Mark: Hi, we’re here. We’re talking about lasers and laser treatment to relieve pain with Dr Harold Meinzer, of Evolution Wellness in Vancouver. I’m Mark, I’m producer of this video series. Of course today we’re talking about Golfer’s elbow. How are you doing Dr. Meinzer?
Dr. Harold: Good morning. I’m doing fantastic. I thought we could maybe touch on some Golfer’s elbow, because tis the season, as they like to say. Spring is in the air, and golfers are ready to hit the course, or some of them are. I’ve been waiting all winter, the fair weather ones. Now it’s time. Here we go.
I think, maybe I’ll just touch on some of the symptoms, because people might not know or get confused with tennis elbow. Golfer’s elbow is in that inside of that elbow. They call it medial epicondylitis, which is a fantastic word, and I like to use it as much as possible whenever somebody comes in. That’s gonna cause pain, tenderness, stiffness, even can cause weakness into the wrist and hand, and even, at times, tingling and numbness all the way down into there. That can be, you know, disturbing in your everyday life, not only on the golf course.
Mark: It’s not just golf that might cause this, kind of in interior arm pain?
Dr. Harold: No, no golf … that’s what it likes to be known as, golfer’s elbow, but it’s anything that’s causing pain on that medial side. That’s where all these flexor tendons come in and go right down to your hand. Some of the examples would be, for sure golf, that’s the primary one. You know, racket sports can do it, or a throwing sport, repetitive weightlifting in the gym. Or something at work, repetitive movements at work, wrist, and hand, and elbow movements can then cause that type of pain in through here.
That’s really like excessive stress into that area. Really forceful movements, and gripping of rackets, and your golf clubs, obviously. Then, also improper biomechanics. If you’re doing something incorrectly, like your golf swing, throwing movements, but your biomechanics aren’t right, then that can cause it as well. Then, my favourite is the weekend warrior or the seasonal warrior, now. That’s the tissue that’s de-conditioned. It’s just been on holiday all winter and then golfing, you know, the sun comes out, everybody goes, “Let’s go golf.” You haven’t done anything to prepare this tissue to work, in that way, and that de-conditioned tissue, then it gets really angry at you.
Mark: Lasers, again, that’s gonna help with the healing process, reducing the pain, getting people back on the healing track, but also back to doing their sport that they want to do or their work that they need to do. Is that right?
Dr. Harold: Yeah, that’s right, and doing it quicker. Usually, with my treatment protocol, we’re going to address the soft tissue, so I’ll use some soft tissue work to release myofascia and muscle tissues because, again, that can be a small micro and kind of adhesions in there. We want to lengthen and make sure that tissue is opened up, and then we’re going to use the laser application all around that elbow to reduce the swelling, and then improve that healing, and the time as well. Right? We can shorten that … that state where it’s not gonna get into a chronic state. Then, usually, you know, rest the nights after treatment is always good as well. I thought today, maybe I’ll, I got the laser fired up here that we’ll take a look at it, and I’ll show you how we actually do that application onto, onto that area.
Mark: Absolutely. That sounds really good.
Dr. Harold: Whenever we’re dealing with lasers and true lasers, we’re always gonna use safety glasses as part of the protocol. Some people, they’ve been to other practitioners where they come in to see me and said, “Yeah, I had laser done”, and I always ask, “Did you wear sunglasses?” A lot of them are like, “No, we don’t wear sunglasses.”
Well then that laser wasn’t a true laser. It was probably a led light or, or SLD light, sort of being called a laser, but a true laser, you always got to wear safety glasses when you’re in the visual field. We’ll throw safety glasses on, and who doesn’t want to wear safety glasses or sunglasses in the office? Right?
It’s really a great system. This is the LightForce laser right here. I can set it up in multiple ways with the amount of power that I’m outputting, but we’ll talk about that on a later podcast.
If I drop the cable, the light goes through, comes through this attachment head, and there’s a quartz ball at the end, and you can see there’s a nice little red dot. That’s my guide dot. It tells me where the laser’s pointed, because it’s actually infrared. The laser produces infrared light, so we wouldn’t actually see it, so this is just a way for me to tell exactly where I’m pointing.
The idea is that we make contact with the skin, and contact’s important, so that we can get deeper penetration. Then, we’re just gonna roll over top of that area and apply the laser. When I turn it on, you’re gonna hear some beeping.
Then, it’s just gonna, kind of roll over top of that area. Real simple, real easy. It will create a little-bit of warmth as, as it’s applied. That warmth is just a byproduct of the light. It’s a very simple type of treatment, and for the elbow, it would only be a few minutes, and then we’ll do the soft tissue therapy as well. Then at home rest and ice.
Super comfortable, it’s probably the most comfortable treatment you’ll ever have in, you know, as a modality. Doesn’t hurt, just feels really soothing and deep. Then, we’ll try and do a number of treatments in a row. Usually, I say six sessions in a row, and then we’ll reevaluate at that time.
Mark: A non-invasive, no side effects, very fast, effective treatment in most cases, maybe not always, but often?
Dr. Harold: Yeah, absolutely. There’s … no bonds … no bonds are broken. Some people think, is it an x ray? Is it gonna destroy tissue, or anything like that? Nope. No bonds … bonds are broken. It’s a stimulatory effect to the cell, and it just speeds it up.
Mark: There you go. If you need some help, with any kind of golfer or elbow injuries, the guys to see … or the guy, the guy to see is Dr. Harold Meinzer. You can reach him at Evolution Wellness. There’s two offices, one in Vancouver, one in Langley call (604) 881-2404 to book your appointment, and get some help, and get back to healing.
Mark: Thank you, Dr. Harold.
Dr. Harold: Yup. Thanks so much. I’m here to help.