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What Are the Causes of Tendinosis?

In the course of training for an upcoming track meet or walking around the block, people could be developing tendinosis, a condition that affects a person's tendons. Over time, everyone tears or strains tendons by placing too heavy of a load on them. The tendons should grow back in a healthy way, where they are stronger and more equipped to handle more strain. However, sometimes the tendons do not grow back properly, resulting in tendinosis.

  1. The Major Causes

    • Tendinosis, which may be caused by any sort of tendon injuries that accumulate over time, can result from a variety of activities. Playing sports, using computers, playing musical instruments or doing any sort of manual labor that involves the hands can cause tendinosis. Any activity that involves the use of joints and tendons can strain certain areas of the body and cause tendinosis over a period of time.

    Occupational Causes

    • Certain occupations may cause individuals to develop tendinosis or increase chances for developing it. Assembly line workers, mail sorters, writers, typists, court recorders, data entry workers, cashiers, sign language interpreters, musicians, professional athletes and computer programmers all represent people whose job makes it easy to develop this condition. People who are in these professions should spend time stretching and relaxing the muscles and joints each day in order to reduce the risk of developing tendinosis.

    Scientific Causes

    • Tendinosis is caused at the intersection of the muscle and bone. The body uses muscles to move bones, and tendons help hold together bones and muscles, while joints hold together bones. Certain repeated motions and heavy loads can cause the muscles to slowly separate from the bone. Over time, these tendons should repair themselves and heal regularly, but they may not have enough nutrients to repair themselves; be torn to an extreme degree; or be unable to heal as a result of a continuous and unceasing strain on them.

    Cellular Causes

    • Tendinosis also occurs at the cellular level, and the causes on this level are very subtle. Basically, increased strain on tendons causes cells to slide past one another in a damaging fashion. This manifests in the cells and tissues as a lack of collagen. Normally, cells should respond with fibroblastic hyperplasia, which basically causes cells to rebuild collagen. Over time, these cells cannot replace their lost collagen and undergo fibroblastic hyperplasia because their strain is too great or too constant, and this results in chronic damage and tendinosis.

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