SO MY DOCTOR WHIPS OUT THIS NEEDLE…It is far too frequent that patients tell me that they have had steroid injections for this pain or that. Elbow, shoulder and knees seem to be the most common sites. Its frequent use suggests that the doctor giving the injection thinks that there are little safety concerns (other than localized injection issues) and it’s always worth a try. However, this really indicates that they may know little about soft tissue healing and the nature of chronic pain. Cortisone is an anti-inflammatory, and yet, if you looked at the tissues involved in, let’s say tennis elbow, under the microscope you would see very little inflammation. So what the heck is the point of the steroid? Further complicating this is that steroids interfere with normal healing mechanisms. This review supports this, finding that steroids help in the short term, but actually make conditions worse in the long run. Bottom line…skip the injection and find a chiropractor that uses Graston (like me!).