Stress Fractures Becoming More Common in Runners

 

 Stress Fractures Becoming More Common in Runners

 

Stress fractures of the foot are becoming more common in runners, especially first-time marathoners, according to the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. “Runners who increase their mileage too quickly or change to a more intense phase of training may be more susceptible to a stress fracture due to the increased force placed on the bones,” says Alan MacGill, DPM, AACFAS, a foot and ankle surgeon from Boynton Beach, FL. “A general rule of thumb for runners is to increase the mileage by no more than 10 percent each week. Runners who are training also need to have adequate rest time in between runs to help decrease the risk of injury.”

Dr. Alan MacGill

“Stress fractures can occur anywhere in the foot and can eventually lead to a complete break of the bone if left untreated,” Dr. MacGill explained. “Early diagnosis and treatment are important to ensure proper healing.”

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Benefits of Regular Physical Exercise

Big Benefits of Physical Activity

According to the CDC, adults need to engage in at least 2½ hours (150 minutes) each week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity to achieve substantial health benefits. Examples include brisk walking (3 miles per hour), bicycle riding (less than 10 miles per hour), ballroom dancing, or general gardening. Indeed, aerobic activities that keep you moving are integral to an anti-aging lifestyle. Let’s review some of the wide-ranging benefits of physical activity; then get up and get moving with some physical activity of your own!

1.	Help Your Heart. Richard V. Milani, from the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, and colleagues investigated how psychosocial stress influences the effects of exercise training. The team followed 522 cardiac patients, including 53 who had high stress levels and 27 control patients who had high stress levels but did not engage in cardiac rehabilitation. The study subjects were offered 12 weeks of exercise classes consisting of 10 minutes of warm-up, 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise (walking, rowing, jogging, or similar), and then a 10-minute cooldown stretch. The researchers found that the subjects who became physically fitter during the study period (by exercising) were 60 percent less likely to die in the following six years.
2.	Grow Brain Cells. David J. Creer, from the National Institute on Aging, and colleagues studied the underlying mechanisms dictating how exercise improves information processing. The researchers prompted adult mice to uses running wheels, finding that doing so increased their number of brain cells and enabled them to perform better at spatial learning tests compared to mice that did not exercise. The exercising mice were better able to tell the difference between the locations of two adjacent identical stimuli, an ability that the team found to be closely linked to an increase in new brain cell growth in the hippocampus portion of the brain.
3.	Build Strong Bones. Wolfgang Kemmler, from Freidrich-Alexander University (Germany), and colleagues analyzed data on 246 older women who were enrolled in the Senior Fitness and Prevention (SEFIP) Study. The researchers found that women who exercised had higher bone density in their spine and hip, and also had a 66 percent reduced rate of falls. Fractures due to falls were twice as common in the controls versus the exercise group (12 vs. six incidents). The authors’ conclusion: “Compared with a general wellness program, our 18-month exercise program significantly improved [bone mineral density] and fall risk.”
4.	Stress a Little Less. Matthew P. Herring, from the University of Georgia, and colleagues analyzed the results of 40 randomized clinical trials involving nearly 3,000 patients with a variety of chronic medical conditions, including heart disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer and chronic pain from arthritis. The researchers found that, on average, patients who exercised regularly reported a 20 percent reduction in anxiety symptoms compared to those who did not exercise.

So take some advice from the experts, starting today: Get up and get moving! As the research presented in this article suggests, consistent physical activity has profound health and wellness benefits that you deserve to enjoy. Your doctor can help evaluate your current fitness/activity level and outline a fun, energizing, health-promoting exercise routine to keep you happy and healthy day after day, year after year.