I dunno... When I was in school I learned that tendonitis was the word used to described and inflamed tendon... The things that cause it are varied. It's not like strep throat, where there is a specific pathogen, etc. It can be caused by a repetitive motion or posture or stress -- or by a one time trauma. What makes it so bothersome is that it takes a good length of time to heal.

Bursitis, on the other hand, does not seem to have a real set of physiological markers.

We tend to think of tendinitis as being a thing in itself, but it really isn't.

The article about how researchers are rethinking depression that I posted earlier expressed it nicely, I thought:

In the 19th century, the "fever" was a common medical illness. Of course, doctors now realize that a fever is merely a common symptom of many different diseases, from the flu to leukemia.

I think that's a nicely concise expression of the idea, and is one that makes sense to a lot of people, whether they have much medical knowledge or not.

The article goes on at more length:

Likewise, when Richard Nixon declared a "War on Cancer" in 1971, scientists largely defined cancer in terms of its most tangible characteristic: uncontrolled growth leading to a tumor. As a result, every cancer was treated with the same blunt tools. Over time, of course, scientists have discovered that cancer is not a single disease with a single biological cause. Breast cancer, for instance, can be triggered by a wide variety of genes and environmental risk factors. Because doctors can look beyond the superficial similarities of the symptoms - all tumors are not created equal - they are able to tailor their treatments to the specific disease.

Neuroscience is only beginning to catch up. Thanks to a variety of new experimental tools, such as brain scanners and DNA microarrays, researchers are now refining their understanding of mental illness. In many instances, this means recategorizing disorders, so that patients are no longer diagnosed solely in terms of their most obvious symptoms.

"We used to think there was only one kind of anemia," says Arturas Petronis, a scientist at the University of Toronto who investigates the underlying causes of schizophrenia. "But now we know there are at least 15 different kinds. We'll likely learn the same thing about many mental illnesses."

And I'll fully cop to the fact that at present I'm in a mindset of "well, regardless of what you have, maybe getting back into proper musculoskeletal alignment wouldn't cure your condition, but I doubt it'd hurt!" *grin*

Proper musculoskeletal alignment can't hurt any situation and will help most situations in more ways than one (including relieving pressure on dermatomes and their related nerves -- a "bad back" can cause constipation or urinary incontinence, for example).

In the end though, regardless of cause, tendonitis requires rest of the afflicted tendon.

My bias is the limit and scope of my training. Oh and there's another one: I really like the homeopathic approach to assessment to the extent that sometimes treating the symptoms is more important than having an "it" diagnosis. A couple of winters ago when my dogs were incredibly ill, no diagnosis was ever found. What we did find was a treatment protocol that worked. Which was more important?

Ack! Another bias!! I think that diagnostic labels can convey more permanence and weight than they deserve. It's kind of like how I've always personally avoided "survivor" mentality. I go with Doc to breast cancer events and find myself recoiling from both the idea that survival is personal accomplishment (as if just by wanting it lots it's guaranteed) and the supplanting of a WHOLE identity with a DISEASE identity. Being a "cancer survivor" requires an ongoing cancer patient identity, no matter how long it's been or, more importantly, what ELSE defines one's personhood. Super limiting. And the survival as accomplishment thing sets those who do not survive up to be "failures" somehow. WTF is THAT?

Oy. I'm ranting. Sorry!