session.  If not, then there will be only partial relief.  Nutrition should centre on minerals (Principally silica and calium flouride), the fat soluble vitamins, protein and essential fatty acids.  If you complete the Active Elements Assessment and supply all the additional information requested, I can assist in more detail since the best diet advice is that which is tailored for the individual, rather than a one-size-fits-all set of guidelines.

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