Whiplash is usually thought of as purely a result of a fender bender in a car. However, it’s also a common sports related injury although the reason for the injury is the same.

A whiplash is simply an injury that has occurred because the full body was traveling forward usually in a vehicle of some sort and then vehicle was suddenly stopped due to an impact. A whiplash can also occur from a blow suffered to the neck area that stops the body’s forward movement.

A whiplash is a sneaky condition. It usually won’t rear its painful head for anywhere from 24 to 48 hours after the injury. And it’s very easy to spot when it’s happening. There will be a marked pain and stiffness in the neck which will develop slowly and peak after about two to three days. Additionally, there will be a reduced range of motion in the neck area. Headaches are also a common side effect from a whiplash.

As with any injury to the neck, have it checked by a medical professional to rule out anything serious such as an injury that mimics whiplash initially but may actually be a more serious injury. Once you rule out anything serious, you can manage your whiplash at home. One of the best treatments you can do early on for a whiplash is to use ice on the affected area to manage the pain. 10-15 minutes of ice on the painful area with 20-30 minutes off is a good schedule to follow.

Range of movement exercises are also good. Let pain be your guide for how far the head may be turned on the neck and don’t push it. Mobility will return slowly, but you need to keep those muscles loose through a little exercise.

One exercise you can do is to sit up straight with your hands on your thighs and keeping your shoulders forward, move your head to the left as far as pain will allow and again, don’t push it. Try to hold to a count of 10 but it’s okay if you only make it to 2 in the beginning. Repeat with the right side and do this at least twice a day.

No matter how it happened, whiplash is no fun but with rest, ice and exercise; you can get back on your feet and be a 100% again in no time at all.

No, I don’t mean if someone is being annoying or not! Neck pain, also known as cervicalgia is a very common complaint that many adults have it’s very distinct.

What is Cervicalgia?

If you’re curious, cervicalgia is a pain in the neck that stays in the neck. Meaning it does not radiate outwards into the back or arms as some neck pain does. The neck muscles are under constant tension to hold the held up and in the event of a sudden, sharp movement those muscles can be torn as they are in a tightened position almost constantly. The result is a centered, almost constant neck pain.

How Do I Know If It’s Cervicalgia?
You need to have a qualified medical professional look at your neck to ascertain if it is truly cervicalgia. Symptoms of cervicalgia usually include a sharp pain in the neck. A strong ache in the area of the neck and pain is felt when the head is turned (do this gently) from side to side.

What Are Some Forms of Pain Relief for Cervicalgia?
First of all, apply ice if you suspect there may be a tear in the muscle. A special neck collar can help the muscles rest while acting as a good support for the head. There are some forms of rehabilitation exercises, consult with your physician before attempting them as they aren’t’ right for all people recovering from this type of injury.

A the game of soccer continues to grow in popularity year after year, an injury that is seen more often in the UK is being seen in the United States on a more frequent basis. It’s called “Footballer’s Ankle” in the UK and in the United States it is still known as “Anterior Ankle Impingement”. In short, it’s simply when the foot and ankle has been used to the point that a bony growth has formed in reaction to the constant irritation from overuse.

Symptoms of Anterior Ankle Impingement:

* Pain and tenderness when pressing in with the fingers over the front of the ankle joint.
* Pain when you bend your foot up or down.
* A band of pain across the front of the ankle joint when kicking a ball.
* A bony lump at the front of the ankle.

Remedies for Anterior Ankle Impingement:

* If the bony growth is large enough to be seen through the skin, surgery may be required to remove it.
* If the injury is more recent then it may respond to an exercise program consisting of mobility, stretching and strengthening exercises to slow the bone growth.
* Heat can relieve the feeling of irritation.

What are some methods a sports injury specialist will use?

* Apply sports massage techniques.
* Give you a steroid injection to relieve inflammation and recommend rest of the ankle.
* Operate to remove the growth if it is so large it is impeding movement of the foot.
* X-ray the ankle to confirm diagnosis.

Those are the basics for this type of ankle injury. It was almost never seen 20 years ago, however with the boom of popularity in soccer more individuals are experiencing this type of injury. If you have the above symptoms or you feel a bony growth that you never felt before on the front part of your foot, have it checked out - with early intervention - it can be slowed and even healed before it becomes a problem.

Achilles was the legendary warrior of Homer’s, “Iliad” and mentioned in numerous works throughout the period. The myth goes that a Goddess named Thetis was being pursued by both Zeus, King of all Gods on Mount Olympus as well as Poseidon, God of the Seas. When a prophecy was revealed that Thetis would give birth to a son greater than his father, both Gods abandoned their pursuit and basically fixed her up with a nice mortal guy. She did give birth to a son and to protect her child, she held him upside down and dipped him in the River Styx and forgot to wet his heel where she was holding him. Her son, Achilles went on to become a great warrior who was impervious to arrows and other weapons, however in one battle he finally got shot in the heel with an arrow and it caused his death.

Now, you’re not likely to die from an Achilles tendon pull, however they can be painful and if you don’t slow down once you’ve pulled that tendon and give it a chance to heal, it can be an on-going pain management situation instead of being a healed injury.
One of the most common Achilles tendon injuries, Achilles Tendonitis, occurs in runners, just over 10% of injuries incurred by runners are this type of injury.

The Achilles tendon is the large tendon at the back of the ankle where the larger muscles of the calf are connected to the heel bone. Overuse is the primary cause of this type in injury and the R.I.C.E. method is one of the best treatments you can give it initially. Achilles tendon injuries typically take longer to heal then other foot, leg injuries and the reason is that the Achilles tendon has a poor blood supply and as you know that is a major component for healing.

Did you know a good portion of Achilles Tendon injuries can be avoided through proper warm up and stretching before physical activity and also, gently stretch the area as you cool down after heavy activity. If you feel pain, stop - remember that’s how your body says, “That’s enough right now!”. During your healing process, avoid using that tendon for any type of walking or movement as much as possible. And if you don’t see any lessening of pain or tenderness in a couple of days, have your primary physical look at the injury to ensure that you don’t have a partial or full rupture of the tendon which will require a little more intense treatment and therapy for working the tendon once the healing process starts.

Along with the Internet, came bad posture, poor keyboarding techniques and the inevitable Carpal Tunnel cases. Many people are under the mistaken impression that they have to live with the pain and when you work in a job that requires constant movement of the hands over a keyboard or other repetitious movement of the hands and arms such as assembly line work (which once upon a time accounted for a huge number of carpal tunnel cases).

How Do You Know It’s Carpal Tunnel?

The condition doesn’t exactly have a calling card but it makes itself known just the same.

The earliest symptoms are numbness, tingling, dropping objects due to a problem with grasping and weakness; all of which become pain with movement of this area of the body. The disease typically affects the thumb, index, and middle fingers and is often much worse at night to the point of affecting sleep. A major nerve, specifically the median nerve, travels down the arm and enters the hand through the carpal tunnel, which is located in the central part of the wrist. In people with carpal tunnel syndrome, pressure in the carpal tunnel is higher than in unaffected people, and median nerve irritation occurs. Additionally, individuals that have suffered a broken wrist in the past can be at risk for developing this syndrome.

Individuals that use computer keyboards are especially at risk, whether it’s for playing World of Warcraft, writing that long-worked-on novel or it’s part of your job to work on a computer all day; how you sit and hold your hands while doing these activities will contribute greatly to whether or not Carpal Tunnel will be part of your future.

Home Treatments for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

*Supporting the affected area with a wrist brace is a great helper for many sufferers.
*Cold therapy on the affected area several times a day will relieve the pain, a wrist/arm wrap that can be held in place is ideal.
*Explore ergonomic keyboards that give your wrist and forearms a place to rest while typing.
*If your job requires repetitious movements, ask for help in finding a way to do your position without causing additional injury.
*Stretch your hands before repetitious activities and take frequent breaks to stretch your hands and arms to help the muscles work in other directions.

Carpal Tunnel isn’t life threatening and it’s rarely an emergency, however it can be very painful and it will affect your ability to work, drive, and do any task that requires using your hands if you don’t start managing your symptoms as early as you suspect you may have developed this condition. If you don’t address Carpal Tunnel early on, the arm and hand may be damaged to the point surgery may be your only option.

If you do feel you have this disease, get it diagnosed by a medical professional and start early pain management with ice and you’ll soon have your Carpal Tunnel under control.

Knees take a lot of abuse, even then they are padded, wrapped and care is taken not to fall on them. A good number of knee pain cases are related to simply overuse of the joint. This happens when small stresses are placed on the knee over and over and the knee isn’t allowed to or given time to recuperate. A single impact or twisting injury can cause both pain and inflammation. The good news is that nearly all knee injuries can be successfully treated and only a small percentage require surgery.

A very common knee injury is Lateral Cartilage Tear and it directly affects the lateral meniscus of the knee. If you’re curious as to exactly what the lateral meniscus is, here’s a little 101. Each of your knee joints has two crescent-shaped cartilage menisci. They lay on the inner and outer edges of the upper surface of the tibia bone otherwise known as your shin bone. This area is called your tibial plateau. These components of the leg work together as the best natural shock absorbers and keep the knee free from stress related impacts along with keeping weight distribution happening to the joints are not overloaded during heavy activity.

As a result of an injury, you can see why the ability to walk can be greatly impacted until the ligaments fully heal. Nature has seen to it that this area of the body is rather difficult to injure. There are fewer adhesive attachments to other structures in the area of the body and most of these injuries are due to unnatural twisting movements incurred during sports play or degeneration of the cartilage which usually comes with age.

Signs and Symptoms You May Have a Lateral Cartilage Injury

* Tenderness or pain around the lateral surface of the knee joint
* Swelling- usually within 24-48 hours of injury
* Pain, particularly when bending the knee
* Audible popping, cracking or clicking sounds

What Should You Do If You Suspect a Lateral Cartilage Injury?
* Contact your primary care physician
* Keep pain, swelling and inflammation at bay through the use of R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) to the injured
knee. The use of cold therapy for roughly 10-15 minutes on and about 15-30 minutes off will help keep pain and swelling at
bay.

Lateral cartilage injuries aren’t the only reason your knee will click after an injury, but it is one of the most common reasons. If you suspect you’ve injured a ligament and you have any of the symptoms mentioned above, get it checked with a qualified medical professional and you’ll be back to doing your favorite things quicker than quick!

When you think of it, your body is an amazing machine. When you give it the right fuel (good food, plenty of good water and supplements as needed) and exercise - it will run efficiently continually repairing itself around the clock and keeping a myriad of diseases and aches and pains at bay. However, there is pain and it’s a signal. Think of pain as your body’s way of having a small person with a megaphone inside your body shouting, “Stop XYZ ACTIVITY Now!” This means over-eating, over-exertion and other forms of abuse we put our bodies through.

A common pain people commonly ignore is foot pain. You don’t have to be an athlete to get foot pain. Individuals from runners to the average working person that is on their feet all day get a very common complaint called “Bruised Heel” and also affectionately referred to as “Policeman’s Heel”.


This comes up gradually as the heel bone (calcaneus) is repeatedly pounded on. Under normal conditions the heel is protected by a pad of fat. The repeated shock of walking or running on a hard surface (like concrete) can cause the fat pad to be pushed up the side of the heel leaving less of a protective layer for the heel. The result is heel pain. And this is where you should listen to your body. The first symptom of this injury is simply: pain in your heel.

The optimum thing to do is to rest until your heel doesn’t hurt when walking. Another plus is that you can pad your shoes with a cushy, shock absorbing insole to take the place of the fat bad on your heel if you must continue in a job that requires a lot of walking or you enjoy running a form of recreation or sport. Additionally, replace your shoes if they are old, worn or otherwise lack full foot support.

Use these tips and get rid of your aching feet and always remember, listen to what your body is telling you and many times you can stave off larger health issues by catching them at their earliest beginnings.

Normally these articles are a little more clinical, but today I want to share something with you that recently happened to a friend of mine.

My friend is an attorney, sharp as a tack and is currently battling Parkinson’s Disease and takes a few medications to slow the progression of the disease for which there is still no cure. Unfortunately some of the medications come with unwanted side effects, one of these side effects happened to be seizures.

Several weeks ago, she was walking up the hall, looking forward to going to bed after a long day of work, kids, life and suddenly out of the blue she was hit with a small seizure that sent her to the ground and in the position she hit the hard wood floor, her left shoulder tore a ligament resulting in severe pain. I kept our communications brief during this time except for a regular, “Hello and how are you doing” type of e-mails and phone calls as I feel rest is paramount to a faster recovery for any injury of this type.

She left me a very frustrated message that she was tired of being given pain killers and more pain killers which made her feel horrible along with not killing the pain and she felt she was being goaded into having shoulder surgery rather than exploring other options but she couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone as to what her other options might be. She had a long time relationship with her physician and didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings but she felt it was time she should shop around for another road to travel to end the nearly constant and agonizing level of pain she was feeling. And this is a woman that has been through natural childbirth and gone through the rigors of chemotherapy and beaten ovarian cancer and she shuns painkillers of any type - she has a very high threshold for pain. She told me to just leave a message on her voice mail as it hurt too much to sit at her computer and type an email or talk on the phone.

I called her back and I told her it wasn’t my usual way to toss my two cents in on anyone’s health issues because it is impossible to know the full scope of someone’s condition, no matter how good of a friend they are, but I told her I had to ask - had she tried cold therapy on her shoulder and I directed her to look at the shoulder wraps and make her own decision on whether or not it would work.

I didn’t hear a thing for a week and out of the blue I got an email, not just a short one either and it was very funny to boot.
Here it is in part:

“…Ok, so why is it that these brilliant surgeons did not mention anything about cold therapy? I figured what the heck I’ll give it a try and it actually did very well!

When one of the nurses called me to see how I was doing and such, I said, “Please just relay the message I won’t be paying the bill”.
She asked if I wanted to come in or have one of the doctors call me. and I said, “No, just relay the message that I will not be paying the bill”.
Complete and absolute dead silence.

I said “hello”? and she kind of sputtered and said, “Well okay, but is there any particular reason?”
I said,”Yes of course there is a particular reason…all they have done is cause pain, then give me drugs that I don’t really want but was forced to try because of the level of pain!”

Still nothing really comprehensible was coming from her end, but I could tell she put me on speaker phone so I told her that I had consulted a faith healer and they told me to try cold therapy and it worked! Oh how I wish I was able to do that in person, I can’t begin to imagine what the expressions were around the office! So, I continued, since the doctors had caused pain I was going to send my money to the faith healer that actually did something for me.

My daughter walked in during some of this conversation and after a little while I noticed recognition on her face and she started to grin…I gave her that look that says “if you cannot keep from laughing out loud get out now”…she actually had to leave. The nurse said she would relay the message but that the doctor would probably want to speak with me anyway.

I said,”Just tell them there is no need to call, that my mind was made up”.

She stuttered a little more and then said,”Okay, well bye”.

You know I couldn’t let it go, I said,”Wait, wait…how about if I just split the payment between those worthless doctors and my personal faith healer?”
Dead silence. Phone hangs up.

I called them back but one nurse said she was sorry there was no one else there I could talk to about it. I swear I finally had to tell them the truth that yes I really was still coming in for my visit, I really am nearly pain free and yes I am paying that confarned doctor bill for my previous treatments of this shoulder up until now; and you could pretty much hear a collective audible sigh!


So, thank you from the bottom of my heart for pointing me in a direction for making it feel better and for the chance to harass the medical profession.

I just had to share that one, once again it proves, explore your options - your doctor is very knowledgeable but still only human just like you. If you’re not making progress after several weeks - start exploring other roads of recovery - everyone’s body responds differently and what works fabulous for one person may not work as well for you - but you never know until you try.

We talked yesterday about the most common reasons that injuries occur in children that are participating in sports. Along with their inexperience, the lack of supervision among the adults is unfortunately another reason.

Lack of adult monitoring for the upkeep and the appropriateness of the game playing surface or field is another reason kids get injured playing sports. Coaches or parents should volunteer to check the playing fields for any rifts, holes or ruts that could cause a child to trip and fall. The most common injury from playing on this type of field are sprained ankles. Basketball and running sports should be done on tracks and wooden basketball courts as those surfaces are made for the sports instead of an unforgiving concrete surface for either of those competitive sports. ces like concrete.

Along with an adult overseeing the sports playing area is safe, actualy adult supervision is needed. When you’re searching for a team for your child to join, talk to the coach and make sure that your child, especially if he or she is a first-timer for playing sports, will be adequately supervised during play. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask if the coach is well versed in CPR, first aid and ask directly what their philosophy about the sport is. It should be something along the lines of promoting the individual player while teaching them to work as a team, good sportsmanship and each member doing their best. A “win at any cost” kind of philosophy will probably end with the injury of at least one member on the team and that member could very well be your own child.

Pushing your child into a sport he or she really isn’t capable or doesn’t wish to play in can lead to injuries. Your 7-year old may have more sports ability than your 9-year old who isn’t that interested in sports. Don’t push a child that isn’t ready or does not wish to participate.

Practice is another biggie. Practice what skills that you can with your child at home. Setting up a place to practice kicking goals for soccer, going to a batting cage or throwing a football and shooting baskets at home are all good ways to prepare your child and let them learn about the sports they want to play.

Use these tips and if your child wants to participate in sports - by all means let them. But do your own homework and make sure that you have a good coach and your child is really ready and always wear that safety equipment.

Before parents can help their kids participate in sports safely, they need to understand that the common causes of various sports injuries among children are.

A large number of sports injuries occur in children age 8-years old and younger and usually due to the fact children in this age range generally have less coordination and their reaction times can be slower simply due to the fact they are still developing and growing both mentally and physically.

Since kids of the same age can be markedly different sizes, that will also come into play. A much larger child of the same age may play on a peewee football league and if he has a collision with another, smaller sized player -there can be injuries sustained by one or both players.

Not using the proper safety or play equipment for the sport the kids are playing is another biggie for causing injuries. A good example would be skimping on the use of a properly fitted helmet, mouthguard, pads, goggles, shoes or supports for whatever sport they are playing. The lack of any one of these necessary items for the sport that is being played can lead to an unnecessary injury of a child. If your child is a first-time participant in sports, ask the coach exactly what is needed to participate safely - you’ll get the answers you need.

And that’s just an overview, more to come in tomorrow’s post.