I have developed widespread tendonitis throughout my whole body. It s in my arms ,elbows, shoulders, hips, knees and feet. What could be causing my tendons to be so weak and break down so easily ? Is it a specific defiency or maybe an autoimmune response? I m a 23 yr old male with semi active job.i used to go to the gym but now i cant with these tendon issues. Please someone help me.
I have posterior tibial tendonitis and tendonitis of my elbow.
I was thinking that overuse all my years at gym caused repetitive strain injuries on these parts.
I do have mixed connective tissue disease by my rheumy doesn’t think it’s related.
Stress doesn’t help bc it just tightens the tendons further and makes them more suspecting to injury.
How are u doing now?
Hi Will,
Your post caught my attention because I am in a very similar situation. I used to be an avid runner and fitness fanatic until I had my first tendon injury (posterior tibialis tendonitis) in my left foot. This made sense, because I was training exceptionally hard for a race, at the time. However, over the past couple years (age 21 to now age 24), my tendon trouble has only spread to many areas of my body. I've had tendon pain in just about every place you can imagine (including my jaw or TMJ and gluteus Maximus insertion). I am now somewhat of an expert on tendon issues because I have spent a huge amount of time researching through medical journal articles, including the latest treatments. I literally know more about tendons that probably my primary care doctor and rheumatologist combined.
The good news is: I have found several things that help with my condition. The bad news is: no rheumatologist or other physician seems to know what is causing this for me. I believe that it is either a condition that has not been discovered yet or I just have genetically weak tendons. All of the testing and exams I have had by doctors have only revealed that I am in good health, do not test positive for any rheumatic or autoimmune disorders and have full range of motion and strength.
The absolute most important thing that you can do is start seeing a knowledgeable physical therapist. If I catch a source of tendon pain early, I will start physical therapy to strengthen the affected tendon and this completely relieves the pain and prevents further degeneration within days to a couple weeks. Please do not disregard how important this is!!!! If you cannot afford a physical therapist, you can find relevant exercises on youtube and preform them at home. Tendon pain that I have not caught early and buffered with PT, have been MUCH more troublesome to manage in the future. I literally do physical therapy 5-7 days a week as prevention and this helps a great deal. For me, I will always to PT, there is no defined end to it which is ok. It is very effective.
The other thing I do, which has a very beneficial effect, is chronic pain management techniques. Please visit bodyinmind.org for some good information. Basically, I practice meditation and visualization of physical tasks that usually cause me pain, each night before I go to bed. You have to remember that although your tendons are painful, this does not necessarily correlate to the degree of tissue damage. So you have to treat the "pain" and the "tissue damage" separately while still letting the pain guide your return to activity. Another resource that is extremely helpful are the podcasts by Jill Cook. She is an Australian physical therapist that is on the forefront of tendon rehabilitation research.
Using these tools I have gone from practically bed bound and suicidal to living a normal life again. I ride by bike to and from work, work a moderately strenuous job with no pain, lift weights 3-4x week and walk/hike 2-3 times per week for recreation. I would love to speak with you more, because would love to have support from someone in a similar situation and support you in return. This is a very difficult condition to live with and sometimes it still makes me depressed that I can no longer go on all the adventures I would like to. If you would like to discuss things more I would be happy to help. You can contact me at. Also, this is open to anyone experiencing similar issues. I would love to start some sort of support group. Things will get better! Do not be afraid.
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Let’s talk!!
I’m miserable and getting depressed by all my tendon issues!!
Thanks for all your research
I have a lot of questions since me and you are going through the same horror. Do any specific supplements work as well ? I'm on vitamin c magnesium and a multivitamin and fish oil and none are helping. I'm going to look into the physical therapy because I want to be able to enjoy life and do things again. I'm also in the process of getting blood work to see if anything is causing this within my body .
Have you taken cipro or other Fluoroquinolone antibiotics ?
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics can cause tendon problems even weeks or months after they are discontinued.
Thank you so much for your information. Your post gave me hope. I'm struggling with tendonitis in my foot that has been ongoing 4 years and now it's in my arms and shoulders. I've been able to get the shoulder pain under control but my forearms hurt and my foot is still killing me. I'm going to look at the resources that you linked. do you notice that any supplements or essential oils help with the problem? What about diet modifications? Have you tried any of that?
So happy to see this discussion , i got multiple tendonitis in m body ,
Both knee
Both wrists,
Both achilles
And more ... in the last time my tendons just get inflammed so easliy .
I will be happy to get some advice if someone found something.. also i think ill try aome cbd oil .. its known as really good anti inflammtory
The responses you've received are very encouraging. I would like to add that IF you can find an acupressure therapist in your area, they are very effective. The therapy is painful for a moment, but within three days after the treatment, the tendinitis pain is GONE! I just recently went through a near full body episode of tendinitis (for the first time ) and suffered with it for three weeks. Then I git 2 treatments of acupressure, and goodbye tendinitis!
Go for it !
Is acupressure the same as acupuncture?
Hi Aberzerk:
NO, acupuncture is pins into nerves and subcutaneous tissues. Acupressure is an ancient Greek and Chinese therapeutic art: The thumbs, fingers, butt of the wrist, and fingertimps are pressed DEEP into the tissue and especially into the tendons - insertion or origin of muscle tendon. I was taught the art back in 1990 from an acupressure therapist in Athens GA, who didn't have a trade-out therapist to work on him one weekend. So, He taught me the art, gave me the body charts - pressure points etc. Since then, I have been relieving friends and relatives of their built up knotted up muscles. They can get as hard as a rock. And in Fact, I had developed calcification of the soft tissue - yes- my muscle tissue was ossifying! Why?? Just a crazy chemical imbalance from overwork and not enough sleep while getting through a master's degree. And back then, I did also have tendon problems in my ankles and wrists. If you see it in Xrays, it is like a milky substance that collects around your tendons, and the calcified tissue looks similar. Well, I just kept at doing the acupressure therapy on myself - and let me tell you - sometimes I had to be brutal on myself. BUT, it all went away, and stayed away for years. Eventually, probably due to inactivity, it can return. And the only cure I know is acupressure.
You will have a hard time finding an acupressure therapist - but - a good CMT (certified massage therapist) who is up on things, will practice this art as well. Believe me, you will get out of all your pain this natural way. No heavy duty drugs which wear off in a few hours etc or no dangerous drugs are necessary. However, I have found that Aleve - in conjunction with acupressure - after the therapy - will eliminate the inflammation.
I'm talking - I just went through three weeks of the tendinitis aggravation - couldn't go to the gym etc. but now I'm back to feeling great and ready to go back to the gym
Good luck and dig deep on the internet for acupressure therapists or CMTs who include it.
David
Hi!
Thanks for the info.
I found a woman who does it, so she says. We shall see!!!
GREAT! I hope she has powerful hands and fingers because that's what it takes! And if she's good, you'll be a new man!
Good luck! and let me know how it comes out.
David
If I become a man then I’m in more trouble than I thought. Lol
Yes, I hope to be a new woman and back to my previous, super fit healthy self.
I’ll let u know!!! 
Thanks David
OOOOPS !! Bad assumption ! Sorry!
And by the way . . . I can't even find an acupressure therapist myself ! Thant's why I have to do my own therapy on myself, and that ain't easy !!
im 100% positive you took Levaquin or Cipro antibiotic. Check your health records. Thats the the only way that this sort of thing can happen. it it happened to me also and I'm really sorry.
here here are some things you need to do right now...
- never take a corticosteroid again in your life.
- never take a fluoroquinolone antibiotic again in your life.
- You might need to find a doctor that will work with you using human growth hormone or deca. if you're still too young for a doctor to approve that because of your age then you might consider having platelet rich plasma treatment or stem cell injections. these things are very expensive I wish you the best of luck in finding the money to do it. youre looking at $2000 - $10,000 per treatment.
- you could also try growth hormone secretagogue which cost less money. you might want to also look into bpc-157 and tb500. HGH shots cost about $1000 per month , secretagogues cost $200-$300 per month. Deca might be $100 per month. bpc 157 and tb 500 run about $200 per treatment.
- look for hormone doctors that are in to regenerative medicine.
- raising your intracellular magnesium levels can help some but it's not going to fix you. you will probably also need to take a good B-Complex like b supreme to ramp up your methylation to help you detox and feel better.
- there's a non-drowsy muscle relaxer that you can get called skelaxin . you could get that from your primary care physician or from a rheumatologist. this medication will buy you time until you can work on healing some. I know it hurts really bad but you've got to try to stretch as much as you can stand it. this is going to help you a lot. you also need to be going to massage therapy once a month or more. if massage therapy is too expensive you might be able to find a gym that does a water massage (machine) as part of its subscription. you can also look into local massage schools that are trying to try a new massage therapists, they will be giving massages for much less money.
This resonates a lot with my own experience. I've sent you a message and would love to chat in more detail about what's worked for you and how you're going!
I am starting to wonder if they should do more research on other antibiotics. my pain issues started right after taking batrim for a UTI. Never had and issues like this in the past. It was all if a sudden and have currently been in pain ever since. Over a year now.
May I ask, do you have any other symptoms besides pain that you think might be linked to your tendon issues?