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Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#61

Post by grayhatter »

sejje wrote: post #39
Daneel_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No? I’ve been mountain biking for over 20 years and never any broken bones or had to go to hospital as a result, despite doing downhill, trials, and dirt jumping. And I have 20 years of fitness to show for it - that’s about as positive as it gets.

You haven't addressed the argument (riskiness of the activity) with your anecdote.

That was his point, or if it wasn't it's my point. It's a physical activity, one that from my POV improves health much more than reduces it. Take the hypothetical where he doesn't ever find a replacement activity, and instead of being fit becomes obese and depressed. that would be worse for society than mountain biking wouldn't it?

For society only; what's the TCO of a mountain biking injury times the rate of injuries, over the TCO of obesity and depression times the likelihood a sedentary lifestyle results?

without access to that data, his anecdote does appear to be a stronger argument than literally no data, no?

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#62

Post by layer8 »

grayhatter wrote: post #47
edwcross wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the amount of injuries related to mountain biking, is there some specific insurance needed for it? It seems one of those "net-negative for the society activities", like trampolines.

this is such a wild take to me... it's impossible to quantity at what point something becomes a net negative for society. Smoking seems to be an obvious example, because it's addictive quality inhibits a fair decision to the smoker, and it's something with a lifelong pathology. But trampolines and mountain biking are both activities that result in ephemeral injuries. There is the rare case where a particular injury m…

I agree that a ban doesn’t make sense, but even “ephemeral” injuries routinely generate significant costs.

(In my experience, musculoskeletal injuries are rarely completely ephemeral, they tend to have long-term effects, even if minor.)

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#63

Post by myheartisinohio »

edwcross wrote: post #20
ehnto wrote: post #3

The pathology for broken collar bones was changing right as I took up mountain biking, and subsequently shattered my collarbone. It was hotly debated at the hospital, if my specific case should be operated on or not. Each time I had a checkup, one doctor would say "wait and see" while the other was saying "I can't believe we didn't operate on this". At any rate, the outcome was as good as if they had operated on it,…

Given the amount of injuries related to mountain biking, is there some specific insurance needed for it? It seems one of those "net-negative for the society activities", like trampolines.

People slip in the shower so lets stop bathing.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#64

Post by ghaff »

philwelch wrote: post #51
doix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we'll immediately be at the point where smokers, alcoholics, obese people etc. should pay more, after all, their way of life statistically causes higher costs. Wait, do they not? I genuinely assumed they did. I remember when I got private insurance through my work I had to fill in some questionnaire. It was "free", but it was a taxable benefit so you knew how much you were costing the company and me and my friends…

Health insurance premiums used to be different based on whether or not you smoked; maybe they still are. It would still be nice if you could lower your health insurance premiums by losing weight or buying a policy that didn’t cover mountain bike injuries or whatnot.

At a former company, there was some trivial discount for an annual health care screening which I stopped doing because it was trivial and something that wasn't between me and my doctor. I would absolutely not sign onto a screening that invasively wanted to know about specific athletic or other activities of that sort. (Which would probably also give the insurance company untold levers to deny your claim.) "Oh, you said you don't rock climb, well that 'hike' looks like a rock climb to us."

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#65

Post by pavel_lishin »

nsbk wrote: post #49
tomaytotomato wrote: post #13

I had a bad pilon fracture of my ankle a couple of years ago with both a break on Tibia and Fibia. I fell off a ramp whilst pushing a wheelbarrow full of rubble into a skip (should've stuck to building code instead of building a house!). Normally that type of injury is associated with car crashes when someone instinctively puts all their force on the brake and the shock of the crash travels up the pedal into the ankl…

I’m going through a very similar process after breaking my ankle in a motorcycle accident. Tibia and double fibula fracture with dislocation and open wound, an ugly one which needed 2 titanium plates and 18 screws. I was out of my plaster after week 2 so that I could start moving the ankle, and started physical therapy on week 5. I'm currently on week 7 and have already started _walking_ with the "moon boot". I can s…

I also broke my ankle about 20 years ago. Once I was out of the cast, I regained all function, and only recently has my ankle been starting to ache. The doctor I saw about it even commented that it was as clean of a fix as he'd ever seen!

I also didn't do much physio, but that was mostly due to me being a 23 year old moron (which, believe it or not, also had a lot to do with me breaking my ankle in the first place!)

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#66

Post by mindcrime »

ehnto wrote: post #3

The pathology for broken collar bones was changing right as I took up mountain biking, and subsequently shattered my collarbone. It was hotly debated at the hospital, if my specific case should be operated on or not. Each time I had a checkup, one doctor would say "wait and see" while the other was saying "I can't believe we didn't operate on this". At any rate, the outcome was as good as if they had operated on it,…

Apropos of nothing in particular, when I first started mountain biking, a guy I was riding with told me: "You can divide all mountain bikers into two groups: the ones who have broken their collarbone, and the ones who are about to break their collarbone."

Knock on wood, 20 years later I still haven't broken a collarbone, but I've had plenty of scrapes, bruises, cuts, etc, a couple of concussions, a torn rotator cuff, and quite probably a broken neck (never went to the doctor to have it diagnosed, but I landed on my head hard enough to crack my helmet and knock me unconscious for a few minutes and my neck hurt for like 6 months afterwards).

Still, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Nothing like being out in the woods, on a bike.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#67

Post by pavel_lishin »

wkirby wrote: post #16
tomaytotomato wrote: post #13

I had a bad pilon fracture of my ankle a couple of years ago with both a break on Tibia and Fibia. I fell off a ramp whilst pushing a wheelbarrow full of rubble into a skip (should've stuck to building code instead of building a house!). Normally that type of injury is associated with car crashes when someone instinctively puts all their force on the brake and the shock of the crash travels up the pedal into the ankl…

I suffered a very similar break playing soccer. ER surgeon asked if I fell off a roof. 3 metal plates and 15 screws later I was non-weight bearing for 14 weeks. I lost almost 5 inches in circumference from my left thigh while waiting to put weight back on that leg. My post-break recovery has not been as good as yours sounds. Almost 3 years later and I rate my ankle at 75% of what its sibling is capable of. I had foll…

I wonder how and when they choose to remove plates, vs. leaving them in. They left mine in, and when I originally asked them, they mentioned that there was significantly more risk in removing it than leaving it in.

20 years on, and it's still hanging in there.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#68

Post by TomK32 »

tomnipotent wrote: post #42
TomK32 wrote: post #32

Oh this is so bad: > In the 19th century German surgeon and anatomist Julius Wolff recognized that healthy bones adapt and change in response to the load placed on them. That is why everyone—but especially women, who are more susceptible than men to osteoporosis—should lift weights as they age No, weight lifting won't improve bone density, it's running that will edit: https://theros.org.uk/information-and-support/bon…

It's my understanding that weight lifting is superior to running for increasing bone density but that both together are superior to any one singular. Makes me think about a Mark Rippetoe article from several years back he helps an older woman (60? 80s?) eliminate her lower back pain with weight lifting and strength training exercises. Rippetoe isn't pefect, but he has a good-enough track record on this stuff. I had a…

A mix is always the best.

At 40+ I do feel the benefits of adding a weekly hour of stretching and winding at the gym. Exercises everyone can put into the daily life to improve mobility. It even helps with my broken hip that was bolted back together a few years ago :-)

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#70

Post by 77pt77 »

Aeolun wrote: post #46
netbioserror wrote: post #4

I fractured my elbow mountain biking, the tip of my radius. The urgent care doctor gave me a sling and suggested months of immobility. The orthopaedic said to throw away the sling and start exercising the elbow as soon as I could, and prescribed PT. Turns out that was the right move, there are some permanent changes to mobility but it's about 97% what it was before the crash. Immobilizing joints can apparently cause…

Feels kinda reasonable. Human bodies cannot possibly have eveolved to require 6 months of rest to fix. All those humans would have died out thousands of years ago.

Most of these fractures would be deadly affairs thousands of years ago anyway.

Immobilization has its uses.

Surgery is many times essential.

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