A special feature by permission of Primal Pictures

Q I was told I had bursitis which sounds like some disease found in older people. I am only 15, what gives?

A

To understand bursitis you need to know what a bursa is. Basically, the body has many areas where either two muscles cross or where a muscle must cross bone, or where a ligament or tendon may cross... You get the idea - there are points of friction.

A bursa is a basically a smooth, slippery sack (it has been described as a baggy with oil and no air in it). Each bursa (you have hundreds) provides a frictionless (or nearly frictionless) surface between two moving parts.

However, the more you move those parts, the more likely you are to get an inflammation of a bursa - i.e. bursitis. It's a common over-use injury. Little League elbow for instance is often bursitis. You can also get it in knees, hips, shoulders.

Although they are around every joint, one of the easiest bursa to illustrate is shown here in the shoulder. The blue in the diagram is the bursa, the orange area shows how it can become inflammed if too much rubbing (i.e. overuse) happens. It could be from poor mechanics, or just too many throws. (See the pitch count chart for recommendations by age.)

By the way, the most common bursitis in older people is resting on elbows too much - either at the desk or on the hard arm of a couch.
One coach has suffered from it due to hours at the computer answering so many questions for his website. (Wonder who that could be?)

Bursitis can be extremely painful but is often rehab'd by rest and a correction in mechanics, but if it gets severely swollen and/or infected, it may need to be drained. Like all medical conditions check with a doctor for a proper diagnosis.