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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

#201

Post by alistairSH »

ghaff wrote: post #148
TylerE wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we should absolutely ban, at the very least, contact football among minors. We have ample evidence of football (and soccer, too, for that matter) student athletes developing full blown CTE by their 20s, and with lifetime risk thousands of times the general population.

A few years back, I thought there would be more of a push to regulate/limit American, at least contact, football. But didn't happen. Soccer? Good luck.

100% anecdotal… one of my town’s youth football (American) clubs shut down before COVID due to lack of interest. When my son played ~15 years ago, the club was fielding 2 teams per age group.

And knowing what they know now, I wouldn’t let a child play today.

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

#202

Post by tomjakubowski »

askvictor wrote: post #176
kenjackson wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy who termed RICE (Gabe Mirkin) later came out and said he made a mistake. Specifically with the "Ice" part (and partially with Rest). See: https://drmirkin.com/fitness/why-ice-delays-recovery.html

IIRC the underlying assumption was that you should be reducing inflammation (RICE is almost all about reducing inflammation). Since then, we've learned that inflammation is a good thing, and helps things heal faster.

I'm curious now if the anti-inflammatory diets popular with dietitians and health influencers could have a negative effect when you really do want inflammation, like when fighting an infection or recovering from injury.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/quick-start-g...

https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/healthy-weight/diet...

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

#203

Post by pkulak »

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,…

I've still never heard a satisfactory explanation for how in the hell two parts of a bone, broken such that they aren't even touching, can find their way back to each other and heal. My son broke his collar bone, and the hospital sent him home in a sling. When I looked at the x-ray, I couldn't believe that's the correct treatment. But a month or two later and he was good as new. Absolutely blows my mind every time I think of it.

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

#204

Post by Vaslo »

I hurt my back a couple of times over the years between squats and leg press. Each time I went to the doctor, they pushed chiropractor or the physical therapist. PT was useless the 3 injuries that I went for, and Chiropractor maybe helped once.

When I went and read a lot about muscle and back injuries, it sounded like the ubiquitous advice of heat, cold etc can still be used. BUT what really helps is to rest for a day or two to offset some of the bigger damage and then get back into the gym at very low weight and start over.

If you haven’t ripped something to the point of surgery, there is something about keeping active, keeping blood and nutrients flowing to the site that maximizes healing I guess. I was back to where I was squatting within 2 months and my form was better than ever with a lot of attention paid to my back.

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

#205

Post by tomjakubowski »

bombcar wrote: post #41
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.

Trampolines are indicated because YOUR home insurance could be on the hook for someone ELSE being hurt on your trampoline. And it's easy for them to exclude it. Medical insurance generally covers your own accidents/mistakes, because it's not like you're going out searching for them for fun.

> Medical insurance generally covers your own accidents/mistakes, because it's not like you're going out searching for them for fun.

I wonder if the guys from Jackass had trouble finding health insurance.

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

#206

Post by TinkersW »

I smashed up my wrist in a bike crash, resting it didn't fix shit. When I lifted weights it would tweak out and hurt, so I avoided that for like a year.

Eventually I decided fuck this, and starting lifting weights even though it hurt, then I'd massage it which somehow reduced the pain. Repeat that, and very quickly the wrist fixed itself, zero issues now.

When I broke my collarbone years ago, the docs said just let it heal on its own, which it did just fine(I was hiking/running about 2 hours every day, maybe that helped).

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

#207

Post by tenzing »

noah_buddy wrote: post #128
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,…

A personal philosophy in medical decisions: - unless there is a severe risk I might die from lack of intervention (on any reasonable timeline besides life), I avoid intervention. In some cases (my messed up jaw and a whole 9 wisdom teeth), I broke this rule. But generally, it has served me well.

I have a similar viewpoint; over a decade ago, I had a nuisance tendon issue and went to a specialist who recommended surgery.

The surgery had a risk of serious, life-long consequence if it went wrong. He said that if I can live with the tendon issue, we can delay surgery indefinitely... so we delayed.

A month later, I stopped doing a certain workout at the gym, which resolved the issue within days. No need for surgery at all.

I do think that some specialists can be so focused on their speciality (i.e. surgery) that they don't think outside of that paradigm (try a different workout at the gym), and it's up to the patient to effectively shop around to get the best advice.

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

#208

Post by b212 »

I battled PF for ages, tried literally everything, and when nothing worked, my feet were in pain I decided to do the dumbest thing in the world and try to only thing I was told I shouldn’t do - run.

I picked a day when my plantar fascia was not too painful and did the first training from c25k plan (roughly 8 minutes of jogging if I remember correctly).

It actually helped me. Don’t try it at home, I think I got lucky because my PF was really not a PF anymore. But I would never found out if I did not run that day. I’ve been running daily ever since, no issues whatsoever.

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

#209

Post by crazygringo »

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…

> but how is that a drain on society, and not primarily the individual?

There are two factors.

The first is that a drain on individuals is a drain on society. That's why we outlaw risky behavior like lethal recreactional drugs, driving without seatbelts, driving without a driver's license, etc. We try to protect people from themselves in some of the worst aspects that we can.

Second, of course, is health care costs. Activities that constantly result in injury wind up raising the health care costs for everyone, since that's how insurance works.

> by your logic, should we also ban (or require insurance?)...

You already have to have car insurance, yes. And yes lots of kinds of guns are banned in lots of places.

We draw the lines in different places.

It is a pretty interesting thought experiment to wonder whether people shouldn't be allowed to engage in organized sports that are risky, without paying an additional health insurance premium? E.g. if you play professional football, then your league has to pay extra money into the health insurance fund to compensate for all the extra health care treatment their players need and will need.

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

#210

Post by myself248 »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #188

My main take away from this thread is to never take up mountain biking.

I noticed this years ago. First thing two cyclists do upon meeting each other is compare injuries. It's like dogs sniffing each other's butts.
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