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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

#71

Post by mindcrime »

alistairSH wrote: post #28
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.

I don't know that "normal" mountain biking is any worse than cycling in general, or sports like tackle football. A lot of the injury risk when mountain biking is reasonably easily mitigated by controlling your speed and walking the bike through terrain that's above your skill level. There was a report out of British Columbia a few months ago about injury rates, and they were high, but BC is also a major downhill trai…

The way I always looked at it (based on my own anecdotal experience, plus those of my friends around me)... you're probably more likely to get "hurt" in some sense while mountain biking, but probably more likely to get "killed or maimed" while road cycling (eg, being struck by a car).

Curiously enough, I have been road cycling for 10+ years now (and mountain biking much longer) and I only just picked up my first crash and injury from road cycling on Jan 1. I crashed and sprained my wrist. :-(

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

#72

Post by ghaff »

parineum wrote: post #59
ghaff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, "society" deciding what activities are too dangerous to routinely allow is a really nasty slope. Yes, there's some special insurance offered through private organizations for things like higher altitude mountaineering. But it's not that big a step to rule that any contact sport, for example, should require special insurance. I'm sure the insurance companies wouldn't mind.

I play recreational hockey. All of the rinks around here (and most of the US) require membership to USA Hockey which, among other things, provides some kind of insurance to both the rinks and the players. https://www.usahockey.com/insurancemanagement

That must be relatively new. Never heard of such a thing. Wonder if it's a reason my undergrad really cut back on intramural hockey.

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

#74

Post by paulcole »

dfxm12 wrote: post #31
paulcole wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think these are things that have to be considered for medical protocols What makes you think those things haven't been considered? The comment you replied to said, "the new guidance is..." I took that to mean those things have been considered.

I mean considered per patient . Pro wrestler Kerry von Erich had to get his broken foot amputated because he thought it felt good enough to walk across the room to get a cheeseburger. Not everyone can gauge these things on their own, especially considering people with broken bones may be taking pain killers. Not everyone can have professionals, or even loved ones, around them to monitor it.

I mean so we don't make a generally good recommendation because one pro wrestler got their foot amputated?

The fact that general medical guidance isn't tailored to you shouldn't come as a surprise. Whether you take it or not is up to you.

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

#75

Post by gregwebs »

There are case reports of people achieving remarkable rehabilitation by stressing their bones and muscles with weight lifting, for example: https://startingstrength.com/article/barbell_training_as_reh...

In general the theory I usually see now is that rehabilitation is best achieved by putting pain-free stress on the thing being healed, with some arguing for low levels of pain in some circumstances.

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

#76

Post by TomK32 »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #2

It was ~20 years ago, so my memory is a little foggy, but I gave myself a "dancer's fracture" in one foot. After many months, it was looking like a non-union. The podiatrist was worried any pin would split the broken bone even more. It wasn't looking good. I had read something along these lines even back then, so with my crazy immobilizer boot on, I head to the gym and started doing light squats several times per wee…

Those little bones are fragile... I broke the second from the outside last summer, too much running, and then started running again a little bit too soon and the next one broke :-/

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

#77

Post by ghaff »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #37
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.

Why should you be forced to pay insurance if you don't endanger others? Most situations where you are forced to have insurance are cases where others are endangered (eg. driving).

You mostly aren't. But you're also foolish to not carry health insurance and homeowner's insurance (even aside of liability) in the US.

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

#78

Post by grayhatter »

layer8 wrote: post #62
grayhatter wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

I'm gonna call that sample bias. If you exclude all injuries that are ephemeral, (because they don't get reported, because they're ephemeral, and forgotten), you're left with the injuries that aren't ephemeral. I mean duh, obviously lol. But my point is still, yes injuries are bad, and as a society, we're pretty trash at healing them, but injuries are more impactful for the individual, than for society.

And bonus point; if we're talking about sociatial responsabilities, given injuries are unavoidable, shouldn't we be trying to fix our responses to them rather than trying to limit people from enjoying life? Mountain biking in fun, so are trampolines. Strictly speaking, the world where we've solved injuries (think any sci-fi pantopia) is better than the world where we didn't because we just outlawed getting injured.

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

#79

Post by lamp_book »

filoleg wrote: post #44
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…

Source? Because I found plenty of studies on the topic, and there seems to be a fairly universal consensus that goes the exact counter of what you claim. I.e., studies state that weight and resistance training helps with improving bone density significantly, while aerobic exercise (walking/cycling/etc.) doesn’t. Here are excerpts from one of the papers[0], but you can find many more agreeing with that take: “Prolonge…

I think you need to read that a bit more closely - they describe running and jogging as high-impact as opposed to walking, swimming, and cycling. These articles are almost always saying something fairly specific.

They specifically mention a combo of the two from one study: "A combination of RE and weight-bearing aerobic exercise (e.g., running, skipping, jumping, or high-impact aerobics) is recommended as RE training provides muscular loading while weight-bearing aerobic exercise provides additional mechanical loading to the bone above gravity."

And they still describe a need for end-to-end evidence for improved outcomes: "For determining the effect of RE on the reduction of fall and fracture risk, further large-scale studies are needed to be investigated."

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

#80

Post by Qem »

myheartisinohio wrote: post #63
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.

People slip in the shower so lets stop bathing.

We probably should have lanyard-equipped showers.
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