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Q & A: What’s the best way to treat stress fractures?

Posted February 26th, 2007 at 11:41 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise

$stress-fracture.jpg$ Bone stress fractures are very common sports injuries. Any trauma to bones, such as repeated pounding when your heel strikes the ground during running, or landing on your feet after grabbing a basketball, can cause small cracks on the surface of bones called stress fractures. In healthy athletes, they can take from 3 to 12 weeks to heal, forcing an athlete to lose valuable training time.

A study from Tulane University shows that intravenous pamidronate can heal these fractures quickly and keep you playing (Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, March 2005). Bones change constantly. Calcium is carried from bones by cells called osteoclasts and carried into bones by cells called osteoblasts. Bisphosphonates such as pamidronate prevent osteoclasts from carrying calcium from bones. The athletes received five weekly intravenous infusions of pamidronate and were able to continue training.

Remember: Although temperature compresses may be of some assistance, REST is key with stress fractures. It’s important to focus on the long-term! If you have to sacrifice a short amount of training time or register for a different race in order for your fractures to heal properly … DO IT! It WILL be worth it in the long run!. We recommend that you also consult your normal physician and/or visit a specialist (such as an orthopedic surgeon).

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Portions of this post are written by Dr. Gabe Mirkin, M.D. and used with permission. Dr. Mirkin is board certified in Sports Medicine and has practiced for over 40 years. He has completed more than 40 marathons and was a talk show host of a nationally-syndicated radio program for about 25 years. For more articles by Dr. Mirkin, please check out: www.DrMirkin.com

***Note: We encourage EVERYONE to see a doctor before altering their diet, taking a supplement and/or performing athletic, fitness or other strenuous physical activity. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, instruction, opinion or advice contained in the content. Please also see our complete disclaimer.***

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Tags: bisphosphonates, bone trauma, calcium, clinical journal of sports medicine, common sports injuries, common sports injury, heal, healing, heel strikes, injuries, injury, injury treatment, intravenous, osteoclasts, pamidronate, rest, running injury, stress fracture, study, trauma, tulane university

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One Response to “Q & A: What’s the best way to treat stress fractures?”

Tim said:

Don’t forget the importance of Omega-3’s and mitigating any and all inflammation so bone and joint tissue can heal (good advice from former triathlete and ITU-infuriater Mark Sisson over at his entertaining - and expectedly brazen - health blog, www.marksdailyapple.com).
February 26th, 2007 at 2:56 pm