New research has suggested that if you have a torn meniscus you might not need surgery after all. The study compared the progress of half a million people who either had an operation or had rehab. They found the surgery led to a quicker improvement, but that over time the results with rehab were great – 70% of people who did their exercises did not end up needing surgery.
A couple of quotes from the article:
1. The researchers found that physical therapy cost far less and carried far fewer risks from …

In a recent article I read on theconversation.edu.au, it was reported that “In 2010, the promotion of the Nurofen range of products “targeting” migraine, back pain, tension headache and period pain was awarded a CHOICE shonky award.”
The take home message of their review was that the different flavours of Nurofen claim to ‘target’ specific sites all contain the exact same active ingredient (Ibuprofen) in the exact same dosage. And there has been no research to prove that Ibuprofen specifically acts at one point rather than another.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in …

I just read an interesting article published in the New York Times on September 4 2011 about whether there is enough “good” evidence to support common procedures currently being used by sports medicine doctors. These include steroid injections, platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections, taping, and surgery. It’s an interesting article and it mirrors what I hear people tell me after undergoing these procedures – sure, it works for some, but for others it doesn’t help at all, and for some it has made their injuries worse. One woman I treated …

Following on from my last article on the risks associated with the use of common over the counter anti-inflammatory medications, I wanted to see what the other options were and more importantly, how effective they are. I found an article which compared the results of 47 different studies on the effectiveness of different forms of ‘non tablet’ anti-inflammatories, ie gels, sprays, and creams. The attraction of these options is that there are none of the associated systemic adverse events.
The results of 47 studies were included. In these studies, the gels/creams/sprays …

A couple of articles have surfaced recently which raise more questions on the usefulness of medical scans. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are useful. What we’re talking about here is whether they are used too often (knowing the radiation risk), and whether the findings on scans are as important as they’re made out to be.
I’ve written on this before when I talked about
A couple of articles have surfaced recently which raise more questions on the usefulness of medical scans. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are useful. What we’re …

I’ve been wanting to write something on Platelet Rich Plasma Injections for Tendon Injuries for a while now. I first heard about it when a lady I treat came in after having had it done for a Tennis Elbow. She said it certainly increased her pain, quite dramatically. In her words, it was the worst thing she had ever done. She certainly would not recommend it to anyone, but I didn’t really have any other information on it and so I started to look and ask around.
These injections are relatively …

In this study the investigators tried to assess which characteristics are related to the risk of being hospitalised in “older adults”. It has been established that as people get older they lose strength, but it is unclear whether having less muscle tissue necessarily means you are weaker per se, and it has also previously been unclear whether there are better ways to assess whether someone is at risk of being hospitalised. This study has answered those questions.
The goal of this study was to look at the link between “strength, function, …

I know, I know, you’re not mice. But hear me out. There are three types of injuries I see very regularly that take a lot longer to heal than others: Rib strains, injuries to nerves, and ligament strains.
And now two recent studies have shown that smokers are at risk of having even slower ligament healing. “Exposure to cigarette smoke delays the chondrogenic phase of fracture repair as well as ligament healing in mice”, according to two reports in the December 2006 issue of the Journal of Orthopaedic Research
In the first …

Now, this wasn’t the best designed study ever, for starters they only had 20 subjects, so it is hard for us to read too much into it. But the results do show a trend that is worth acknowledging. And the idea that we can minimise the risk of knee injury when running is worth investigating.
In this study they did a variety of tests, such as weights, height, strength, flexibility, and joint angle measurements, as well as questionnaires on running habits on runners to see which, if any, of these was …

Now, if you know me, you would know that I would have jumped at the chance to review an article like this, particularly when the findings were so positive. I must sound like a broken record at work giving out advice to do some warming up prior to exercising, and this kind of validation is so sweet.
A warm-up program was developed and taught to 1055 teenage soccer playing girls. The warm-up consisted of 8 minutes of slow jogging, stretching, and some strength and balance exercises, then 2 minutes of faster …