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Read the latest health and medical information to make informed decisions about your health care concerns.

Improved quality of life for spinal cord injured patients who undergo hand surgery
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Reconstructive hand surgery can dramatically enhance the life quality and independence of those paralyzed by a cervical spinal cord injury. Despite this, the operation is not frequently performed, either in Sweden or elsewhere. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy are now hoping to change that.
A cervical spinal cord injury entails paralysis in both arms and legs, severely limiting daily life for its victims. Previous studies have shown that the capability that those with cervical spinal cord injuries most wish to recover is a functioning hand.
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Teen baseball players benefit from docking technique to repair torn elbow ligament
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
A study at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) found that a surgical procedure known as the “docking technique” to repair a torn elbow ligament in teenage athletes yielded favorable results. The outcomes were better than those in previously published reports on reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), also known as Tommy John surgery, in this age group and may be attributed to technique-specific factors, according to the study authors.
The paper, titled, “The Docking Technique for Elbow Ulnar Collateral Ligament Insufficiency: Two-Year Follow Up in Adolescent Athletes,” was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Chicago.
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Ask well: exercises for shoulder pain
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
You are certainly right that sore shoulders are common, especially as a person ages. About half of all middle-aged tennis players suffer from shoulder pain, according to a 2012 study in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, and youngsters aren’t immune either. The same study reported that about a quarter of competitive tennis players under 20 hurt their shoulders every year.
Many of these injuries involve the rotator cuff, the group of muscles and tendons at the back of the shoulder that stabilize the joint. Studies show that forces equivalent to at least 120 percent of a person’s body weight slam through the rotator cuff during a typical tennis serve or baseball pitch. To withstand that pounding, the rotator cuff needs to be strong.
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New genetic links to juvenile arthritis revealed
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Researchers report in Nature Genetics that they have increased the number of confirmed genes linked to juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) from three to 17 – a finding that will clarify how JIA fits into the spectrum of autoimmune disorders and help identify potential treatment targets.
The published study involves an international research team that analyzed 2,816 JIA cases recruited from more than 40 pediatric rheumatology clinics. It was the largest collaborative patient population of JIA to date, including patient DNA samples from across the United States, Germany and United Kingdom, according to Susan Thompson, PhD, a researcher in the Division of Rheumatology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center who was a leader for the study.
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Walking Reduces Heart Risk As Much As Running
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Brisk walking can reduce a person’s risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol just as much as running can.
Walking and running provide an ideal test of the health benefits of moderate-intensity walking and vigorous-intensity running because they involve the same muscle groups and the same activities performed at different intensities.”
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Losing Your “Sole”: Is Barefoot Running Right For You?
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
A Wake Forest University study finds up to 65 percent of runners suffers an overuse injury each year. More and more are looking for new ways to avoid these aches and pains. Now, there’s one trend that some swear by, but you may have to say goodbye to what many consider to be the most important piece of running gear.
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Heavy Loads on the Shoulders Can Cause Nerve Damage in The Hands And Fingers
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Trudging from place to place with heavy weights on our backs is an everyday reality, from schoolchildren toting textbooks in backpacks to fire fighters and soldiers carrying occupational gear. Muscle and skeletal damage are very real concerns. Now Tel Aviv University researchers say that nerve damage, specifically to the nerves that travel through the neck and shoulders to animate our hands and fingers, is also a serious risk.
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Steroid injections for tennis elbow are out
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Tennis elbow is also known as lateral epicondylitis. In tennis elbow, the tendons that attach the forearm muscles to the outer part of the elbow degenerate, become inflamed and develop tears. Tennis players often irritate this area during backhand strokes. Anyone who uses a twisting motion is at risk including painters, carpenters, plumbers, cooks, weight lifters, and butchers. It may also develop by some who are constantly using a computer keyboard and mouse.
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FDA clears Soft Tissue Regeneration’s STR GRAFT
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Soft Tissue Regeneration, an early stage orthopedic device company that has developed a breakthrough tissue engineering platform used to regenerate ligaments and tendons, announced today that it has received FDA clearance to market its STR GRAFT, a biodegradable scaffold used for soft tissue augmentation and rotator cuff repair.
Developed by Cato T. Laurencin , M.D., Ph.D., an orthopedic surgeon and the company’s founder, the STR GRAFT is a three-dimensional braided engineered matrix that Laurencin likens to a patch. During surgery, surgeons can drape this biodegradable patch over the tendon that sits on the shoulder bone, anchoring it with sutures to keep it in place while the tendon, bones and nearby tissues heal. Unlike currently available devices, which are made of weaker cadaver or animal tissue that can cause sutures to pull, the STR GRAFT is thinner—about 1 millimeter—and stronger, which lessens pain, speeds recovery time and drastically reduces surgical failure rates.
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Newly approved oral medication slows rheumatoid arthritis joint damage
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
A Phase 3 clinical trial demonstrates that tofacitinib improves disease activity and inhibits progression of joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who did not respond to methotrexate (MTX). Results of the 12-month interim analysis of the efficacy of tofacitinib appear in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).
RA is a chronic, autoimmune disease that causes inflammation, pain and swelling of the joints. Over time, RA may destroy joints, impair daily function, and lead to significant disability. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that RA affects up to one percent of individuals worldwide and 1.3 million of those are Americans according to the ACR.
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Combining Motor Imagery And Physical Practice Enhances Performance
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Adding movement to mental rehearsal can improve performance finds a study in BioMed Central’s open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions. For high jumpers the study shows that dynamic imagery improves the number of successful attempts and the technical performance of jumps.
The technique of mental rehearsal is used to consolidate performance in many disciplines including music and sport. Motor imagery and physical practice use overlapping neural networks in the brain and the two together can improve performance as well as promoting recovery from injury. Researchers from the Centre de Recherche et d’Innovation sur le Sport found that adding simple movements to mental rehearsal could further improve performance by a third.
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Physical Activity Really Does Enhance Cognition
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Exercise doesn’t only strengthen your heart and muscles – it also beefs up your brain. Dozens of studies now show that aerobic exercise can increase the size of critical brain structures and improve cognition in children and older adults.
University of Illinois psychology professor Art Kramer, a nationally recognized expert on the role of physical fitness on cognition, discussed these brain-changing outcomes at a session of the 2013 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. Kramer is the director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I.
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How to avoid Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Repetitive strain injury is any pain or discomfort that occurs as a result of repetitive movement. RSI can affect the nerves, muscles or tendons, with patients noticing pain in the wrist, neck, shoulders, or elbow. Sometimes, RSI can be linked to more specific medical conditions.
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When to call a Hand Surgeon for wrist pain
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
A hand surgeon is a professional specializing in care for this area of the body. One of the key times to call on this professional is when there is pain located in the wrist. This can occur to both arms at one time or just one. The doctor’s job is to find out what is causing the pain and then to offer solutions for it. Numerous conditions can lead to this, but it is not possible to know which you are suffering from until your doctor provides more information. Sometimes, a family care doctor will refer you to a specialist that will be able to do the work necessary.
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Treatment options for Thumb CMC Arthritis
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Thumb CMC arthritis is a common condition that affects millions of people worldwide. The “opposable thumb” that has allowed us to develop fine motor coordination is made possible by the CMC joint, located at the base of the thumb. Also known as the basal joint, it’s the most important joint in your hand, allowing you to pinch, manipulate objects, and to grasp items of various sizes. When this joint is painful, tasks that seem so simple, such as writing, turning keys, or buttoning, can become burdensome.
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Association between lack of sleep and teen sports injuries
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Hours of sleep per night were significantly associated with a decreased likelihood of injury, according to the study results. In addition, the higher the grade levels of the athlete, the greater the likelihood of injury – 2.3 times greater for each additional grade in school. Gender, weeks of participating in sports per year, hours of participation per week, number of sports, strength training, private coaching and subjective assessments of “having fun in sports” were not significantly associated with injury.
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Evaluation of the patient with shoulder complaints
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
Shoulder pain is a common musculoskeletal complaint that may be due either to intrinsic disorders of the shoulder or referred pain. The former include injuries and acute or chronic inflammation of the shoulder joint, tendons, surrounding ligaments, or periarticular structures.
A complex network of anatomic structures endows the human shoulder with tremendous mobility, greater than any other joint in the body. The shoulder girdle is composed of three bones (the clavicle, scapula, and proximal humerus) and four articular surfaces (sternoclavicular, acromioclavicular, glenohumeral, and scapulothoracic) (figure 1A-C). The glenohumeral joint, commonly referred to as the shoulder joint, is the principal articulation.
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Reverse surgical solution for a painful shoulder
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
A standard shoulder replacement, a decades old treatment for severe shoulder arthritis, would likely not have worked for her due to her deficient rotator cuff. However, a recently developed – and radically different – prosthesis, called a reverse total shoulder, offered the best chance of decreasing her pain and improving shoulder function.
‘A normal shoulder is a ball-and-saucer joint, with its stability and motion governed to a large extent by the surrounding rotator cuff musculature,’ said Dr Omer Ilhai, an orthopedic surgeon at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. ‘In arthritis, the smooth cartilage overlying and cushioning the surface of the bones is worn away, leaving rough, exposed bone surfaces to rub against each other. This bone-on-bone contact is very painful and usually associated with joint stiffness.’
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Regain use of your fingers with the aid of a hand surgeon
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
If you have a problem with the joints in your hands, you may need to see a hand surgeon. The reason why this professional is more qualified to handle your condition is they have gone to school and received an extensive amount of training about this part of your body. They know how it works and can identify problems that would interfere with its function. If you have a condition that warrants more than self care, your hand surgeon will be able to determine what the problem is and provide you with the best care possible. Since this part of the body is made of many nerves and delicate structures, it is important that you seek out professional care whenever there is pain.
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What causes joint pain: From arthritis to lupus to tennis elbow
Posted on: 05-Oct-2016
What causes joint pain? Joint pain refers to any kind of discomfort that occurs where two bones or more come together. This relatively innocuous term can describe anything from minor soreness associated with too much typing to the excruciating pain and inflammation that comes with some forms of cancer and immune disorders. While joint pain usually isn’t an emergency, being able to identify its source can help you determine whether your discomfort is a sign of something more serious.
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