
Tendon injuries are often automatically slapped with the label “tendonitis,” yet the real problem is much more likely to be “tendinosis.” Regardless of your fitness pursuits, understanding the distinction can dramatically alter your treatment and speed your recovery.
The difference is fairly simple: Tendonitis (as the “itis” suffix suggests) involves tendon inflammation; tendinosis describes tendon degeneration without inflammation. Both fall under the more general umbrella diagnosis of “tendinopathy,” but nearly all cases of tennis elbow, sore Achilles’ tendons, jumper’s knee, shoulder pain and foot problems stem from tendinosis. Instances of tendonitis, on the other hand, are relatively rare.
What Is Tendonitis?
Tendonitis is caused by the rapid convergence of white blood cells on an injured tendon, provoking an inflammatory reaction. Normal tendon strands lie side by side, but when suffering from tendonitis, they swell and bump against each other. The injured area is warm to the touch and can be quite painful.
Luckily, with a little ice and rest, tendonitis takes as little as two weeks to heal, says Scott Rodeo, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and clinician-scientist at The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, as well as a team doctor for the 2007 Super Bowl champion New York Giants.
What Is Tendinosis?
Tendinosis, on the other hand, stems from chronic overuse rather than a single acute event. “With tendinosis, there’s an abnormal collagen or protein buildup — the tendon’s microfibers start to resemble sticky, overcooked spaghetti,” says Karim Khan, MD, PhD, assistant professor of family medicine and human kinetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and coauthor of Clinical Sports Medicine.
Damage occurs at a microscopic level long before symptoms of pain, tightness and soreness appear. As with tendonitis, you might feel anything from a slight twinge to a jabbing pain.
Tendinosis usually occurs because you have not rested enough between workouts that require heavy or stressful loading to the affected area. But, because researchers have not specifically identified an optimal rest period to prevent the condition, many fitness experts simply recommend that you follow a periodized program, with built-in deloading phases, to help prevent such overuse injuries. Cross-training can also help you avoid overusing a particular area.
Unlike tendonitis, tendinosis often requires at least three to six months for recovery. “It’s not realistic to think you can heal in, say, six weeks, because it probably took a lot longer than that to reach the point of pain,” says Bryan Chung, MD, PhD, founder of the blog Evidence-Based Fitness (www.evidencebasedfitness.blogspot.com).
Some physicians even stretch that recovery period to nine months or more. Tendinosis takes a considerable amount of time to heal because of limited blood flow to tendons, and because it can take 100 days for your body to reestablish strong collagen, which repairs damage.
The Active Road to Recovery
The good news: You don’t have to be inactive during your recovery. In fact, inactivity can actually slow tendinosis recovery. Following the right treatment plan can encourage your tendon to reconstruct itself with healthy, normal tissue.
“You’ll want to scale back your usual routine or pursue alternative activities,” says Chung. “If you’re a runner, for example, you might hop on the exercise bike or do some water running instead. But total abstinence is probably not a great idea because you’re likely to fall behind on your overall fitness goals.” And that, the experts note, can make it tougher for you to come back from your injury. (For more ideas about moderating activity, see “Joint Effort”.)
Often, effective treatment plans include eccentric exercises, which focus on the “negative” component of a movement. And for good reason: A 2004 study conducted by the University of Umea in Sweden indicated that eccentric exercises speed collagen rebuilding.
Khan recommends eccentric exercises such as heel drops for Achilles’ tendinosis, mini-squats for jumper’s knee and wrist drops for tennis elbow. (For more on eccentrics, see “Put the Weight Down!”.)
While researchers can’t definitively explain how eccentrics heal, the theory, explains Khan, is that our bodies send something called “neovessels” to the site of the injury, which impede the healing process and stimulate nerve endings, causing us to feel pain. Eccentric training effectively kills off those neovessels, thus promoting healing and reducing pain.
More You Can Do
The best route for treatment, of course, depends on the individual, but healthcare professionals agree that ibuprofen and the other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) often recommended for tendonitis symptoms don’t relieve tendinosis because there’s no inflammation present. They could even impair healing.
Equipment modification, however, can make a difference, says Allan Mishra, MD, an adjunct orthopedic surgeon at Stanford University. “Ill-fitting shoes can be an issue, and in the case of tennis elbow, the grip on your racket might be too small or too big,” he explains. “Your computer keyboard might also be a problem. Basically, anything that involves gripping, twisting or bending can lead to tendon injury.”
In addition to correct-fitting equipment, a personalized, therapeutic stretching program is a must, says Mishra. Other treatments include acupuncture, ultrasound, deep-tissue massage, and electronic muscle stimulation. All of these treatments are designed to increase the supply of blood and its collagen-rebuilding element to the tendon and affected area. This is especially critical for shoulders and elbows, parts of the body where blood supply is relatively poor.
If patients show no improvement after six months of a specialized strength and stretching program, physicians sometimes consider using nitric-oxide patches (used for heart-disease patients but showing promise with tendon repair), cortisone injections or even surgery. Mishra, for his part, is testing new platelet-rich plasma injections in clinical trials.
But the preferred treatments remain noninvasive. “Our bodies have the power to heal within,” says Mishra. “That’s the best way.”
This article has been updated. It was originally published in the May 2008 issue of Experience Life.
Say No to NSAIDs?
Most doctors discount non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) for healing tendinosis, mainly because no inflammation is present with tendinosis. New York Giants team physician Scott Rodeo has presented lectures on the theory that NSAIDs might even disrupt healing in your injured tendon. Studies conducted at the University of North Carolina indicated that the NSAIDs block production of DNA that would otherwise be creating genetic material to rebuild smooth, healthy tendon microblast fibers.
If pain is an issue, try acetaminophen or Tylenol — or consider acupuncture, which may offer pain relief and speed healing. Icing can also numb the area before or after activity without any longer-range hindering of DNA repair to the tendon.
Hello.
Thank you for the informative article.
Can you provide any information on the type of electric stimulation best suited to treat tendonosis?
I’ve seen references to 6 differernty types:
-TENS
-EMS
-Galvanic Stim
– Inferential stimulation
-M.E.N.S
– Russian Stim
Glad i saw your article. Have been six weeks with tenderness in side of lower side of foot where it starts to meet bottom part of foot. Think I hurt it doing many jumping jacks doing Youtube exercise classes. 2 visits to podiatrist have been wasteful. He said it is tendonitis and prescribed ice and voltaren topical ointment. No improvement. 2nd visit he gave me a cortisone shot which improved not a thing. I love to go hiking! However, can only manage easy hikes now and foot is then worse the next day. I am doing yoga and no jumping exercise sessions. I have had this condition for 6 weeks now and it doesn’t improve. I read about expensive shock wave therapy but do not have money to experiment. Tried one topical CBD oil but like everything else, no help.
Thank you for getting back to me. The article was quite informative and helpful.
Diagnosed with tendon tear in right ankle. Sounds similar to tendonosis since no swelling. Cannot attribute it to specific trauma but time to time can’t put weight on ankle.
Really helpful!! Been dealing with knee tendinosis for a while and I was doing most of the right things – but not all! Because we told it was likely tendonitis.
Are there any supplements you would recommend? Sounds like some collagen supplement might be helpful?
Hope the heal soon
Thanks
My tendon in left shoulder has been torn please help me out if you can thanks
I am getting terrible pain in my elbow, when lying in bed, with my elbow bent. The physio says it maybe injured tendons. He gave me exercises, but they seem to make it worse, so I stopped doing them and tried ibuprofen. That doesn’t seem to help either. I am 82. Can anyone suggest something, that may help.
Sorry to hear that, Sam! You may enjoy our upcoming article on acupuncture (look for it in late October on our website, or in your November issue of Experience Life). This article may also be of interest to you: “Manage Pain Without Painkillers.”
Great informative article. Any thoughts on tendon problems caused by cipro or other quinolone antibiotics? Assuming you are familiar with this but this is becoming quite common. I’m wondering since the damage is probably at least similar to the -osis – would treatment be the same? Also any thoughts on supplements that might help with the healing? Thanks!
Great information on your website:-)
I damaged my bicep tendons 10 months ago by pulling a heavy wheellie bin. The MRI showed teninosis at the radial tuberosity in both arms. I also stretched the nerves that run under my colar bones which has caused hypersensitivity of the skin on my upper arms. The best advice that I could give to anyone is to AVOID any activity that hurts and to give it a lot of TIME! Don’t try to exercise with pain as it will make it worse, I found this out the hard way. I was able to do breast stroke at the swimming pool without pain but if I tried freestyle the pain was terrible and my arms would sting for hours, bringing me to tears. Physiotherapy also made it worse. I am about 90% better so hopefully with more TIME I will continue to improve.
Kind Regards
Denise Perry:-)