Elbow: skin is dry, cracked and painful.

THE BEGINNING: I had this problem a little over 2 years ago. One day, the dry, cracked and painful skin was bleeding and I had to use first aid tape to feel some relief.

REACTION FROM PEOPLE: This turned out to be an interesting day as I had to attend a gathering that evening. As I entered the room, full of people, I felt the warmth and had to take my jacket off. As I did that, a couple of people looked at my elbow and said, "you too"!!

I thought that they were making fun of me, but then they showed their elbows - same things and about the same kind of damage. One of them even had first aid tape to cover it, just the same as me. I felt better after that, as I was not the only one suffering from this condition.

Later in the week, I met another person with same elbow issues, but he did recommend using Castor oil as he had been helped by it. I did not try Castor oil because I did not want it to rub off on my shirt.

MY OBSERVATIONS: I had to find some other, easier way to correct my problem. This caused me to analyze our sitting postures. Then I noticed something that we all had in common, we all slouched down on the sofa and put weight on the elbow that was giving problem. This was not isolated to the sofa but to working on computer also as we all rested that one arm on the table mostly using elbow to balance the arm and do certain things.

MY REACTION: I thought that it won't hurt just to try to change my sitting posture, but it took me a couple of days to change my habit and I was able to change my sitting posture. The strangest thing happened to me as in these 2 days my elbow was almost healed, without any first aid tape, any medication or use of some ointment.

REACTION FROM OTHERS: Even now, I meet people with elbow problems and when I try to mention this change of posture to correct this problem, they simply smile and look at me as if I am from some strange world. Well, I took the chance and it worked, and most of all, no money was spent, and the problem was solved for good. I am sure, there are people like me, who will go out of the general thinking paradigm, to try improving their posture and most likely receive similar result.