Sports Medicine

Ankle Sprain

The acute lateral ankle sprain is a ligament injury due to a sprained ankle.
Immediate emergency treatment should be requested, since cartilage lesion or even a fracture can occur.
The initial measures involve the immobilization, ice packs, elevation of the ankle, using crutches and painkillers (if needed).
This ligament injury can loosen the ankle joint, causing false steps, pain and susceptibility to new twists.
After a proper rehabilitation, a surgical procedure is hardly necessary.

Scientific article authored by Dr. Gilberto Nakama and Knee Group-UNIFESP: Morphological and immunohistochemical tendons of semitendinosus and gracilis: a comparative study between the sexes;

Stress fracture

Stress fracture occurs without significant and obvious trauma.
It occurs due to normal bone overload by microtrauma that was not given proper rest, or by weakening of the bone itself.
This injury has been described in sports like running, tennis, basketball, volleyball, soccer, dancing, skiing, weight lifting and golf.
Some risk factors are gender (more common on women), race (on white individuals), high activity level, low fitness level, inadequate impact damping conditions, hormonal and eating disorders and abnormalities of the lower limbs and sport biomechanics gesture.
At first, the changes may not appear on radiographs and may require MRI.
Most cases can be treated without surgery, but depending on the characteristics, treatment is surgical.

Muscle injuries

Muscle injuries present variable severity.
Therefore, appropriate emergency treatment should be provided.
Initially, they can be treated with ice packs, rest and analgesics.
In some cases surgery may be needed.
The platelet-rich plasma (platelet growth factor) can help this kind of injury rehabilitation.

Exercise-induced asthma

Exercise is an important asthma provoker, narrowing the airways and causing shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing.
It is known that some measures can minimize this effect as warm-up with aerobic exercise of mild intensity, exercising in the morning (discovery of Dr. Gilberto Nakama and the Department of Pulmonology, USP-Ribeirão Preto), and use of medications.
Although exercising in the morning cause less asthma, there is no difference in the outcome of the training conducted in the morning or afternoon, so the practice should be encouraged regardless of the time available.

Scientific article authored by Dr. Gilberto Nakama and FMRP-USP Pneumology Department: Morning to evening variation in exercise-induced bronchospasm.