Knee Mice + Marathon training. Good idea? Bad Idea?

[Trek420]

Speak English you PT's What's diathermy?

[KnottedYet]

Speak English you PT's What's diathermy?

Essentially sticking body parts into a microwave to warm them up.

Insanely stupid and dangerous and was disproved and discarded decades ago.

Trust me, go buy a hot water bottle instead.

[Trek420]

Why not bring back leeches? I hear letting out blood is good.

[Zen]

diathermy
Sure, and after that how about some nice soothing electroshock therapy?
I like getting US, it feels so good

[Trek420]

I like getting US, it feels so good

That's the idea I think. It feels good, so your PT is doing a good job for you because you feel goooood. As opposed to in agony but actually putting the injury back in place.

[Crankin]

Actually, (totally off topic) ECT is being used again, quite successfully to patients who have severe mental illnesses that have not been helped by medication. It's changed a lot since it was used in the '50s and '60s. I have a client that underwent it in September and is doing well, with no side effects.

[OakLeaf]

And so are leeches.

Want some?

[katluvr]

yes, as a nurse I HAVE done leech therapy. It works for "reattachment" of fingers, etc. They keep the blood "flowing". Of course when they get full and fall off you have to find them. When I did it w/ kids, they thought it was gross and cool.
OK, we have digressed from the knees.....

I say take it slow. Do all thing things they said. Many studies have stated that people at run do NOT get osteoarthritis at a higher percentage rate than the other population that does not run. In fact it may be higher in non-runners. I don't have the study, but life in general can be hard on the knees...not just running.

K

[KnottedYet]

I say take it slow. Do all thing things they said. Many studies have stated that people at run do NOT get osteoarthritis at a higher percentage rate than the other population that does not run. In fact it may be higher in non-runners. I don't have the study, but life in general can be hard on the knees...not just running.

K

I have that study somewhere at work. The upshot was that running cues the knees to repair at a higher rate and keeps arthritis down. By the late 70s and 80s the regular runners had fewer joint issues (even if they only ran a couple miles).

"Use it or lose it"

[Selkie]

Not to bash chiropractors because I think there are some good ones out there, but I had a very, very bad experience w/one. In addition to pushing to sign me up for series of appointments, he used US on my knee and kept BURNING me --- Knott's comments about US use on joints confirm my opinion of him.

I have had good luck with an Osteopath, though. And of course, PTs.

[KnottedYet]

DOs (osteopaths) go through med school. DCs (chiropractors) do not.

When I was in school a chiropractic school was trying to seduce us away from PT by telling us that if we went to their school after only 2 years we'd be DOCTORS, instead of all the work we were doing just to be allied health.

I like being allied health, and after 9 years of college and 3 degrees I'm quite aware that there is no way in heck I could learn enough in 2 years to justify calling myself "Doctor."

[Wahine]

Thanks for the offer on the text book pages but I shall decline. If I get the urge strongly enough I'll see if I can pull up some more recent research. But like you, I don't use modalities much at all which makes my motivation to look into this pretty weak.

[KnottedYet]

A little light reading:
(actually, it is light if you read the abstracts instead of the papers!)

10 years worth of knee goodies:

Changes on magnetic resonance tomography in the knee joints of marathon runners: a 10 year longitudial study. Wolfgang Krampla. Skeletal Radiology v 37 n7. July 2008.

18 years worth of knee goodies:

Long distance running and knee osteoarthritis: a prospective study. Eliza Chakravarty. American J of Preventative Medicine v25 n2. August 2008.

There's another one I haven't been able to get (but really want) from Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery on the physics of cartilage loading and the reinforcement response in the knee. (Feb 2009) Gotta toodle on over to the Health Science library one of these days... cuz I'm not paying online for it.

[Wahine]

Thanks Knott!!

[SadieKate]

DOs (osteopaths) go through med school. DCs (chiropractors) do not.

When I was in school a chiropractic school was trying to seduce us away from PT by telling us that if we went to their school after only 2 years we'd be DOCTORS, instead of all the work we were doing just to be allied health.

I like being allied health, and after 9 years of college and 3 degrees I'm quite aware that there is no way in heck I could learn enough in 2 years to justify calling myself "Doctor."

Can I print this out and hand it to everyone who recommends chiros? I can't imagine handing over my spine to someone with so little training.