News updates
Bursitis flare ups can be painful
Source: Daily News
Today’s column will focus on bursitis. It is not the condition that someone laughingly told me that was something that occurred here every year in January when the temperatures dip below zero. Rather it is an inflammatory condition of one or more of the 150 bursae in the body.
A bursa is a fluid-filled sac that acts to reduce friction between the bone and a gliding tendon. This bursa helps the tendon by a joint move more efficiently by acting as a cushion. The most common bursae that are irritated and inflamed are the ones involving the elbows, the lateral aspect of the hips, and the anterior aspect of the knees. The bursal sac becomes inflamed or irritated in many different ways. It can become inflamed with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or gout. Repetitive injuries, such as kneeling, also known as housemaid’s knee, can often cause inflammation of the bursa. Trauma can also cause the bursae to become enlarged, swollen, red, and painful. Finally, infection can also cause bursal swelling and pain as well.
Female Athletes Three Times More Likely to Suffer from Anterior Cruciate Ligament Ruptures
Source: Science Daily
Female athletes are three times more likely to suffer from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures, one of the most common knee injuries, compared to male athletes. The ACL is one of the four main ligaments within the knee that connect the femur (upper leg bone) to the tibia (lower leg bone). Recent research highlights the unique anatomical differences in the female knee that may contribute to higher injury rates, and should be taken into consideration during reconstructive surgery and sports training, according to a review article in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS).
Go Ahead and Jump: Learning How to Properly Jump and Land Can Help Female Athletes Avoid Serious Knee Injuries
Source: Science Daily
Female athletes tear their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) six to eight times more than male athletes who play the same sport. A leading sports medicine surgeon believes incorporating a jumping and landing program into a regular training regimen can help keep women on the field and out of the operating room.
McCulloch says many women land with their knees straight and their kneecaps pointing inward and this puts an incredible amount of stress on the ACL, while men tend to land with their feet further apart with more bend in the knees. He believes a jumping/landing program involving plyometric exercises can help women train their muscles to develop a “muscle memory” that will alert their hamstrings to fire off at the right time and help them land with a bend in their knees.
Stop elbow pain before it’s chronic
Source: The Province
One body part where there are a number of common issues is the elbow joint. Terms like tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow get thrown around regularly when people have pain in their elbows.
Related conditions, like carpal tunnel syndrome, also involve the elbow joint and muscles of the forearm. One of the problems with elbow injuries is that this area is constantly in use. People with elbow pain commonly list simple activities like typing, driving, writing, shaking hands or turning doorknobs as movements that aggravate their condition.
Tennis Elbow – What is Tennis Elbow?
Source: News medical
Tennis elbow is a condition where the outer part of the elbow becomes sore and tender. It is commonly associated with playing tennis and other racquet sports, though the injury can happen to almost anybody.
The condition is also known as lateral epicondylitis (“inflammation of the outside elbow bone”), a misnomer as histologic studies have shown no inflammatory process. Other descriptions for tennis elbow are lateral epicondylosis, lateral epicondylalgia, or simply lateral elbow pain.
Embracing the brace
Source: Daily Rx
Knees are only meant to bend forward and backward. If a knee pops and locks up with major pain, something serious is going on there, and it’s most likely an ACL injury.
The injuries often need surgery to reconstruct the ligament, followed by therapy to help rehabilitate the knee.
It does not lower pain, protect from reinjuring the knee or improve the stability of the knee. Rather, braces add an unnecessary expense to the recovery. Vitamins and other supplements also don’t help in the healing process.
Beginning physical therapy shortly after surgery, ideally within a few days after, can bring great outcomes for patients.
More magnesium, less arthritis
Source: Daily Rx
What you put in your body can affect your risk of disease, even your risk of osteoarthritis. If you’re trying to prevent this “wear-and-tear” type of arthritis, you may want to eat more almonds and spinach.
Eating more magnesium – a mineral found in many green vegetables, beans and nuts – it may lower the risk of knee osteoarthritis.
Most damage, most gain in knee replacement
Source: Daily Rx
If you have knee osteoarthritis, you can take steps to prevent permanent damage. For those with the damage done, joint replacement surgery may relieve pain and boost knee function.
Osteoarthritis patients with the most joint damage before surgery may be the most likely to benefit from total knee replacement.
MRI may spot arthritis unseen by X-ray
Source: Daily Rx
Osteoarthritis happens when joints and joint tissues wear down over time. Usually, doctors use X-ray imaging to see this joint damage. But another imaging technique may give doctors a better picture.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) spotted many signs of knee osteoarthritis in patients that had no signs of knee osteoarthritis in X-ray images.
Quit the bottle to build happy bones
Source: Daily Rx
Avoiding alcohol combined with regular exercise can help men build the bones lost from alcoholism, a new study has found.
The amount of osteocalcin, which is a protein in the bones and teeth, increased over the eight-week period as men continued to avoid alcohol.
This means that there was a “higher rate of bone formation during continuous abstinence,” the authors said in their study.