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.
Osteoarthritis: new light shed on how painful joint wear and tear develops
Source: Science Daily
The cause of osteoarthritis — other than known risk factors such as age or earlier injury — is not yet known. The researchers at the MedUni Vienna have discovered, however, that certain proteins known as lectins, and in particular galectins, have a role to play in the painful wear and tear of the joints.
These new findings, according to the vision of the MedUni Vienna researchers, could lead to galectins in future being used both in the treatment and, as bio-markers, in the disease prediction of osteoarthritis.
17 Ways to fight osteoporosis
Source: Health.com
Most people know calcium strengthens bones. But there are more than a dozen other ways to fight osteoporosis, the silent, bone-thinning condition that can lead to fractures, back and neck pain, and a loss of up to 6 inches of height over time.
Taking preventive measures is key, as many people with osteoporosis will get bone fractures before they even know they have the disease.
Shoulder complaint linked to diabetes diagnosis
Source: News Medical
Study findings confirm suspicions that patients with diabetes have an increased risk for adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder (ACS).
Using insurance claims data for 96% of the Taiwanese population between 2000 and 2003, the researchers compared the incidence of ACS in 78,827 patients with at least ambulatory visits for diabetes and 236,481 age- and gender-matched individuals without diabetes.
After a median of 31.87 months of follow-up, 1.20% of diabetes patients and 0.95% of controls were diagnosed with ACS, at rates of 4.92 and 3.67 cases per 1000 person-years, respectively, say Shin-Liang Pan (National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei) and co-workers.
