Stress fractures are tiny cracks in bones and are normally caused by a “repetitive application of force.” Often it’s the overuse or accumulation of repeated jumping or running of long distances. It’s too much exercise that’s too fast for your body to handle. Typically, stress fractures occur in the feet and in the lower bones of the lower legs – normally your weight bearing bones.
Understanding stress fractures
Track and field athletes, long distance runners, basketball and tennis players along with gymnasts are susceptible to stress fractures. But anyone can experience a stress fracture. A patient who started cross fit training was doing a lot of bounding and jumping and it was determined that she had suffered a stress fracture. Symptoms include pain and some swelling and nine times out of ten there’s going to quite a bit of tenderness just right over the injury as well. You will typically see a decrease in swelling with rest.
Rest and ice is your first line of defense. Treatment is normally quite conservative and can include some type of pain relief in using acetaminophen. Stay away from ibuprofen – Advil and Motrin – and naproxen or Aleve. Studies have shown that these two drugs can actually cause problems with the healing process. Physical therapy in Tulsa or elsewhere can also help reduce the bone’s weight bearing load until healing occurs. You may need to wear a walking boot and in severe cases you may be completely immobilized with some type of casting.
Surgery and stress fractures
In the worst-case scenario, surgical intervention is required but this is quite rare. Prevention is the best medicine. As a runner, be smart about your mileage. Slowly or gradually increasing as you go, slow rolling it. Also, women are a little more susceptible to stress fractures.
If you’ve been predisposed to some type of foot problem or if you have flat or high feet, rigid arches, you might be more likely to develop stress fractures. Conditions such as osteoporosis or osteopenia where you might have weakening of the bone may be a risk factor for stress fracture as well.
To find stress fractures you normally have to go beyond the average X-ray. Bone scans and MRIs should find them. Those are kind of the gold standard tests to determine if you have a stress fracture or that type of injury. If you’d like to submit a question to Dr. Riley, just find the submission form on the right side or use the comment section below.
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