CONDITION: Bursitis

DESCRIPTION:

Bursitis is the painful inflammation of bursae – small, fluid-filled sacs that lubricate and cushion pressure points between the bones, tendons and muscles of joints. Bursae help joints move with ease. When they become inflamed during bursitis, movement or pressure is painful. Bursitis often affects areas around the joints in the shoulders, elbows or hips. Other common sites include the knee, heel and even the base of the big toe. Bursitis pain usually goes away within a week or so with proper treatment, but recurrent flare-ups are common as well as frustrating.

How does bursitis develop?
Common causes of bursitis include overuse, stress or direct trauma to a joint, such as the repeated bumping or prolonged pressure of kneeling. Bursitis may also result from an infection, arthritis or gout. Bursitis may also be due to the repetitive motion related to certain activities. These forms of bursitis are often named after the profession or trade associated with them, such as weaver’s bottom, which involves inflammation of the bone in the buttocks; housemaid’s knee, which is due to excessive kneeling; and miner’s elbow, which is caused by swinging a pick. Although there are many potential causes of bursitis, the cause of any individual case of bursitis is often unknown. Tendonitis, which involves the irritation or inflammation of tendons, is occasionally misdiagnosed as bursitis.

What are the symptoms of bursitis?
Symptoms of bursitis include a dull ache or stiffness in the affected area such as the elbow, hip, knee, shoulder, big toe or other joint. The pain often worsens with movement or pressure, and the area may be swollen and feel warm to the touch. Intermittent redness of the skin in the area of the inflamed bursae may be another symptom. Visible swelling or skin redness is usually absent from bursitis of the hip because the bursae are located beneath some of the body's bulkiest muscles. In this case, pain is primarily centered over the greater trochanter, a portion of the femur that juts out just below where the bone joins the hip.

Conventional medical treatments may help relieve the symptoms of bursitis, but they do not address the root of the problem. Discover why we believe that natural medicine treatments like Neural Therapy and Prolotherapy are the best way to treat bursitis pain.