Understanding Pain
Many of our athletes deal with pain on a daily/weekly basis. Some athletes can endure more pain than their counterparts.
But what exactly is pain?
Pain is a signal from an area of the body to the brain that something has varied from its normal position, chemistry, electrical valance, structure, internal pathology or external damage.
Pain comes in a variety of explanations…aches, pain, burning, cooling, electrical, constant, on-and-off, sharp, and weak. The key is to understand what is pain which is damage and what is discomfort which can come from weakness.
Once you’ve damaged an area, let’s say a sprained ankle, after the initial damage has been worked on and cleared up the patient may continue to experience some type of pain. Many times this self described pain is more of a weakness of that area that hasn’t completely strengthened. The weak tissue will show signs of pain when in fact the “damage” of that area has healed now the signals that are being sent to the brain are more of a signal of weakness.
The more you strengthen the less you’re going to feel any pain in that area.
We use a numeric scale for our athletes to describe their pain. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 representing no pain at all we ask the patient to rate their pain. Ten pain is if I took a hammer and smashed your hands as hard as I could.
This will give me at least an indication of where the patient is on the scale and what type of damage I’m dealing with.
Every day we have our patients tell us where there pain is for that day. This gives us a indication day by day if they are getting better to let us know if the treatment that I’m using is the correct one.
When you use aspirin or other over the counter medication you’re essentially just “masking” the pain. The key to ending pain relief is getting to the problem that is causing the pain. I call that the “pain generator” – which is the area that is causing the pain. Many time the pain generator has nothing to do with the actual site of your pain.
Many time pain can be referred from other areas of your body. So if you continue to treat the site of pain and the pain is coming from some where else you will never find relief. You can read more about this at my web site www.ConwayClinic.com
Injuries on the Rise
I’ve been preaching for years that we will see a death in Division I or college football in prime time. The reason I say this is that the game is getting faster each year, the players are getting bigger each year and physics dictates that when an object is in motion it tends to stay in motion…regardless of the end point.
With that said, the game, the equipment and the training must grow together or there will be a problem…epically in football.
The fact of the matter is this…players are training to generate force but they are not training to properly absorb the force. It reduce injury, the body must properly be able to absorb force. It’s a simple process that most if not all trainers do not understand.
Most players are looking to get bigger – stronger – faster, with out any regard to safety. If you look at the NFL, NBA and many other professional teams you will see that injuries are on the rise. It would stand to reason that if the present day training is getting better than the injuries would be getting less.
It quite the opposite and it seems to be getting worse. Here is an excerpt of an article that was written in OT Magazine about over use injuries. It’s not just me noticing that injuries are on the rise.
THE OVERTRAINING SYNDROME
It was past the midway point of the 2006-07 NBA season when New York Knicks broadcaster Walt Frazier wondered on the air why there seemed to be an usually high number of injuries — especially stress-related ailments like muscle pulls, fractures, sprained ankles and tendonitis. “You know,” said the Hall of Fame guard, “all these injuries may be caused by players training too much.”
Frazier’s thought was a provocative one, especially since the conventional wisdom says that professional athletes are in the best shape than ever in the history of sports. The strength-training and aerobics equipment is high-tech, the stretching techniques can target the smallest muscles and the physical trainers are exercise experts. And with million-dollar, long-term contracts as the motivation, many pro athletes are training year round (as OT chronicled in our Jan/Feb 2007 “Training Room” department) and some even spend time pumping and cycling right after games……
In future articles I will explain a new type of thought pertaining to training high level (and regular as well) athletes to prevent injury and to improve performance.
How & When To Use Ice
Ice is a great treatment for most type of sports injuries. If used correctly it can really help to reduce swelling, pain relief and help to restore motion.
The easiest way to use ice is to get a zip long bag and fill it with ice. The put it on the affected area…pretty easy.
Now here’s the trick…in 20 minutes get the ice off. After 20 minutes there is evidence that after this time period the ice can begin to mimick heat. Why is this bad? Well when you injure an area the typical responce by the body is to flood the area with swelling.
The key is to remove as much of the swelling as quick as possible. Swelling brings in fibrotic (scar) tissue to this injured area and the quicker that you can reduce the swelling the less scar tissue will form.
So for sprains, strains….ice. 20 minutes on and then wait about an hour before you can reapply the ice again.
If you follow this protocol you can continue to use the ice for as long as you feel that this method is helping.
Top Reasons for Female ACL Injuries
Many articles have been written on injuries and many are slanted towards the guys. Well in this article I want to talk about ACL injuries in females.
Probably the most devistating injury of the knee the ACL is short for the anterior cruciate ligament. This is the ligament that stabilzes the knee from excessive movement. The femur (thigh bone) and the tibia (shin bone) are the two bones that make up the knee along with the patella (the knee cap). The ACL is a ligament that attaches from the tibia to the femur and stops it from moving out of place.
How do they get injured?
Well, basically when the muscles of thigh can’t properly absorb force it will transfer that force to the bone. You see, muscles act like shock absorbers that take the force before the bones do. If they don’t it will cause force into the joint which will then cause inflammation and that’s when the pain starts.
Now back to the ACL…many times when the force isn’t taken up by the muscle and the muscles are not protecting the joint the force is transferred into the joint. The only thing inside teh knee joint is cartlidge adn ligaments which are susceptable to damage if not properly protected.
Without the muscles acting like shock absorbers the bones and then the joints are next in line to handle the force. On top of that research has shown that there is a difference between male acl injuries and female acl injuries. Here are the top 5 reasons…
There are many reasons sited for these injuries however not many are showing an reason why this continues to happen.
Make sure you have adequate footware, make sure you are hydrated properly and strength training to the lower extremities is a must. Along with that flexability is also very important to make sure that your lower legs can properly absorb force.
Top 5 Sports Injuries
Have you ever wondered what are the most recurring sports injuries?
1. Sprained Ankle – which is a twisting or stretching of the ligaments and the tendons of the ankle. Many times this injury can be very painful causing swelling and discoloration.
2. Muscle Pull- This can occur anywhere in the body but the more popular sites are the hamstring, quad, shoulder and groin.
3. Shoulder Pain – There are many different type of shoulder injuries resulting from sports that range from a simple strain to more complex injury such as a dislocation. Muscles that support the shoulder are called the rotator cuff which is probably the main muscle injury of the shoulder.
4. Shin Splints – This is an irritation of the lower leg. This is an inflammation of the tendon that attaches to the tibia (shin bone). Shin splints are usually as a result of mechanical problem from the foot. When the foot doesn’t land properly when running the tension is put onto the tissue of the shin which begin to inflame and causes pain.
5. Knee Pain – There are many different type of knee symptoms including stains of the ligaments, damage to the cartilage, muscle weakness and ligament tears. The is one area that is put under a lot of pressure during sports and when if begins to weaken many of these type of problems can occur.
Cutting Edge Treatment
When Sports Injury expert Dr. Malcolm Conway of the Conway Clinic began treating young athletes suffering from non-traumatic knee pain he began to theorize that the current treatment was flawed. He began to research and found that his theory of flawed treatment for certain injuries was correct.
Dr. Conway began to treat patients with Osgood Schlatters Disease (OSD), a condition that affects the knee in many young athletes. OSD is an over use condition that causes pain, tenderness and inflammation of the knee right below the knee cap (patella). The pain usually comes on with children between the ages of 10 and 17 after some type of motion such as jumping, running and going up and down steps.
Just below the knee cap there is an area on the tibia (upper shin) known as the tibia tuberosity. This serves as an attachment point for the patellar ligament. With repetitive movement such as running, dancing, gymnastics and jumping this area begins to get ‘tugged’ on causing swelling and pain.
Current treatment by the medical establishment is a bit out dated. Presently, the most popular treatment is rest…up to 6 months. As you can well understand that if your son or daughter is competing in some serious athletic events this can be devastating to the young athlete.
“I have co-developed a treatment that we’ve found through clinical studies to be 95% faster in the healing response when compared to current medical treatment,” noted Dr. Conway.
Dr. Conway reports that he has been able to return athletes to the practice or playing field in just a few treatments. “At present, some doctors are advising their patients to take up to 6 months or more off to let this condition rest and I feel that there is no need for that,” offered Conway.
This new breakthrough treatment is called the MyoFascial Disruption Treatment (MFDT). A manual treatment that is founded on the principal that disrupted fascia is the culprit of pain.
“When the fascia becomes disrupted it causes the area to become restricted in movement which then causes other physiological breakdown. Swelling, pain and loss of strength are just a few things that will be caused from this fascial breakdown. By mechanically re-structuring the fascia back to normal you will see immediate pain relief, as well as increase range of motion and reduce swelling,” said Dr. Conway who noted that there is no age requirement for this procedure.
Completely non invasive, MFDT is effective in many other type of soft tissue injuries. Shoulder and rotator cuff pain, knee pain and neck and upper back pain are just a few maladies that Dr. Conway professes good results. “Everything is completely done on an ‘out-patient’ basis in the office. There are no shot’s given, no medication and the patient should see dramatic results within the very first treatment, added Dr. Conway.
This cutting edge treatment is key for many athletes’ futures in the sports world. To be able to reduce the incident of injury and disability the patients that see Dr. Conway breathe a sigh of relief when they know they have such a pioneer to be there when they need him.
Welcome
Welcome to Sports Injury Help blog designed for the serious athlete better understand injuries.
Our goal it to provide new and up-dated information that can help any athlete reach their ultimate challenge…avoiding injury.
You will learn the difference between using ice and heat, rest and no rest and many other alternatives to your sports success. We will show you that conventional medicine does not have all of the answers and that there are treatments that most likely your doctor doesn’t even know exist.
We’re not here to bash science or medicine…we’re here to provide help, advice and answers to your injuries.
We have one common goal…RESULTS!
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