Fall Sports: Staying Active While Being Safe for the Season
Orthopaedic surgeons share tips to help athletes stay clear of sports injuries this fall
ROSEMONT, Ill., Aug. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Summer is coming to an end, and it won’t be long before athletes and sports enthusiasts take to the field to play soccer, football, volleyball or some other fall sport.
Staying active is ideal for building strong bones and weight-bearing activities such as running and playing sports helps to achieve that. That is why the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and the STOP Sports Injuries campaign is urging everyone to stay active, but to keep safety first when engaging in these activities.
Statistics from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) show the following results for individuals treated in emergency rooms and doctors’ offices in the U.S. during 2011:
Unfortunately, 16-year-old, soccer player, Christina Gordon was one of those people. During one of her games, she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament(MCL) and meniscus. Christina had to put playing soccer on pause and undergo ACL reconstruction surgery, so she could get back out on the field. Her full story is available at anationinmotion.org.
EXPERT ADVICE
“Not all injuries can be prevented, however many can be avoided,” said orthopaedic surgeon and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) spokesperson Jeffrey Abrams, MD. “The fact is, when one decides to participate in a sport, he or she needs to consider everything that comes with the territory. That includes taking the responsibility to follow proper safety measures such as warming up, and completing a health and wellness evaluation to determine their ability to play in the game before each season.”
This season, the AAOS, AOSSM and the STOP Sports Injuries campaign recommend taking the following safety tips into consideration:
More tips
StopSportsInjuries.org