A Phoenix chiropractor recently explained the benefits of something called Active Release Therapy. It’s a technique used to treat sports related injuries, but works equally well on body areas affected by old injuries that have resulted in a build up of scar tissue. Scar tissue tends to cause inflexibility and in some cases pain. It can restrict the blood flow to the area and thus prevent healing from taking place. I think that’s what happened to my elbow. I played a lot of tennis back in the day and hurt myself more than a few times trying to power serve the ball.

Flash forward twenty years and I’m definitely feeling those old injuries. My other arm is fine, but my serving arm doesn’t seem to have the full extension most elbows do. It has certainly become more problematic as I’m getting older, enough so that I finally made an appointment to see what could be done about it. I worried about having to undergo surgery to loosen the elbow up and was willing to try just about anything to avoid going under the knife. That’s when the chiropractor suggested and explained Active Release Therapy.

Through a process of applying pressure to the elbow, the scar tissue will break up and thus allow blood to flow more effectively. Getting rid of the scar tissue will thus ensure a fuller extension. It’s going to take more than one visit to fix this problem, of course, but I’m optimistic it will dramatically improve my elbow function. I’m also taking an enzyme called Serrapeptase that greatly aids in breaking down scar tissue and I’m hopeful that these two things will take care of my joint pain. It doesn’t even have to be perfect, just better, but the chiropractor says full functionally often returns to I’m thinking positively.