DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My grandson plays baseball. He is 13 years old and is a pitcher. He also plays shortstop. He noticed that he can’t straighten his right arm, his pitching arm. When he puts his arm straight out with palms up, the arm won’t completely straighten like his left arm does. There seems to be a small bone sticking out on one side of his elbow. There is only a little pain when he presses on it. His dad says the elbow is swollen, but it looks deformed to me. I keep urging his mom and dad to take him to a doctor. What do you think? — L.A.

ANSWER: I’m with you. Take the boy to a doctor.

Young baseball pitchers are prone to developing throwing-arm injuries. Their bones are not fully mature. Sections of immature bone are growth plates, areas that have not yet turned into bone. Growth plates permit the bone to grow. They are vulnerable spots.

Stress on growth plates can lead to Little League elbow. Little League elbow is not just one condition; it encompasses a number of conditions. One is fragmentation of bone and elements of the growth plate due to excessive stress. That small bone sticking out to the side of your grandson’s elbow might be a fragment of the bone.

Young pitchers must have limits on their throwing. A boy your grandson’s age shouldn’t throw more than 95 pitches (some say 75) in one day. If the pitcher throws more than 60 pitches, three days of rest should be enforced before he’s allowed to pitch again.

Throwing from a mound is more stressful than throwing from flat ground. The mound elevation increases the forces of gravity on the throwing arm, and the twisting motion required to get a ball over the plate from mound height puts a great deal of pressure on the shoulder, elbow and wrist.

Little League elbow isn’t the only possible diagnosis. Swelling of a bursa at the back of the elbow is another frequent problem. A bursa is a disk placed between tendons and bones to reduce friction when the tendon rubs against the bone.

I am not sure what the boy has. I am sure he needs an exam. Undiagnosed elbow problems can put an end to his baseball career.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: You and many others push exercise as a panacea for all health problems. Is it really that beneficial? I am a 63-year-old woman and have done no exercise in my life. I have done hard physical work. Does that count? I feel I should start a program. How should I go about it at this time in my life? — H.H.

ANSWER: Hard physical work is exercise. You’re not as out of shape as you think. Exercise is as beneficial as it is made out to be.

If you start a program that involves burning only 100 extra calories a day, you will get the benefits of exercise. Walking a mile a day burns 100 calories. If a mile is too much, then break it down into a third of a mile and walk three times a day. Go at this slowly, and gradually increase the distance until you’re walking the entire mile in one session.

When you have reached that level, increase the tempo and the distance.

It sounds ludicrous to tell a 63-year-old to begin weightlifting, but that’s what I am doing. Weightlifting builds muscle strength, something that aging robs us of. Start with light weights, a pound or two. Lift the weight eight times successively, rest, and do two more sets of eight lifts. When you can do three sets of 12 lifts, increase the amount of weight a bit and drop back to three sets of eight lifts.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Does doing light exercises longer make up for not trying to do heavy exercise? — L.B.

ANSWER: I think I understand your question. It does. Thirty to 40 minutes of gardening (light exercise) is the equivalent of 15 minutes of snow-shoveling (heavy exercise).

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.

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