| Causes/risk factors: | | | | Diagnosis: |
| What causes cuff tendonitis? | | | | Dr Peng diagnosis the problem by asking the patient |
| Rotator cuff tendonitis is a tearing and swelling of the | | | | his/her injury history andthen checks specific |
| rotator cuff. Thesetendons are often injured in sports | | | | movements such as raising the arm and then raising |
| that require the arm to be moved over thehead | | | | the armagainst force to find pain or soreness spots. |
| repeatedly, such as lifting heavy weights over the | | | | MRI can detect how the tendontears. |
| shoulder, swimmingfreestyle, butterfly or pitching in | | | | Treatment: |
| baseball. Repeatedly moving the arm over thehead | | | | Dr Peng's family herbal patch is applied on injured |
| causes the top of the arm bone to rub against part of | | | | shoulder, and it can reducethe swelling, pain, and |
| the shoulder jointand its tendons, tearing individual fibers. | | | | tendon inflammation. The treatment will be three times |
| Symptoms: | | | | aweek for three to six weeks. Strengthening exercise |
| Shoulder pain is the main symptom. Initially, the pain | | | | or physical therapy maycause more swelling and |
| occurs only duringactivities that require lifting the arm | | | | aggravate the problem. |
| over the head and forcibly bring itforward. Later, pain | | | | Prevention:o Warm up before exercise or any physical |
| can occur even when the arm is moved forward to | | | | activities.o Avoid repeated movements for long period |
| shakehands. Usually pushing objects away is painful, | | | | of time.o Avoid lifting objects too heavy for yourself. |
| but pushing them toward the bodyis not. | | | | |