Toss the vitamin D and calcium?
Source: DailyRx.com
Preventing the risk of fractures as you grow older is important. Previously, vitamin D and calcium supplements were thought to help reduce that risk – but recommendations have changed.
The Task Force actually recommends against vitamin D in daily doses of 400 IU or less and calcium in daily doses of 1000 mg or less because it can increase the risk of kidney stones. At those doses, supplements do not prevent fractures in younger men and women.
However, the Task Force continues to recommend vitamin D supplements to prevent falls in adults 65 and older who are at higher risk for falls.
Why so idle with knee OA?
Source: DailyRx.com
Being obese or overweight can make osteoarthritis worse. Staying physically active is one of the best ways to avoid putting on extra pounds. However, many osteoarthritis patients remain inactive.
These findings suggest that there may be a serious need to improve physical activity among patients with knee osteoarthritis. According to the authors, increasing physical activity among these patients will likely involve weight management, healthy diet and improving pain and disability.
Treatment with platelet-rich plasma shows potential for knee osteoarthritis
Source: Medical News Today
Several treatments for osteoarthritis exist, including exercise, weight control, bracing, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, Tylenol, cortisone shots and viscosupplementation, a procedure that involves injecting a gel-like substance into the knee to supplement the natural lubricant in the joint. A new treatment that is being studied by a small number of doctors is PRP injections. PRP, which is produced from a patient’s own blood, delivers a high concentration of growth factors to arthritic cartilage that can potentially enhance healing.
Vitamin K for healthy knees
Source: DailyRx.com
Vitamin K supports bones and cartilage. So researchers wanted to know if low vitamin K was linked to joint damage and osteoarthritis.
The study found that people who had low levels of vitamin K in their blood were about 33 percent more likely to develop knee osteoarthritis.
Also, people with low vitamin K levels were about two times more likely to show signs of damaged cartilage in their knees.
The authors suggested that vitamin K may be important for keeping knees healthy.
ACL insurance insight
Source: Ivanhoe.com
ACL injuries have increased 400% in teens and adolescents in the last ten years. They’re also on the rise among baby boomers. To make sure you don’t have to pay out-of-pocket to fix the injury, doctors are using a new tool to show surgery works.
That’s where the gait-rite system comes in. This 26 foot carpet contains sensors to assess gait after injury and again after surgery to show how patients are doing.
Dr. Maloney says that, “We will have seen that their gait has been restored to what we consider normal and safe and allow them to progress.”
FDA clears Soft Tissue Regeneration’s STR GRAFT
Soft Tissue Regeneration, an early stage orthopedic device company that has developed a breakthrough tissue engineering platform used to regenerate ligaments and tendons, announced today that it has received FDA clearance to market its STR GRAFT, a biodegradable scaffold used for soft tissue augmentation and rotator cuff repair.
Developed by Cato T. Laurencin , M.D., Ph.D., an orthopedic surgeon and the company’s founder, the STR GRAFT is a three-dimensional braided engineered matrix that Laurencin likens to a patch. During surgery, surgeons can drape this biodegradable patch over the tendon that sits on the shoulder bone, anchoring it with sutures to keep it in place while the tendon, bones and nearby tissues heal. Unlike currently available devices, which are made of weaker cadaver or animal tissue that can cause sutures to pull, the STR GRAFT is thinner—about 1 millimeter—and stronger, which lessens pain, speeds recovery time and drastically reduces surgical failure rates.
Heavy loads on the shoulders can cause nerve damage in the hands and fingers
Source: Medical News Today
Trudging from place to place with heavy weights on our backs is an everyday reality, from schoolchildren toting textbooks in backpacks to fire fighters and soldiers carrying occupational gear. Muscle and skeletal damage are very real concerns. Now Tel Aviv University researchers say that nerve damage, specifically to the nerves that travel through the neck and shoulders to animate our hands and fingers, is also a serious risk.
Steroid injections for tennis elbow are out
Source: HEALTH NEWS OBSERVER
Tennis elbow is also known as lateral epicondylitis. In tennis elbow, the tendons that attach the forearm muscles to the outer part of the elbow degenerate, become inflamed and develop tears. Tennis players often irritate this area during backhand strokes. Anyone who uses a twisting motion is at risk including painters, carpenters, plumbers, cooks, weight lifters, and butchers. It may also develop by some who are constantly using a computer keyboard and mouse.
Fractures take high toll on high school athletes
Fractures account for about 10 percent of all injuries suffered by U.S. high school athletes, and can have a major physical, emotional and financial impact on the young competitors, according to a new study.
The findings highlight the need for fracture prevention programs in high school sports, the Ohio State University researchers said.
Researchers analyzed 2008-2009 and 2010-2011 data from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance System. Fracture rates were highest in boys’ sports — including football, ice hockey and lacrosse — and boys suffered 79 percent of all fractures reported.
Increase in dance-related injuries in children and adolescents
Source: Science Daily
Dance is a beautiful form of expression, but it could be physically taxing and strenuous on the human body, particularly for children and adolescents. A new study by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital examined dance-related injuries among children and adolescents 3 to 19 years of age from 1991 to 2007. During the 17-year study period, an estimated 113,000 children and adolescents were treated in U.S. emergency departments for dance-related injuries.
