One of the most common injuries in baseball is a sore elbow in young pitchers. The hand is made up of nineteen bones, the wrist of eight bones, the lower arm of two bones, and the upper arm of one bone. All these bones are held together by ligaments, made from a tough fibro-elastic material, with very little stretch.
Ligaments allow a certain amount of movement in harmony with the bones. The contraction of a muscle is what creates the movement. The sore elbow that a baseball pitcher sustains is usually the result of the twisting action in the wrist, where the two lower bones of the arm join together.
In most cases, the twisting action, as the result of throwing the ball, has the effect of rotating the bone on the thumb side (radius) towards the outside of the body and the entire bone moves from the wrist to the elbow. This movement then causes pain in the elbow as the nerves object to being irritated.
The chiropractor, with his highly developed skills, will be able to determine if this is a tear or simply an aberrant movement within the joint, and if it is, a quick manipulation will clear the problem.
This information is not intended as a substitute for professional chiropractic care. For a free, no obligation consultation, please call our office today at 707.792.1400.