A tumble, a tackle: Anything can bring on a sidelining sports injury. Now, four experts in such injuries at Penn State Health give advice on recovery and when it’s okay to return to play. AC shoulder sprains This happens when your acromioclavicular (AC) joint pops out and separates or is sprained, typically after a fall that lands on the shoulder area. You’re going to feel pain all over the front and top of the shoulder, said Penn sports medicine physician Dr. Caitlyn Haines. Treating AC sprains “depends on the degree of injury and can range from conservative measures like anti-inflammatories and rest to surgery if the joint is significantly separated,” Haines explained. Returning to play again depends on the extent of injury, she said. “Athletes may need some time off before returning, but others may miss little to no time if the sprain is mild and the shoulder exhibits full range of motion,” Haines noted. Recovery times can range from one to six weeks. Keeping the shoulder from a repeat injury is paramount, she added. Ankle sprains Ankle sprains typically involve damage to connective ligaments, not bone, said Penn sports physician Dr. Douglas Leder. You’ll know when you’ve sprained your ankle. It “usually occurs when an athlete stretches, falls upon or exerts their ankle in an abnormal way, resulting in stretching or tearing of the…  read on >  read on >

There’s good news for folks who struggle to fit regular exercise into their busy workweek. “Weekend warrior” workouts are just as beneficial as daily exercise to a person’s overall health, a new study says. People who get all their weekly recommended exercise in one or two days are about as healthy as those who spread their workouts more evenly throughout the week, researchers reported Sept. 26 in the journal Circulation. Both groups had a similarly lower risk of developing more than 200 possible diseases across 16 categories, ranging from heart and digestive conditions to mental health and brain illnesses, researchers found. “Because there appears to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, it may be the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist with the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias. Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week, researchers said in background notes. But how a person gets those minutes each week has remained an open question. Is it better to perform 20 to 30 minutes of exercise daily, or can a person pack all that physical activity into a couple of days and go longer between workouts? For this study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 90,000 participants in the UK Biobank, an ongoing health…  read on >  read on >

One in three former NFL players believe they have football-related brain damage that’s doing untold harm to their lives, a new study finds. Unfortunately, their fears might be harming their mental health on top of whatever risks they face from head injuries sustained during their careers, researchers report. About one-third of nearly 2,000 retired NFL players believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition linked to repeated head trauma, researchers reported Sept. 23 in the journal JAMA Neurology. Players who suspect they have CTE reported significantly more problems with brain function, low testosterone, depression and chronic pain than those who don’t think they have the condition, researchers found. In addition, about 25% of players who believe they have CTE also reported suicidal thoughts or behaviors, compared with about 5% of those who don’t think they have CTE, results showed. NFL retirees who believe they have CTE are twice as likely to report frequent thoughts of suicide, even after accounting for symptoms of depression, researchers said. These symptoms are potentially related to the dread faced by NFL retirees who are certain they have CTE and expect a long and excruciating decline in their mental function, researchers said. Incurable brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease also have been associated with elevated suicide rates. “As complex human beings, our beliefs can exert a…  read on >  read on >

Heavy-duty endurance exercise can cause body fat levels to drop without any accompanying weight loss, a new small-scale study indicates. A group of eleven middle-aged men who cycled 710 miles in seven days lost only about 1% of their total weight, because they ate and drank enough to offset the calorie burn. But they lost over 9% of their overall body fat, including a nearly 15% reduction in levels of dangerous visceral fat crowding their vital organs. The cyclists also experienced a more than 20% reduction in total cholesterol and a nearly 40% reduction in triglyceride levels, as well as a substantial reductions in blood pressure. The results “support the importance of promoting a physically active lifestyle rather than caloric restriction in obesity prevention,” concluded the research team led by co-senior author Jean-Pierre Despres, a professor of kinesiology with University Laval in France. In other words, the study “provides evidence that humans were designed to be physically active rather than eat as little as possible,” researchers wrote. For the study, researchers recruited 11 recreational male cyclists ages 50 to 66 who could maintain an average pace of nearly 19 miles per hour over long distances. The men all hailed from the Quebec City metropolitan area in Canada. During seven consecutive days, the cyclists were sent once or twice on a 64-mile road loop on the…  read on >  read on >

Millions of women struggle with the discomfort and stress of urinary incontinence, and many turn to medications for help. Now, new research suggests that yoga and other exercise regimens might work just as well to control these bladder issues. Researchers at Stanford University report that 12 weeks of yoga practice cut incontinence episodes among participants by an average of 65% — about the equivalent of taking a drug.  “I would say that I think it’s a great idea to try it if you’re interested,” said study senior author Dr. Leslee Subak, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford Medicine. “It’s very low risk, and there’s potential for benefit, not only for incontinence but also for your general well-being.” Her team published their findings recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine. According to the researchers, half of middle-aged women, and up to 80% of women aged 80, experience urinary incontinence. “It takes away independence,” Subak said in a university news release. “My patients will say, ‘I can’t stay with my kids or grandkids because I’m afraid I’ll wet the bed, and I can’t talk about it; it’s too embarrassing.’” It can even prove dangerous. “Incontinence and overactive bladder are among the biggest risk factors for falls and fractures among older women,” Subak noted. “You’re rushing to the bathroom at night — with the lights off —…  read on >  read on >