Integrative Family Medicine - Health Topics

<p>The management of tendinopathy has shifted away from legacy protocols focused on rest, ice, and anti-inflammatory suppression (RICE) toward active progressive mechanical loading and integrative load management.</p><p>1. Pathological Paradigm Shift</p>From "Tendinitis" to "Tendinopathy/Tendinosis": Histopathology confirms chronic tendon pain is driven by non-inflammatory matrix degeneration, collagen disorganization, and tenocyte alteration rather than acute inflammatory cell infiltrates.Clinical Exceptions: True acute inflammation persists primarily in sheathed tendons (tenosynovitis) or systemic autoimmune enthesitis.<p>2. Progressive Mechanical Loading & Mechanotransduction</p>Why Rest Underperforms: Complete rest deconditions the muscle-tendon unit, decreasing its load-bearing capacity and increasing vulnerability to injury...