News and info

I have a separate link page, but I've been meaning to add these great resources for those looking for info in the areas of medicine, health, nutrition, exercise, etc. So check out these links!

For the National Institute on Health, A-Z:
http://health.nih.gov/

For Alternative/Complementary Medicine:
http://health.nih.gov/topic/AlternativeMedicine

For physical activity guidelines:
http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines/default.aspx

For Massage Therapy for Older Adults:
http://www.massagetoday.com/mpacms/mt/ed_topic.php?id=18

See this New York Times article on "More Wii Warriors are playing hurt!"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21wii.html?_r=1&em

For years I've been concerned about teenagers coming to me injured from their sports activities. Here's excerpts from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article on just that!

Overuse injuries plague young athletes
By Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian , St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1/07/2008

Elaine Gill, 16, wanted to run faster. So she started running more. A lot more.

Sometimes she'd run 50 miles a week.

At first the extra miles paid off, and Elaine cut several minutes off her 5K cross country time. Then, during a race, a bone in her foot broke. Now, she can't run at all.

Such is the plight of a growing number of athletes, both male and female, who train their young bodies past the point of diminishing returns and right into injuries. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that more than 30 million children and teens participate in organized sports each year. Of those, about 3.5 million seek treatment for overuse injuries and chronic fatigue from overtraining. Though no data exist, local sports medicine specialists say they've seen a steady increase in the number of injured and overtrained athletes between ages 8 and 18 by as much as 25 percent in recent years.

Experts attribute that increase to more and more children specializing in only one sport and playing it year-round for school, select and traveling teams. That leaves no down time for rest and repair.

Sometimes, experts point out, it's because parents and coaches put pressure on children to excel. But kids often put the pressure on themselves.

A couple of years ago, Claire Dreyer, 15, quit playing several sports to focus on tennis. Soon, she was on-court 14 to 15 hours a week.

Six weeks ago, her athletic career also came to a screeching halt when she suffered a torn tendon in her left foot in a match.

Then there's Sarah Van Cleave, 18, who's been dealing with shin splints and a cartilage injury in her knee. She's lucky though, because sports therapy has allowed her to keep running track and cross country at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School while she mends.

Meanwhile, six of her teammates have been sidelined because of stress fractures in their legs.

GROWTH PLATE ISSUES

Steve Stahle, primary care sports medicine physician at U.S. Center for Sports Medicine in Kirkwood, said that in addition to the typical musculoskeletal injuries, kids are also susceptible to growth plate injuries. The growth plate is the area of growing tissue near the end of long bones in children and adolescents. The femur in the thigh and the humerus in the upper arm are two examples and each one has a growth plate at both ends of the bone. Those plates determine the future length and shape of the mature bone.

"You can strengthen your muscles, but you can't strengthen your growth plate," Stahle said. An overdeveloped muscle will pull on the slower growing, soft-tissue plates, increasing the risk of injury.

"Kids think they need to be training every day, when it's often better for them to take a few days off," Stahle said. "But it's hard to convince them of that and sometimes their parents, too."

Dr. Mark Halstead is a pediatric sports medicine specialist with St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University. He attributes the increase in overuse injuries and overtraining, which is a condition of chronic fatigue, to the explosion in the number of select and travel teams as well as performance enhancement training.

Scott Roberts, director of performance training at the Sports Medicine and Training Center in Webster Groves sees athletes come to the center who play soccer or volleyball for school and select teams, with one season practically running into the next.

"You're talking about a total of six weeks off all year long," he said. "It's unbelievably intense and the time demands are staggering."

But many young athletes and their parents feel the select teams are necessary because they're a higher level of competition that offers the most exposure to college recruiters, he said. "I think recruiting has shifted. In the early '90s there was still an emphasis on high school sports, and recruiters would go to those games. Now they can go to a showcase tournament for soccer or volleyball select teams and see the best of the best."

Several experts noted how many parents spend a lot of money for their children to participate in sports programs and feel like it's an investment.

"So now there's an added pressure for kids to keep participating even though they're not that interested anymore," Halstead said. "I see kids on a daily basis who feel they need to work through the pain for themselves and for their parents. And if we ask them to rest, it's almost a burden. I never want to tell an athlete they have to rest or stop their sport, but sometimes it comes to that."

A byproduct of more injuries is more rehab clinics and sports medicine experts, here and nationwide.

By Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 01/07/2008

— Overuse injuries range from stress fractures and broken bones to strained and torn ligaments, tendons and muscles. Overtraining is when athletes experience chronic fatigue and a noticeable decrease in performance.

— One can lead to the other. When an athlete is fatigued, his or her form and technique break down, which increases the risk of injury.

— Teenage girls who overtrain can experience female athlete triad: Menstruation stops, which can affect bone density, which can lead to stress fractures.

— Young athletes become susceptible to growth plate injuries when overdeveloped muscles start pulling on growth plates. This can cause permanent damage.

— Occasional soreness is common. But pain that sticks around two or more weeks and makes kids limp or otherwise hurts their performance needs to be evaluated by a sports medicine specialist.

— Kids should not play or practice a single sport more than five or six days a week. They should also take a full week or two off every three months to allow their bodies to rest and repair.

Sources: Dr. Mark Halstead, pediatric sports medicine specialist with St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University, and Dr. Steve Stahle, primary care sports medicine physician at U.S. Center for Sports Medicine in Kirkwood.