All Bones, joints & muscles Articles

Patients with chronic shoulder pain treated with exercises returned to work sooner than those treated with shockwaves, researchers in Norway said. The study involved 104 men and women ages 18-70 attending the outpatient clinic at Ullevaal University Hospital in Oslo with shoulder pain lasting at least three months. The single-blind randomized study, published in the British Medical Read more...

My husband picked up my purse the other day. "I can do curls with this," he exclaimed. He was right. Looking for something in my humongous handbag is like going on an excavation. I was carrying a cell phone, a camera, a charger, two makeup bags, a comb, a magazine, a bottle of perfume, some jewelry, sunglasses in a case, a few letters to mail and a wallet full of change; not Read more...

Flummoxed for years by pill packaging that causes flesh wounds and frustration, fed-up consumers are pressing companies for less painful ways to open their medicines. The changes come as the industry that grew up around making packages and medication bottles ultra-child-resistant faces criticism for making them too impenetrable -- not just for the elderly, arthritis sufferers and the disabled, Read more...

When Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick had a hip operation, the 53-year-old joined a growing number of baby boomers who are opting for joint replacement surgery sooner rather than later. Physicians used to tell patients in their 50s to wait a while, said Dr. Scott Abramson at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands (RHCI). "People would suffer in silence for 10 years until the Read more...

Training the brain may be as helpful as training muscles in preventing knee injuries, a U.S. researcher suggests. Scott McLean of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor says experiments indicate the shift from performance to prevention training to prevent injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee may need to focus above the neck. "These findings suggest that training Read more...

The dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health was part of an international team of scientists who developed and tested a new drug to prevent blood clots forming after joint replacement surgery, while reducing risk of excessive bleeding. The drug is still undergoing trials but could benefit the millions of baby boomers expected to have hip or knee replacement surgeries in Read more...

On average we all take about 10,000 steps a day, but our feet are often one of the most neglected parts of our bodies. They can suffer particularly badly in the hot summer months, especially when they are kept cocooned in shoes. Closed shoes and high temperatures can at best make feet uncomfortable and at worst leave them prone to dry skin, blisters and infections. Podiatrist Emma Supple Read more...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a total ankle replacement system for arthritic or deformed ankles that may preserve some range of motion. The federal agency said the new prosthesis, the first of its type, is a mobile-bearing device, which relies on bearings that move across a surface of polyethylene, a flexible plastic. Once arthritis or injury destroys the cartilage Read more...

WASHINGTON -- Roughly one in 50 Americans has some degree of paralysis, and five times more people than doctors thought are living with a spinal-cord injury -- nearly 1.3 million -- says a startling new study. It's a largely hidden population that neither the government nor medical organizations had ever attempted to fully count, and the findings promise to help health authorities understand Read more...

One of my legs is shorter than the other. Is that normal? It is quite common to have a slight difference in leg length. However, according to John Martinez, PT, owner of Therapy Experts any discrepancy greater than a quarter of an inch should be examined by a physician or physical therapist. "Big disparities in leg length can lead to a slew of other problems down the line," he warns. Read more...

My knee clicks loudly whenever I bend it but I don't have any pain. Is that normal? If your knees click lightly on a regular basis but they aren't painful, there's probably no cause for worry, but if they're as noisy as say, someone typing on a keyboard, it could be an indication of a serious orthopedic problem. "The snapping sound a knee makes but is not associated with any pain is Read more...

Have you ever missed a day of work because of an achy back? You're not alone. More than 80 percent of Americans are the victim of low back pain at some point in their lives and at any given time, more than 10 percent of Americans are in the midst of a debilitating low back episode. What's more, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, say prevalence of low back pain is on Read more...

Having a knee replacement doesn't have to mean the end of your tennis career if you're willing to push through a little pain. A University of Delaware doctor says, though it may be uncomfortable at first, doing exercises to strengthen the front thigh muscles known as the quadriceps after you've had knee replacement surgery is critical to recovery. In fact, it can boost the function of your new Read more...

Have you ever bent over to pick up a fork and felt like you'd just had a knife stuck in your back? According to Evan Johnson, advanced clinician physical therapy coordinator for the New York Presbyterian Medical Center, that searing pain is a spasm, a tightening up of your lower back muscles in response to any perceived threat to your spine. At some point, nearly 80 percent of adult Americans Read more...

BETHESDA, Md. -- Can people be trained to avoid falling? New research suggests so.  According to new research from the Journal of Neurophysiology, exposing people to unstable situations in a laboratory may actually help train them to maintain their balance on a slippery floor and avoid falls in the future. The study furthered the understanding of how the brain develops fall prevention Read more...

For generations, bicycle saddles were more like medieval torture devices than comfortable seating. Then medical researchers determined that bike saddles had caused some cases of erectile dysfunction, and things changed, says Reed Caster, owner of Caster's Bicycle Center. "Women have been complaining about bike seats since the beginning of time," he says, "but it wasn't Read more...

There’s nothing like a five-hour wait in the emergency room to put a damper on the holiday spirit. Yet each winter thousands of people visit the ER for injuries sustained on snow-packed slopes and icy walkways, from falls taken while trimming the tree or stringing holiday lights. When the pace gets frenzied -- as it often does around the holidays -- it's easy to get careless. So, to get Read more...

There’s nothing like a five-hour wait in the emergency room to put a damper on the holiday spirit. Yet each winter thousands of people spend time in the ER seeking treatment for injuries sustained while skiing, skating, snowboarding, from slipping on icy walkways or mishaps when hanging lights and decorating the house. (Who knew tree trimming could be dangerous?) In the spirit of Read more...

The Cordova great-grandmother knew she was in trouble when she slipped on her attic stairs nearly eight years ago and heard her right ankle snap as she hit the ground. After surgery and a cast, Charlene Bennett's ankle healed, but "I never stopped hurting. I went through a series of boots and braces, but my ankle never stopped hurting." Until earlier this year when Dr. Drew Read more...